I starts with visions. They are many and unorganized; they are biased and organic. But we need them and I welcome them.
Visions
One must take time to know look up and stake a course. We, the citizens of Earth, are entering a time of more and more globally connecting and affecting relations, and this requires more effort to collectively stake the planet’s course. In the past leadership was fought for and defended, but a democratic – United Nations – approach favor rotating and agreed upon leadership. Environmental Degradation and Climate Change, Protection of Human Rights, Technological Innovation, Organized Violence, Access to Energy, Movement of Economy and People, and Depletion of Natural Resources are today all international concerns – but in the end our animal instincts are still at play and dominant. But visions are expressed. Without them we are not humans.
Values
After a vision is established, a set of values determines both its means and end outcome. Thus, what one values influence the preferred vision (end, outcome), and what one values also influence the means (recipe) to reach the preferred end. The kind of values favored are however not uniform to the society’s many stakeholders. Values often fall into categories like economic rationality, social policy and environmental outlook. As humans are private individuals but also culturally determined, there are constantly a presence of frequent variations in the emphasis placed on the different values. However, values matter, I believe, and must be taken into account, when establishing visions and priorities.
Priorities
Recognizing the variety of visions and values, which ones should we prioritize? This might not be as complicated as it sounds. Look at the over-arching visions and values at play in human history (this depends on which history book you pick up, but I have been heavily influenced by Eric Hobsbawm’s ‘Age of Extremes’ and Jared Diamond’s ‘Guns, Germs, and Steel’ as well as his ‘Collapse’), and then look at the challenges at hand. My reasoning is that if we want less of the negative externalities produced, then we must give weight to other values that will address this. It appears that many good solutions are provided in literature and example, but what is needed is to agree on this internationally. Indeed, agreements addressing this are plentiful, when looking to what declarations and agreements signed among nations at the United Nations table. But nations fail to follow through. Corporations also try, but the change is slow. Consumers also try, but a few always control and overrun the majority. So what is needed the most? It is easy: at every level (state, corporate and public) action is needed. Just do it! (…I care little about slogan and photo copy rights in this blog…)
In whatever you do, choose the option that causes the least negative externalities to our common resources. ALWAYS!
(But please, do it gradually, as a shock to the system normally only causes stress, guilt, desperation, anger and hopelessness – non of that is needed).
