Cognitive Dissonance verses the Conscious Dissident

The day is not far off when the economic problem will take the back

seat where it belongs, and the arena of the heart and the head will

be occupied or reoccupied, by our real problems — the problems of

life and of human relations, of creation and behaviour and religion.

John Maynard Keynes 1883 - 1946

At the heart of it, we all know that the system we embrace in our daily lives is one that is completely and utterly unsustainable and when you really stop and think about it, indefensible. Everyone apart from the absolute die hard economic true believers(including those poor souls afflicted with a serious case of cognitive dissonance![1]) understand the basic truth that resources are finite, and their exponential use by an exponentially growing population is not going to last.

The economist and thinker Herman Daly had it right when he put forward the idea of a steady state economy to combat the neo-liberal view of big is best and endless growth is necessary for the survival and advance of the human species. This is his simple concept, laid down in three easy to remember points:

1.      Limit the use of all resources to rates that ultimately result in levels of waste that can be absorbed by the ecosystem.

2.      Exploit renewable resources at rates that do not exceed the ability of the ecosystem to regenerate the resources.

3.      Deplete non-renewable resources at rates that, as far as possible, do not exceed the rate of development of renewable substitutes.

Not exactly rocket science is it? Take the time to read it again and absorb it, and you should see the obvious sense in the approach. In fact, it is so obvious that it seems tantamount to a very slow assisted suicide not to take it on board (with futurists now predicting that conflicts will eventually revolve, not around the current resources like oil and coal, but the absolute basics like food and water, it gives you pause for thought - or at least it should!).

But why is the system so completely devoid of serious conversation about such an obvious problem? It is so frustrating to any vaguely intelligent person who stops to think about it, and taking my experiences as an example, it appears to be something that my friends want to talk about but rarely get the chance to (possibly for fear of being ridiculed or worse, branded a greenie!). It is really interesting the amount of people I would never expect to give this topic a second glance really getting into it, with a ready formed set of ideas pouring out of their head, giving rise to the realisation that they have been mulling it over all by themselves for some time. People actually do want to have the conversation, but the media, the advertising industry, the overt pressure from those proselytising the benefits of endless growth don’t give the average person much pause for thought. What is more, the general response from the mass (commercial) media and its followers is that anyone daring to rock the boat must be a communist or getting ready to go out late one night for a good ol’ fashioned bout of sedition! Pass the flaming torch of critical thought, boys, and let’s release some carbon!

So where to from there? It is pretty clear to me that the most important way forward is that most basic of enterprises and rights – education! Educate your kids about the issues. Kids will think things through and really get the concepts, rather than wasting time self flagellating over the self induced pressures of over consumption like adults do. But first, you need to educate yourself, do a bit of research at best, a bit of soul searching if nothing else, and get some ideas going in your head about what is going on. There is no shortage of material out there – Australia’s Australian of the Year Tim Flannery is an interesting place to start (his latest book ‘Here on Earth’ is a really good introduction to the issues and will lead you on to other thinkers if you take some notes) as is Clive Hamilton’s ‘Requiem for a Species’, or E F Schumacher’s ‘Small is Beautiful’, the main point is educate yourself![2].

Educate yourself to the real cost of things, educate yourself to take notice of what is going on around you in city food halls, in supermarkets, in the halls of government policy on issues concerning sustainability and population. It is pretty scary stuff, and the easiest response is to switch off and just not think about it.

And therein lies the problem, doesn’t it?

The irony of time poor people being so caught up in the daily grind that there is no time to think about why they are so time poor isn’t lost on this little black duck.  The econocrats will spruik the benefits of endless growth till the cows come home, and the masses will soak it up, crank up the consumption merry-go-round and wonder why things aren’t working like the TV ad’s promised.

So, here’s the deal. Be a sceptic, a non-believer, and question everything that you hear about growth. Take a logical view of things, educate yourself as to what is really going on and what is likely to happen in the medium term if things keep going the way they are. It may be that you decide that it is all too hard and thanks anyway you will stick with the system as it stands thank-you very much, or it may be that you realise how incredibly difficult it is to rock the fiscal boat but decide to have a bit of a crack anyway on a personal level.

At the end of the day, the decision is yours to make, so go for it, but remember that at the end of the day, if you don’t educate yourself to inform the process, well, you’re not really making a decision at all.

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[1] Cognitive dissonance is an uncomfortable feeling caused by holding conflicting ideas simultaneously. The theory of cognitive dissonance proposes that people have a motivational drive to reduce dissonance. They do this by changing their attitudes, beliefs, and actions. Dissonance is also reduced by justifying, blaming, and denying. It is one of the most influential and extensively studied theories in social psychology, and for more interesting info Google one of the most famous cases studied by LEO FESTINGER. Interesting stuff.

[2] I have slowly developed my own little library of thought provoking literature, and will include a reading list as part of this blog – but be aware that I have a particular view of the world which is still developing the more I read and research, and as a result some may think my reading list is biased but that is kind of the point. You can make up your own mind, but please do the research and back up your own opinion (if only to yourself!).