| Subject: Submission on behalf of Anna Clark |
| From: Barrett Brown <barriticus@gmail.com> |
| Date: 6/21/10, 11:20 |
| To: Cara Parks <cara@huffingtonpost.com>, Anna Clark <anna@earthpeopleco.com> |
Sustainability in America: Tocqueville Was Right to Worry
Consider any individual at any period of his life, and you will always find him preoccupied with fresh plans to increase his comfort. Could our affinity for comfort, noted by Tocqueville nearly two centuries ago, be the real cause of inertia in Americas quest for energy independence? Lest we go another 40 years without a plan, angry citizens demanding leadership would do well to begin with themselves.
As the blame game for the Gulf oil crisis persists, the din of Obama-bashing, BP-blasting pundits grows louder each day. Youd think this was the first time something like this has happened. The BP fiasco may be the greatest natural disaster in American history, but does anyone else get the feeling weve been here before? Hurricanes Ike, Rita, and Katrina also brought economic fallout and climate refugees in their wakes. With each successive environmental catastrophe - whether an act of God or act of man - a surge in sentiment ensues, but our burgeoning political will wanes before we make real progress.
America is threatened by the lack of leadership from a handful of morally-compromised politicians. This we know. But the more insidious problem is the lack of leadership in ourselves. It begs the question, when did We the People become so weak?
Case in point. I consider the BP oil spill a tragedy, but Im not telling my financial guy to dump my oil-company stocks, which presumably I hold shares in through my mutual funds. I havent been ringing my elected officials either. I have a thousand excuses as to why I havent found the wherewithal to do this. Most honest people would admit the same. The primary culprit? Comfort. It exerts a stronger pull on our actions than the self-righteous words coming out of our mouths.
To my credit, I have taken some steps in the right direction. I live in a Platinum LEED-certified home powered by 100% renewable energy. I run a green consulting firm and write green books. In these respects, Im not exactly your average Joe not that theres anything wrong with average Joes. It was they who fought and won the American Revolution. The Greatest Generation was full of average Joes. American history is replete with humble heroes who sacrificed to preserve the common good - and who somehow understood they were fighting for their own sakes, too. So my real question is, when did average Joe fall so far below average?
These days you have to dig pretty deep if you want insights from unbiased sources. Alexis de Tocqueville was a royalist turned republican who, fueled by love of liberty, came to America with the express intent of observing democracy done right. As continental commentators on Americana go, Tocqueville, who authored Democracy in America in 1835, paints us in a mostly favorable light. He recognized our virtues without sugarcoating our vices. Remarkably, his observations on Americans idiosyncrasies still ring true today:
I see an innumerable multitude of men, alike and equal, constantly circling around in pursuit of the petty and banal pleasures with which they glut their souls. Each of them withdrawn into himself, is almost unaware of the fate of the rest. Mankind, for him, consists in his children and his personal friends. As for the rest of his fellow citizens, they are near enough, but he does not notice them. He touches them but feels nothing. He exists in and for himself, and though he still may have a family, one can at least say that he has not got a fatherland. (692)
On the media:
In the United States, the majority undertakes to supply a multitude of ready-made opinions for the use of individuals, who are thus relieved from the necessity of forming opinions of their own.
On the mollifying effects of materialism:
It does not break wills, but it softens them, bends them, and directs them; it rarely forces one to act, but it constantly opposes itself to ones acting; it does not destroy, it prevents things from being born.
Tocquevilles words affirm that mediocrity was on the rise long before American Idol became the arbiter of taste and Glenn Beck the arbiter of the truth. As Becks popularity skyrockets, fear over quasi-socialist notions (like green) continues to mount. As long as sustainability is perceived as leftist, partisanship will remain an insurmountable obstacle in garnering the support to pass legislation to ensure a clean-energy future. The publics fear dictates the votes of politicians far more than leadership does. On this point, Tocquevilles warning against the tyranny of the majority was prescient.
Compromise for the greater good is doable when the enemy poses an imminent threat, but its nearly impossible when the enemy is invisible. Its easier to point fingers and demand Tony Haywards head than it is to look in the mirror and face ourselves.
George W. Bush said it best when he told us America is addicted to oil, but Nixon said it first over 40 years ago. Back then, we imported 24 percent; today we import over 70 percent, much of it from countries the State Department calls dangerous and unstable. With 97 percent of our transportation sector running on oil, the risks to our national security is as significant as the ecological ones. The price of gasoline still doesnt reflect the cost of oil, even as experts such as billionaire T. Boone Pickens confirm, the real cost is astronomical. As the stalemate over energy policy continues, other countries are gaining a foothold in clean technology manufacturing. In allowing this to happen, We the People are the author of our own demise.
Sam Adams saw this coming when he noted, "Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts and murders itself." He insisted, "There was never a democracy that did not commit suicide." Of all the things we toss into the trash after a single use, none is more worth recycling than wisdom. Until we learn from history, were bound to keep repeating it. As Tocqueville put it, When the past no longer illuminates the future, the spirit walks in darkness.
Despite our failings, Tocqueville had great faith in American democracy. Where Rousseau believed in sacrificing self-interest to the General Will, Tocqueville believed that citizens could exercise their self-interest in a constructive way through voluntary associations that would act as buffers of authority between the individual and the nation state. Today, the concept of voluntary associations is manifested in organizations such as the U.S. Green Building Council, whose consensus-based approach is turning one of the most polluting industries into a vehicle for successful energy management. The U.S. Conference of Mayors has also taken leadership on greener building and transportation. Thankfully the blessed unrest spurred by these and hundreds of other communities is moving us forward.
Through osmosis, people are slowly waking up. Even Glenn Beck says, Youd be an idiot not to notice the temperature change. He admitted theres a case that global warming is, at least in part, human-induced. If only his followers would get it, we might end up okay.
But there I go pointing fingers again. Its always somebody elses fault. Looking in the mirror, Im reminded of my to-do list. Monday morning: call Senators Cornyn and Hutchison. Theres something Ive been meaning to say to them.
Anna M. Clark is the author of Green, American Style and the president of EarthPeople, LLC. She blogs on Eco-Leadership for Greenbiz.com. For more on all things green, visit www.annamclark.com.