Degrowth Will Take a Change in Culture
What does that mean? How does that happen.
Neither guy liked government-led culture changes. They were wrong. It’s called progress.
For humanity to follow the degrowth path, a major culture change will need to happen.
But how does that happen?
Cultures change for many reasons; sometimes out of necessity, some are the result of scientific progress, some are accidents altogether, and some are driven by government policy.
Necessity: Samuel Morse invented the Morse code to speed up communications after he was unable to be with his wife when she died.
Progress: Once the automobile came around, the need for horses for transportation and the industries that went with horse-drawn carriages (buggy whip anyone) largely disappeared.
Accident: Scottish physician Alexander Fleming accidentally discovered penicillin in his lab in 1928. After returning from vacation, he noticed some petri dishes containing Staphylococcus bacteria had been contaminated with a mold in the Penicillium genus. The Staphylococcus did not grow as expected where the fungus was present. Penicillin was born.
Government Policy: Today, about one-quarter of the world’s population lives in 74 countries where there are smoking bans in public places. These policies along with other smoking-related policies led to a steady decrease in deaths from smoking.
It isn’t just one thing.
These are just four examples of millions of cultural changes we have seen throughout history. But none of them happen in a vacuum. All of them needed other developments before they became part of our culture.
Morse Code was invented in the 1930s, but Mr. Morse didn’t invent the telegraph poles that sent his dots and dashes across the world. That was William Cooke in 1843 who came up with the idea for the now ubiquitous utility pole. For these poles to crisscross continents, federal and local governments had to determine where the poles would go. Work crews had to install them, and a population had to be trained in a new technology.
Penicillin didn’t jump from Dr. Fleming’s lab to your pharmacist counter. There were hundreds of steps and hundreds if not thousands of people in the chain before an accidental good idea became a medication you take for granted.
Degrowth will be no different.
It’s your responsibility, but not solely your responsibility.
BP famously and nefariously invented the term “carbon footprint” to shift the responsibility for tackling climate change from oil companies (which is what BP is of course) to the consumer.
I’m already seeing this with degrowth. The algorithms that infect my computer know that I look up degrowth and environmental information. So, I get a lot of sustainability and degrowth-related stories in my newsfeed. Here is just one of them I pulled today.
There is nothing wrong with this story in and of itself. The author tells us how we can use less plastic, change our transportation habits, eat less meat, use less water, and reduce food waste.
These are all good ideas. But the article simply frames these issues as personal choices. The focus is on what you can do as a consumer.
Cultures don’t change in the way we need them to change based solely on consumer choice. You need the government to get involved. The government played a role in Morse code being used, in automobiles replacing horses, in penicillin saving lives, and in combating smoking.
Government action isn’t the only thing that will get us to use less plastic, change our transportation habits, eat less meat, use less water, and reduce food waste. But they play the biggest role – and by a wide margin.
Governments can mandate what materials are used in bottles, mandate recycling, or mandate producer pays laws that put the burden of dealing with plastic on companies, not consumers.
Governments are the ones who decide what transportation system is used in a city, state or country. Governments can build walkable neighborhoods or car-centric ones. We are just passengers.
Governments are the ones that provide subsidies for meat production and can decide at what level to tax food products that ultimately have deleterious effects on our environment.
Governments design our water systems, ensuring they work properly as well as determining the price of water use.
Governments determine the rates at landfills, which impact what people throw away. Governments can address food waste, or fail to. One positive example is South Korea, which recycles about 95% of its food waste.
Calling on governments to do these things is a change in culture.
I live in and was raised in the United States. There is a healthy dose of skepticism concerning the usefulness of government here. Much has been written about American individualism and many other factors behind a less accepting stance towards government in America. I remember specifically growing up in the Reagan era in America, where the Republican party leaned heavily into casting big government as a villain. This point of view can be summed up by some of President Ronald Reagan’s greatest hits.
1. Government is like a baby: An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other. – 1965
2. The government’s first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives. – 1981
3. The nine most terrifying words in the English language are “I’m from the government, and I’m here to help. – 1986
You can love, hate, or be indifferent to Ronald Reagan all you want, but I’ll give him this, there was a reason he was called “the great communicator”. The way he talked and what he said resonated with a lot of people. He was a good storyteller, with a good sense of humor, and he tapped into the American ideals of freedom and self-determination.
I can agree with the sentiment in those three Reagan quotes and disagree with them at the same time. As an even greater communicator once said:
“Do I contradict myself, Very well then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes.” - Walt Whitman
Society contains multitudes.
Of course, government is part of the problem and part of the solution at the same time. As individuals, we need to demand that governments take the lead in addressing our environmental problems and setting us on a degrowth path.
We need to make these choices ourselves, but the government can make the default choices degrowth ones.
This is already happening. Most degrowth policies already exist somewhere. You can go find them and ask nicely, then demand that your government implements them.
- Right to repair laws
- Universal Healthcare (Every industrialized nation other than the United States)
Changing our habits and behavior as a society won’t happen overnight, and it isn’t each individual’s responsibility. If we leave tackling ecological overshoot to everyone’s individual decisions, we are doomed.
Those big changes take policy decisions by leaders who aren’t afraid to make the right decision, even if unpopular in the short term.
However, those people in power will feel a little braver if they see you are already using less plastic, changing your transportation habits, eating less meat, using less water, and reducing food waste.
It’s ironic, but understandable that our leaders are actually predominantly followers, following you, as well as the moneyed interests. So, do your part by telling your leaders that you want degrowth.
We’ll deal with the moneyed interests next time.
Yes. I’m working to speed that process up by spreading the word here. Hope these discussions help people understand what is going on.
Walt Witman