Old habits die hard, even when
new ways of thinking and doing are being either promised or claimed or assured.
We are now in an era where we are buzzing the word “sustainable” at everything,
anything, anyone, everyone. Few of us understand what this word really means
but one thing is certain. Even before it has been fully understood, it is in
danger of becoming stale and going the route of such words and phrases as green,
conflict transformation, nation building, reconciliation, integration and good
governance. The reason is quite easy to understand: we are attempting to
market and promote something which we have understood but little and realized
but less. Without knowing it, we are using the mechanisms of failed classical
socioeconomics on a process that is the antithesis of it. Doing so, we are
headed for a major disaster even before we start because a few pretty basic,
pretty stupid things have happened to bring about this state of affairs.
The first is that there are quite
a few people who have jumped on the sustainability bandwagon believing that it
is an opportunity for profit. Even a person with marginal intelligence knows
that sustainability is a process – an opportunity (if opportunity it is), to
subsume one’s individualism within the collective consciousness and
commonalities of a nation pulling together for the preservation, regeneration,
enhancement and continuation of life. Many times over the last few years I’ve
heard phrases such as “organics fetch a higher price so why don’t we try to
position ourselves to tap those markets and use sustainability as our
promotional slogan” or “if I can become the only manufacturer of natural
fertilizer, I will be the don of the sustainable age”, or “if our
products are accredited and certified there will be greater acceptance in
global markets”. The rationale
behind such thinking is easy: all that these people want to do is leverage any
effort coming under sustainability to make … the least sustainable of all
things…money. If a sustainability effort ends up with commandeered markets with
just one fertilizer manufacturer, one rice mill, one fruit distributor, one
soap maker, one physician know then that we have won nothing but lost much. All
we would have done is created a new word for old nonsense. What must be understood
is that in a sustainable world, profit is merely a collateral outcome of a
process and not a primary goal. Financial gain is a happy positive but not an
essential. The minute anyone thinks otherwise, we are back in the old humdrum
of markets promoting sweet nothings to people desperate for hard somethings. Go
this route and all we can hope to do is sustainably consume bitter dreams and
dashed hopes.
The second is that quite a few
people want bragging rights. The right to claim that they were the first and
the best in pushing a community, a nation and region a planet towards
sustainable living. Even a person who is not too smart will know that
sustainability is a process so complex when set against the modern realities of
the world that no single person can or should claim hero status for its
establishment. They cannot. If they think they can, they have been guilty of
oversimplifying the infinitely complex. By its very definition it is a process
that requires very large numbers of very wise people to be given hands-off
ownership of the process at any level, at every level. To do this, every
individual, group, community should be allowed to do their thing the way they
want to do that thing. Over time, these pockets will organically merge into
common collectives. If anyone attempts the insanity of forcing them to adhere
to this or that, vote for this or that, salute this or that, sign-in to this or
that, they should understand then and there that the effort is doomed. If
someone can do that, he doesn’t need to become the next leader of a nation to
be respected for what he has done. She needn’t be looked upon as the great
bountiful goddess of sustainability to feel a sense of worth. No. Just the
simple, personal knowledge of having done something well, something durable,
something sustainable is sufficient.
The third is that quite a few
believe that sustainability can be achieved as quickly and as easily as
flipping a switch. Sorry folks. If we want to do things quickly, easily,
conveniently or politically, we might as well go back to the industrial era.
That was an age where time was money. That was a time where IQ tests were
devices to test how quickly people can do something not how well people can do
it. That was an era where quality was measured by how many people bought
something over ten days not on how good something was that they never had to
replace it over the next ten years. It was a period where the next election
determined the development cycle. The way of doing things sustainably is
directly opposed to such tactics.
Sustainability takes time and it
doesn’t care at all for individual agendas or fiefdom economics or party
politics. It cannot be promoted to the human collective if it is not present
exactly as claimed upon the ground. It will not tolerate failure or
post-failure finger-pointing. It is not dependent on positive and hopeful
slogans but on cold assessments of what is possible, probable and impossible
when measured against social and temporal parameters. It takes care to exquisitely
create things that are durable. It does not create things that have short sharp
burst lifetimes and which hardly qualify as produce and products. It doesn’t do
things in contravention of nature’s timetable just because the political
timetable for delivering results is different. In the industrial era,
politicians, businesspeople, civil agents, activists, media and researchers
could and did lie through their teeth about what is good, what is bad, what is
right, what is wrong, what is popular, what is not. They collectively fibbed,
blatantly, on how well or how badly a country was governed or its security and
happiness was assured. In the sustainable era, nobody can lie. If they do, then
they get caught quickly because one of the key foundations of sustainability is
to stop buying into lies be they lies on goods, services or politics. You see,
the sustainable man cannot be fooled and to try to fool him is foolish.
So, let us take a step back and
assess these things soberly. Let us be circumspect and thoughtful. Let us be
considerate and careful. Let us not make age old mistakes in our attempts to
curve out a new age for our children. Let us not try to commoditize
sustainability and go the route of desiring gain, or fame or praise which will
only result in pain for all. We cannot do that when we are trying to
collectively overturn centuries long loss, shame and blame so that all will
live content.
Let us understand that if we are
shooting for the world, we must take a pass on the stars.
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