Ben's version of a smile
I read Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography when I was about 10. Cover to cover, and with the very serious intention of remembering all the really important points. I was a weird kid. And, perhaps not coincidentally, descended from a long line of Puritans (like Franklin himself) and Germans who tend to take things a bit seriously.
This may be why he comes to mind more often than I’d care to admit. For instance, yesterday, in the form of ‘How would his principles apply to something like sustainability?’
Anyway, what follows are some of Ben’s aphorisms applied to our very contemporary circumstances.
procrastination
‘By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.’
‘Never leave that till tomorrow which you can do today.’
Here are just a couple of examples of how techno-industrial society favours procrastination over planning when it comes to environmental sustainability.
If we’re making some kind of mess, for instance creating nuclear waste that emits radiation for thousands of years, we’ll think about it later. Technology will fix it somehow. Later.
Climate change is perhaps the most timely example of this way of thinking. Many governments (including New Zealand’s) are happy to promise ‘50 by 50′, meaning 50% reductions in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. That’s too little too late and we all know it.
Others, again including New Zealand, are openly proud to not be world leaders in reducing global emissions. ‘The new Government’s policy goal is not about being first but ensuring New Zealand does its fair share as a developed country in constraining and reducing emissions.’ But they’re prepared to reconsider if others go first: ’New Zealand is prepared to do more if other countries do likewise.’ We’ll wait and see, and probably have to do something later.
And then there’s debt. Debt = procrastination, and western culture is built on debt. ’Buy now, pay later’ is one of the central tenets of modern life for individuals, businesses and governments. We’ll get the money somehow. We’ll think about it later.
This topic deserves a section of its own.
debt
‘If you know how to spend less than you get, you have the philosopher’s stone.’
Mortgage crisis/credit crunch anyone? Sustainability isn’t just about the environment. It’s about keeping societies running on an even keel over time, and aspiring to economic and social justice for everyone.
In terms of economic and social sustainability, our current situation is pretty simple: Recession with a capital R (to utter the D word is evidently an unacceptable risk to consumer confidence). And at the root of it all, reckless lending and borrowing, primarily in the form of subprime mortgages, but augmented by massive consumer credit card debt, trade imbalances and government deficits. In other words, red ink as far as the eye can see.
I don’t need to spell out what this has meant for millions around the globe over the last year or so. What’s more, governments around the world are . . . borrowing astronomical sums to stave off a collapse into full-blown Depression.
We’ll see how that goes.
money, money
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Here’s a bucket of cold water on Liza and Joel’s party; Ben couldn’t disagree more.
‘Money never made a man happy yet, nor will it. There is nothing in its nature to produce happiness. The more a man has, the more he wants. Instead of its filling a vacuum, it makes one. ‘
Current research in Britain by noted economist Richard Layard supports Ben’s point of view, but with an important proviso. If you’re poor, getting more money will make you happier, up to an annual income of about $20,000 or £10,000, presumably the point where basic needs are being met.
And then things turn to custard, much like Ben asserts. As a whole, developed countries are more prosperous than we’ve ever been, and yet more anxious and depressed than we’ve ever been too. We have declining levels of trust in our compatriots and suffer from status anxiety and ‘extreme individualism’ that leaves us isolated and unhappy.
the happy bit
‘To be thrown upon one’s own resources, is to be cast into the very lap of fortune; for our faculties then undergo a development and display an energy of which they were previously unsusceptible.’
It looks like we’ve been barking up the wrong tree in thinking that yet more economic growth and consumption will cure whatever ails us. And according to Ben, not having fistfuls of money to throw at every problem isn’t such a bad thing, and it might even do something for our faculties (whatever those are)!
You wouldn’t know it by tracking media coverage of sustainability issues. We constantly hear plaintive wails about the costs of cutting greenhouse gas emissions, and the lifestyle sacrifices we’ll have to make in order to live sustainably on planet earth.
There are people around who see opportunities rather than simply costs, and I’ll be returning to this subject in future posts. For now, here are a couple of positive alternatives to ‘grow (economically, that is) or die’ that we just don’t hear enough about: the Genuine Progress Indicator and the Bhutanese model of Gross National Happiness.
And maybe just connecting with each other a bit more could go a long way too, since
‘We must indeed all hang together, or, most assuredly, we shall hang separately.’
in closing
‘If your head is wax, don’t walk in the sun.’
I haven’t got a clue what he’s talking about. Help me out.
