Is Sustainability a Myth?
Given a choice, many of us would opt to buy a “green” product or service. Recycling, reusing, repurposing are all good behaviors that would seem to be helpful, to the extent any one person can help. It’s certainly better than the opposite notion of carrying on unconscious of one’s impact, however slight it is. And, it’s better than doing nothing and feeling depressed about the subject.
So, while each us who thinks about such things realizes our impact is minimal, will enough people doing the right thing actually make a difference? Of course it will make a difference but the real question is, will it make enough of a difference? Enough difference to bend the arc of the human experience on earth?
Most probably not. Our course is charted with pins placed at each major revolution in our history, the first being the neolithic revolution about 12,000 years ago, when we shifted from being hunter/gatherers to being farmers and shepherds. This marked the beginning of the Holocene period which is the flourishing of civilizations around the world and from this point there is a direct line to exactly where things stand today.
The word “flourishing” comes from the Latin root flor: to flower. Flowers are first buds, then blossoms, then with the energy diverted to making seeds, the blossoms wither and fall. That is their arc, and it is analogous to the arc for all living things. Humans flourished through a series of innovations which allowed us to separate ourselves from earth’s governing forces in a way that flowers and other species on earth cannot.
(If the analogy fits, this important question arises: if the flowering phase of humanity is past full bloom — and all around the planet we see abundant, daily evidence that it is — what is the seed our species is producing and where will it find a place to root? Although it seems far-fetched that the analogy extends to that point, it’s an intriguing question that will be addressed shortly.)
Our separateness led our species to think we were also superior to other species and we invented all kinds of stories to underscore that theme. We invented Gods to ordain our self-elevated status. With divine blessing on our self-assured beliefs and behaviors we had little reason to question whether we were on the right path, which would lead us to the next great revolution: the industrial revolution. Here is where the arc of human existence peaks in a sense and so the arc can only follow a descent from there.
Meanwhile, those peoples who did not join in the first revolution continued on the hunter/gatherer path and became the enemy of those who went onto become “civilized”. The former group, now virtually extinguished except in the most remote places, actually had a sustainable path it followed over many hundreds of millennia. Among the indigenous tribes and clans around the world, many cultures had built-in regulation of their numbers.
Besides still being widely subject to predation by other species, whereby their populations were held in check, many indigenous peoples also had self-imposed cultural limits based in an understanding of what is best for the group. Elders and leaders often granted or withheld permission for procreation according to their assessment of the balance between the number of mouths to feed and the available food resources. It was the very definition of sustainability.
Fast forward to the next great revolution, the post-industrial or technological revolution. It will have to be in this period of human existence that aforementioned seed in the flower analogy will be fully formed, because there will not be a post-technological revolution. The figurative flower petals will be on the ground. That will be called something else, if there’s anyone around to give it a name.
The seed idea can’t actually be discussed with any objective credibility and at best could be called a metaphysical concept, but it’s essentially a matter of romanticized conjecture. It is almost certain our experience is not analogous because the dominant, “civilized” group of our species chose to separate itself from all other species for whom the analogy holds. Still, it’s about all the hope we have if we are to proclaim that the unsustainable path of civilized societies has any redeeming value or any meaning at all.
The answer to the title question, is yes, sustainability is a myth for us. There may a remote tribe or two somewhere that can adapt to the environmental changes wrought by civilization, but for the rest of us, the withered blossom of humanity’s flower is about to fall, with or without producing a seed.
