It's clear that there is a failure of established economic models such as socialism and capitalism to address sustainability issues directly....How do we enrol a population in a vast project to improve our sustainability on the planet when they are often disconnected from the effects, and issues, yet are asked to make real changes to their lives??....
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| London summer...a packed Thames side |
....Indeed it's the motivational aspects of these idealised systems that really get to their essence....and those motivations are inextricably tied in with work, and the work ethic, with consumption, as the engine of modern economies....
I consider sustainability to be far more fundamental and intrinsic to our evolved state....There are clearly sustainable groups living in the World today, we may label them "primitive" or "under developed", but they clearly remind us that we in the West, in particular, have taken a very different turn somewhere, where sustainability actually seems to have "evolved out" of our human condition....
...We may be all too aware of our sustainability via pressing issues currently, but we in the West can certainly trace a big change going back to the industrial revolution of the late 18th and 19th centuries, energy became dense and far more usable, with coal, Industry increased with communications, population exploded, and extended societies with large dependency on trade with the remote, including urban areas and large cities formed........and hence a necessity for "empire" or "empire like networks" ....these networks ensuring survival, without self sufficiency, but also encouraging over exploitation and a precarious existence should these networks fail...and wars to maintain them...
....However Sustainable living tends to be associated with populations where there are strong connections with the means of supply and availability, and consumption and industry are more directly linked to these....
...we tend to think of sustainability as linked to "connectedness" and "awareness" in a society...as one would find in small societies such as communes, kibbutz or even small countries....and it is indeed in these naturally better "connected" and "inclusive" societies where forms of socialism, relying as it does on the individuals motivation of the betterment of society rather than just themselves, tends to work far better...
...Indeed altruism involving self sacrifice, without personal connection, has been shown to be something of a myth...even in recent scientific studies... ...Polls where people are asked if they will sacrifice anything for the environment, for instance, have resulted the majority being unashamedly unwilling to do so...and I would suggest that's why "authoritarianism" and big government have had to be part of socialist systems in large and extended societies, and indeed these have generally failed due to people's desire for greater freedoms....
....So it becomes clear that this approach leads to a rather despairing situation on the face of it, as our large and extended communities would appear to be incapable of connecting individual ordinary citizens, and even leading figures, to a mission or project as huge as attaining sustainability, in effect a huge paradigm shift.....
....This is something we often encounter, when we actually see people saying "the problems are so huge and terrifying, I simply can't connect with them, they are outside my ability to relate"...possibly they will even trigger "cognitive dissonance" or even denial in individuals...possibly based on them joining an opposing tribal mindset....
....So this is the position that many environmentalists find themselves at, and their tendency, if not despair, is to blame "capitalism" or take a more negative, resigned, approach from which there is little way forward ....
....The problem with blaming capitalism is clearly that no other system is offered which really deals with the basic problems of society as outlined, as far as sustainability goes...whilst not throwing up other shortcomings...or really being more of the same...
...We often note that basically Left leaning groups, such as Vegans, are conspicuously absent in blaming capitalism for environmental damage, as they have become all to aware of far more basic failings in society and the state of people, that have made it an uphill struggle to enrol them into their mission...whether they be capitalists or indeed socialists, or from states with those systems....
But there is another option albeit a radical one, and that is to try and emulate a small society within a large one, indeed, cause people to behave as if they are living in community where they are enrolled and connected, and that they can identify with, rather than an extended and seemingly endless urban one....then we have an environment in which the awareness which could lead to sustainability, might be realised....
...This may all sound rather idealistic, but I would venture it's really nothing much more than the society that existed in the UK before the 1970's, when "community" went so strongly into decline...
....Shorter and more conventional working hours enabling participation in events, ready availability of good community facilities, corporate sponsorship and better provision of clubs and education within companies, more co-operatives, citizens assemblies, and even recognition of, and payment to, local community leaders who previously went unpaid....when combined with good town planning and devolved government should go some way to restoring that level community which encourages people to spiritually engage with larger mission...as a part of even larger mission in this case....
