Takin is a bad guy, most would agree. You know who I'm talking about. I won't use his real name here because there might be cyberbots reading this and reporting back so that Takin can send me a letter laced with Novichok.
Whoa, I'm getting neurotic. But has it struck you how fickle is our response to trouble? As Ukraine occupies our attention, we are not hearing about crises in Somalia, Yemen, Sudan, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Syria, Pakistan, China, Myanmar, Israel, Palestine, Mexico, Haiti, Venezuela, let alone politicians at home behaving like scrappy kids. We have room in our attention for one or two conflicts at a time, but they are everywhere, all the time. People behaving badly and making things worse is normal. People being good and making things better, that is exceptional. Let's be exceptional.
Not as easy as it sounds. For example, Takin (you know who) thinks he is a good guy, even exceptionally good. He is being good for himself, perhaps for his family, also for a small group of friends who have made a living out of skimming wealth from the citizens of his country. Clearly he is not a good guy for his country since his actions have resulted in the death of thousands of young soldiers and an economic crisis that will last years. Here is my thesis: being good depends on the groups you belong to, the strength of your affinity with them and duty you accept in return for the privileges awarded to members of the group. Being bad means evading your duties to a group, which usually means being dutiful to another group to which you feel greater affinity.
Because we have evolved in a dangerous world, the default group to which we owe most duty is oneself. The vector of history is the expansion of that group to family, tribe, nation, empire, the globe, with gains in safety, wealth and security at each stage. This progression gets reversed when we are in trouble, needy or afraid. We make like Brexit to be safe within the smaller group with which we most identify. So Takin is good to a small group of pirates that recognize him as the pirate king. He is bad to everybody else.
That puts you and me and every individual and group in an ethical dilemma. The groups to which we belong may be exclusive, or overlapping, or nested one within another. To which group do we owe duty? We are stuck in our rather small groups being bad to outsiders. We can do better. In this chapter of the human story, the ethical thrust is out beyond humanity to the biosphere. We have been the bad guys at the biosphere level. If we can't grow past duty to the in-group, humanity, we will surely lose everything. How can we be good guys within the biosphere when we are in trouble and our instinct is to be more selfish? That is the question.
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Just Have a Think:
Here's how we survive the 21st century. Maybe." Dave Borlace reviews the third IPCC report.
Don't know about you, but carbon taxes and offsets seem like a waste of time at this moment in history when a nation is being obliterated. Justintime talks a good game but really, all promises no action. Really disturbing and sad.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment. I agree that our leaders need to do more than talk. But then all of us need to do more than talk at whatever level of the holarchy we are able to act. For us that meant $30,000 in a rooftop solar array and $40,000 for an ev. We are considering next steps, although we will be long gone before carbon dioxide emissions approach zero. If we don't fix the climate emergency, war will be everywhere as civilization collapses. Who's a bad guy? Any guy who didn't do what he/she could to stop the collapse. Personally, I will not spend more on gasoline, and I am investigating getting out of natural gas. Everybody needs a plan and we are late off the mark.
DeleteAs for carbon pricing, the evidence seems to be that it does change CO2 emissions. Here is a reference: https://theconversation.com/carbon-pricing-works-the-largest-ever-study-puts-it-beyond-doubt-142034
DeleteCarbon pricing is one of the tools that national governments can use to alter the plans of corporations and change consumer behavior. A slight nudge at this point will turn into normalized and accumulating gains in the long term. Furthermore, production of coal, oil, and gas will leave us with unpaid liabilities as bankrupt companies walk away from their messes to be cleaned up by government. The taxpayer will pay eventually. From within the family, any assault on the family budget looks evil. If we can think as citizens of the biosphere, whatever price we put on carbon, it is too little. The consequences of our addiction to carbon fuels will be addressed by grandchildren. They will remember us as bad guys unless we change how we are thinking and acting.