Down to the wire : confronting climate collapse / David - Index of
Down to the wire : confronting climate collapse / David - Index of
Down to the wire : confronting climate collapse / David - Index of
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78 S politics and governance<br />
Box 2.2. (continued)<br />
<strong>to</strong> <strong>the</strong> attack <strong>of</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r ideas,” in John Kenneth Galbraith’s words,<br />
“but <strong>to</strong> <strong>the</strong> massive onslaught <strong>of</strong> circumstances with which <strong>the</strong>y<br />
cannot contend” (2001, p. 30). That appears <strong>to</strong> be true in our<br />
own time, in which <strong>the</strong> pecuniary imagination was given such<br />
full reign. The convenient idea that foxes could be persuaded <strong>to</strong><br />
reliably guard <strong>the</strong> henhouse, for example, derived from free marketeers<br />
like Mil<strong>to</strong>n Friedman, libertarians like George Gilder,<br />
supply-side economists like Arthur Laffer, and “long-boomers”<br />
like Peter Schwartz, did not voluntarily surrender <strong>to</strong> superior reason,<br />
logic, or evidence. Ra<strong>the</strong>r, it was an idea whose consequences<br />
turned out <strong>to</strong> be bad for both <strong>the</strong> hens and a bit later for <strong>the</strong> starving<br />
foxes, some <strong>of</strong> whom, now pr<strong>of</strong>essing different ideas, stand in<br />
line for public bailouts—roadkill on <strong>the</strong> highway called reality.<br />
The shelf life <strong>of</strong> such ideas will turn out <strong>to</strong> be brief as such fads<br />
go, but <strong>the</strong> consequences will last a long time.<br />
When delusion is popular, however, durable ideas are unpopular,<br />
or more likely forgotten al<strong>to</strong>ge<strong>the</strong>r. But in <strong>the</strong> present wreckage<br />
we have no choice but <strong>to</strong> search for more durable ideas with more<br />
benign or even positive consequences. When we fi nd truly durable<br />
ideas, <strong>the</strong>y are mostly about limits <strong>to</strong> what we can do or should do—<br />
but restraint, prudence, and caution are, “oh mah God, sooo not cool”<br />
as one <strong>of</strong> my students thoughtfully expressed it. Accordingly, such<br />
things are put on <strong>the</strong> shelf, where <strong>the</strong>y ga<strong>the</strong>r dust until necessity<br />
strikes again and <strong>the</strong>y are called back in<strong>to</strong> use as we try once again <strong>to</strong><br />
fi nd our bearings amidst <strong>the</strong> debris <strong>of</strong> popular delusions gone bust.<br />
In this regard, an ancient collection <strong>of</strong> proverbs contains <strong>the</strong>se<br />
words <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Greek poet Archilochus: “<strong>the</strong> fox knows many things;<br />
<strong>the</strong> hedgehog knows one big thing,” Like <strong>the</strong> hedgehog, advocates<br />
for <strong>the</strong> environment, animals, biological diversity, water, soils,<br />
landscapes, and <strong>climate</strong> stability know one big thing, as biologist<br />
Garrett Hardin once put it, which is that “we can never do merely<br />
one thing” (Hardin, 1972, p. 38). In o<strong>the</strong>r words, <strong>the</strong>re are many<br />
unforeseen consequences from what we do, and so <strong>the</strong>re are limits<br />
<strong>to</strong> what we can safely do. Since consequences are not only unpredictable<br />
but <strong>of</strong>ten remote in time and distant from <strong>the</strong> cause, we