Oral bac "Idea of Progress"
Bonjour, je passe l'oral d'anglais prochainement et j'aurai aimer avoir un avis extérieur sur mon travail (fautes, méthodologie...), merci d'avance


Today, I’m going to present you the notion “Idea of Progress”. But first, I will suggest a definition of this notion. It’s based on the fact to think that humanity could become better in arts, sciences, technologies and liberty. Moreover, the counter utopia of progress, or illusion of progress, could refer to our notion too. To illustrate this notion, I chose to talk about Consumerism. Consumerism is the act of buying to satisfy our needs and desires. But this practice could lead to overconsumption, which have a big impact on ecology and economy. During this year, we studied in class several documents. Today, I will present you three documents. I chose to analyse an article entitled The Effects of Consumerism posted on Internet by Amitabh Shukla, then a quotation of the Dalai Lama, a very important personality of Buddhism, a poster which present the "Buy Nothing Day" and finally a video about Freeganism. During my presentation, I will firstly talk about the consequences of Consumerism and then present some alternatives to this way of consuming. Finally, I will conclude by trying to determinate why people have to change their way of consuming.

But first, what are the characteristics of consumerism? In the article, we understand that consumerism has some very positive aspects. Indeed, it improves the way people live thanks to an increase of the industrial production, which allows the employment creation. Moreover, given that supermarkets buy products in big quantity, products are less expensive and people can save money in order to further improve their living environment.
However, seeing that people are able to buy more, their needs and desires increase and even if, their purchasing power is not unlimited and if they want something they can’t afford, they will feel dissatisfied. Moreover, to pay less, products are imported and in fact it decreases employment in the country and pollute during the transport of the manufacturing goods. Moreover, in his speech, the Dalai-Lama, who chose to exile himself because of the actual society, criticizes consumerism. He says even if economically, consumerism is great because it allows a lot of things which wasn't possible before, moreover, socially, it is a drama. Indeed, people don't buy something because they need it, but because they want it. They are becoming compulsive buyers who no longer reflect. For him, we are assisting to a true alienation of the population, this is the paradox of our society.
Thus, even if at the foreground, consumerism looks good, in fact it doesn’t allow a positive progress and hides some negative points and we can't continue to consume a lot.


But, do some alternative ways to consume exist? Every year, after Thanksgiving is organised an event called "Buy Nothing Day". As indicated by his name, during 24 hours, people are supposed to not buy anything. Indeed, America consume too much. The country is the biggest consumer in the world, ahead of China or India, the two most populated countries. This is a reaction to the Black Friday, a day in the same period as the BND when all you will find in shops will be off, thus, BND fight the allegory of Consumerism.
Otherwise, a teacher of biology at the San Diego University, Professor Milton Saylor, imagined a new way of consuming called Freeganism. But what's it? It is the contraction of "Free" and "Vegan" and means "eat for free". Indeed, Freegans practice dumpster-diving and only eat discarded food. But, Milton doesn't only find food as a mango or a piece of meat not even outdated in the dumpsters, he finds some tools too, like an umbrella. This practice allows protecting environment and makes some saving, and it’s very easy to put in place, on condition of not being easy disgusted, moreover Milton is freegan for 20 years and certifies eating well and being sane.
So, it exists some good alternatives ways, more or less radicals, to struggle against consumerism.


To conclude, I will say that various alternatives way of consuming exist, and even if they behave some disadvantages, we have to reflect about them, because they could allow to reduce pollution, inequalities linked to money, to make savings and to make people less submissive to big firms and more intelligent.