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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52 politics and governance<br />
deeper s<strong>to</strong>rms and currents <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> subconscious. And after <strong>the</strong><br />
wars, <strong>the</strong> gulags, and <strong>the</strong> many killing fi elds <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> 20th century,<br />
who can say what demons lurk below <strong>the</strong> surface <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> conscious<br />
mind waiting <strong>to</strong> march en masse <strong>to</strong> serve <strong>the</strong> most heinous causes?<br />
But as James Madison noted long ago, <strong>the</strong> need for government<br />
originates not in our virtues but in our frailties, faults, and failings.<br />
If men were angels, as he put it, no government would be<br />
necessary. In his later years Madison, who more than anyone else<br />
authored <strong>the</strong> Constitution and <strong>the</strong> Bill <strong>of</strong> Rights, was pessimistic<br />
about <strong>the</strong> future <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> American experiment in democracy. He<br />
believed that under <strong>the</strong> pressures <strong>of</strong> sheer geographic size and<br />
population growth it might have a century “before <strong>the</strong> rot set in”<br />
and democracy came undone (Mat<strong>the</strong>ws, 1995, p. 212). But what<br />
are <strong>the</strong> alternatives <strong>to</strong> democracy?<br />
In 1968, biologist Garrett Hardin published probably <strong>the</strong><br />
most famous essay ever <strong>to</strong> appear in Science magazine, with <strong>the</strong><br />
memorable title “The Tragedy <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Commons” (Hardin, 1968).<br />
Overpopulation and global environmental problems, Hardin<br />
argued, were analogous <strong>to</strong> <strong>the</strong> abuse <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> common grazing areas<br />
<strong>of</strong> medieval England. As long as <strong>the</strong> costs <strong>of</strong> abusing <strong>the</strong> commons<br />
were shared by all and <strong>the</strong> gains captured by <strong>the</strong> abuser, <strong>the</strong><br />
temptation for any one ac<strong>to</strong>r <strong>to</strong> overgraze and eventually ruin <strong>the</strong><br />
commons for all was overwhelming. “Freedom in a commons,”<br />
Hardin wrote, “brings ruin <strong>to</strong> all.” The only way <strong>to</strong> escape tragedy<br />
was <strong>to</strong> increase <strong>the</strong> collective power <strong>to</strong> control everyone in<br />
<strong>the</strong> commons, or as he put it “mutual coercion, mutually agreed<br />
upon.” Economist Robert Heilbroner similarly concluded that<br />
mounting ecological threats <strong>to</strong> human survival could be managed<br />
only by authoritarian governments, saying “I not only predict<br />
but I prescribe a centralization <strong>of</strong> power as <strong>the</strong> only means<br />
by which our threatened and dangerous civilization will make<br />
way for its successor” (Heilbroner, 1980, p.175). Political scientist<br />
William Ophuls concurred, proposing that “ecological scarcity<br />
in particular seems <strong>to</strong> engender overwhelming pressures <strong>to</strong>ward