Bridges To Knowledge: A Blog by Barry Camson

Critical Thinking, Myths and Economics

There are two books that deal with what I call "Critical Thinking" as applied to the field of economics. Both are broad in scope. One book by Thomas Sedlacek and Vaclav Havel deals with economics throughout human written history - in our cultural, spiritual and economic life on this planet.

In The Economics of Good and Evil, authors Sedlacek and Havel state that the reason for the book is "to look for economic thought in ancient myths and, vice versa, to look for myths in today's economics." The book does a fascinating job of accomplishing both objectives.

They start with the four thousand year old epic of the Sumerian King Gilgamesh, the oldest work of literature available to humankind which comes from ancient Mesopotamia. They then move through Greek philosophy - Aristotle and Plato among others, Hebrew and Christian Biblical sources, through Christian theologians - St. Augustine and Thomas Aquinas, to philosophers of the Enlightenment and up to modern times. This includes discussion of John Stuart Mill and Adam Smith and even Samuelson's contemporary textbook on economics.

"The Riddle of the World" - Old Words, New Message

 

THE RIDDLE OF THE WORLD

Alexander Pope, 1732

Know then thyself, presume not God to scan

The proper study of mankind is man.

Placed on this isthmus of a middle state,

A being darkly wise, and rudely great:

With too much knowledge for the sceptic side,

With too much weakness for the stoic's pride,

He hangs between; in doubt to act, or rest;

In doubt to deem himself a God, or beast;

In doubt his mind and body to prefer;

Born but to die, and reas'ning but to err;

Alike in ignorance, his reason such,

Whether he thinks too little, or too much;

Chaos of thought and passion, all confus'd;

Still by himself, abus'd or disabus'd;

Created half to rise and half to fall;

Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all,

Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurl'd;

The glory, jest and riddle of the world.

 

A Brief History of Neoliberalism and the Environment

While it might be ideal to focus our efforts directly and exclusively on combatting Climate Change, the reality is that Global Warming, the increasing extinction of species and the wanton disposal of waste all sit on top of a pyramid. At the base of this pyramid are the theory and practices of Neoliberalism around the world. It appears that unless and until action is taken to deal with Neoliberalism, it will be like swimming against the current in our efforts to be successful in dealing with Climate Change.

David Harvey in his book, "A Brief History of Neoliberalism," does an effective job of making the connection between human-induced Climate Change, the degradation of Nature and the advent of Neoliberalism on the global stage. He points to the late 1970's as the time when Global Warming became more prominent which is also the time when Margaret Thatcher in the UK and Ronald Reagan in the U.S. brought Neoliberalism front and center on the Global stage.

The Pursuit of Wellbeing

A fascinating theme amongst the many efforts focusing on responding to Global Warming is that of wellbeing. Wellbeing is different than the pursuit of pleasurable experiences though we often equate the two. Actually, these can be contradictory impulses and equating the two sometimes has tragic consequences. Perhaps, the pursuit of pleasure at the expense of wellbeing has led to the current predicament of Human Sapiens.

The Many Responses to Global Warming

There are many different individual and organized responses to Global Warming. Each individual, country or group of countries (in the case of the EU) has its own approach. This post describes a number of them.

The individual responses are equal to the number of people on the planet. For purposes of this article, I will capture many of these reactions on the part of those remaining inactive in the representative figure of a very intelligent friend of mine. This person who says whether Global Warming is happening or not, humans did not cause it. The idea here is let's just get on with life as it is and hopefully a decent life. The conscious and unconscious motivations for such an approach vary.

Sadly, this is not the extreme point on the side of inaction. The extreme point is represented by the current President of the United States and his business and political allies. This approach is to deliberately oppose and obstruct action to respond to Global Warming and to support the fossil fuel industry.

There are a variety of approaches where people and groups are taking action though in different ways to respond to the challenges of Global Warming. This post will describe some key ones.

My Opinion on Current Efforts to Fight Global Warming

 

From "To His Coy Mistress" by Andrew Marvell.

 

Had we but world enough and time,

This coyness, lady, were no crime.

We would sit down, and think which way

To walk, and pass our long love's day.

 

 

 

 

Dis-ease in the Body Politic

Notice to Readers: This post discusses the grave dangers to humanity from Global Warming.

In a touching video that I recently watched, Joanna Macy commented: "What is falling apart is a demented system - political, economic, corporate capitalism." She said this in the context of a discussion about the deep danger that our Planet is in as a result of human action.

Sustainability and Human Evolution

Are human beings, H. sapiens, genetically disposed to being unsustainable in the current ecological situation of our planet? This is a question raised by William Rees in a 2010 article, "What's blocking sustainability? Human nature, cognition and denial."

Strategies for Responding to Climate Change, the Climate Crisis, the Climate Emergency

There appear to be three main strategies for attempting to motivate citizens to take action on climate change. The terminology by which this state of affairs is referred to is beginning to reflect the essence of the different strategies - Climate Change, Climate Crisis, Climate Emergency, a Decarbonized World.

One strategy is to scare the hell out of people in motivating them to take action. This is currently reflected by Greta and previously by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore. This approach has been directed to both leaders and citizens. One benefit of this "scare-the-hell-out-of-them" approach is that it educates people on the severity of the real situation as presented by climate data and observation. It attempts to get this issue into the current political discussion. Education can be included here as a subset of the overall strategy. Being educated as to the reality of climate change should scare the hell out of people. Many campaigns to involve people have education as a key objective.

A Reflection on Education in the 21st Century

The U.N. Sustainable Development Goals

As I reflect back over my teaching during the five years that I have been in Israel, I am very mindful of the increasing role that ideas of "sustainability" have in my work. Of course, "sustainability" is the consequence of a variety of approaches which we often refer to by the title of "sustainability." One might also refer to this as how we will go about living within our planetary budget in the foreseeable future.