Roberto De Vogli – författare

Using an evidence-based, critical, population health approach, this book provides a comprehensive analysis of the key errors and most effective interventions to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. It also examines the root determinants of pandemic risk on a global scale and addresses the policy changes to be implemented to prevent future health crises.

Part One of the book discusses the lethal errors in the management of the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing particularly on those countries that failed to limit the death toll caused by the health crisis. These mistakes include lack of preparation, disinformation, medicalization, adoption of a “laissez-faire the virus” approach and inequity. Part Two analyzes the vital actions that enabled “virtuous” countries to effectively limit the most deadly effects of the pandemic: prevention, immunization and support.

Part Three looks at what we should do to prevent the next pandemic. This part examines the proximal social and environmental causes of pandemic risk (e.g., deforestation, industrialized animal farming and climate change), as well as the “causes of the causes,” which include our model of global economic development and its philosophical and ideological underpinnings.

Using an evidence-based, critical, population health approach, this book provides a comprehensive analysis of the key errors and most effective interventions to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. It also examines the root determinants of pandemic risk on a global scale and addresses the policy changes to be implemented to prevent future health crises.

Part One of the book discusses the lethal errors in the management of the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing particularly on those countries that failed to limit the death toll caused by the health crisis. These mistakes include lack of preparation, disinformation, medicalization, adoption of a “laissez-faire the virus” approach and inequity. Part Two analyzes the vital actions that enabled “virtuous” countries to effectively limit the most deadly effects of the pandemic: prevention, immunization and support.

Part Three looks at what we should do to prevent the next pandemic. This part examines the proximal social and environmental causes of pandemic risk (e.g., deforestation, industrialized animal farming and climate change), as well as the “causes of the causes,” which include our model of global economic development and its philosophical and ideological underpinnings.

Human progress is heading toward collapse. There are converging ecological crises looming on the horizon: climate change, peak oil, water shortages, fish depletion and food scarcities. The world is on a collision course against the limits of the ecosystem. Modern societies are consuming, polluting and growing as if there is no tomorrow. Indeed, there may not be one.

In Progress or Collapse, Roberto De Vogli guides us through the multiple converging global crises of economic progress. He explores the connections between the environmental crisis and the psychological, social, cultural, political and economic emergencies affecting modern societies. It is not a coincidence, the author argues, that global ecological destruction is occurring in tandem with other crises: rising mental disorders, mindless consumerism, rampant conformism, status competition, civic disengagement, startling social inequalities, global financial instability, and widespread political impasse.

In this hard-hitting analysis, Roberto De Vogli identifies the root cause of all these symptoms of societal breakdown: neoliberalism, defined as market greed. He argues that in recent decades, modern societies have been dominated by a suicidal economic doctrine based on two articles of faith: the greed creed and the market God. The greed creed states that people are nothing but selfish profiteers in a perpetual search for status and wealth. The market God is the belief that all societal and human affairs are best regulated as market exchanges.

What is to be done? Can we stop progress toward collapse? Given the current distribution of power and wealth, and the state of psychological and political inertia in which we are trapped, our chances of redefining progress around alternative values and embracing a new philosophy of life are slim. Yet, the history of human emancipation has often been shaped by giant leaps forward. In the past, civic struggles have overcome "the limits of the possible". Whether this will happen again in the future is the central question of our time.

This book will be of interest to researchers and students of ecology, psychology, public health, epidemiology, human development, political philosophy, economics, sociology and politics.

Human progress is heading toward collapse. There are converging ecological crises looming on the horizon: climate change, peak oil, water shortages, fish depletion and food scarcities. The world is on a collision course against the limits of the ecosystem. Modern societies are consuming, polluting and growing as if there is no tomorrow. Indeed, there may not be one.

In Progress or Collapse, Roberto De Vogli guides us through the multiple converging global crises of economic progress. He explores the connections between the environmental crisis and the psychological, social, cultural, political and economic emergencies affecting modern societies. It is not a coincidence, the author argues, that global ecological destruction is occurring in tandem with other crises: rising mental disorders, mindless consumerism, rampant conformism, status competition, civic disengagement, startling social inequalities, global financial instability, and widespread political impasse.

In this hard-hitting analysis, Roberto De Vogli identifies the root cause of all these symptoms of societal breakdown: neoliberalism, defined as market greed. He argues that in recent decades, modern societies have been dominated by a suicidal economic doctrine based on two articles of faith: the greed creed and the market God. The greed creed states that people are nothing but selfish profiteers in a perpetual search for status and wealth. The market God is the belief that all societal and human affairs are best regulated as market exchanges.

What is to be done? Can we stop progress toward collapse? Given the current distribution of power and wealth, and the state of psychological and political inertia in which we are trapped, our chances of redefining progress around alternative values and embracing a new philosophy of life are slim. Yet, the history of human emancipation has often been shaped by giant leaps forward. In the past, civic struggles have overcome "the limits of the possible". Whether this will happen again in the future is the central question of our time.

This book will be of interest to researchers and students of ecology, psychology, public health, epidemiology, human development, political philosophy, economics, sociology and politics.