REFERENCES AND QUOTES To system changing encouragement Philosophy 2021 The goal - References and quotes DANA (DONELLA) MEADOWS LECTURE: SUSTAINABLE SYSTEMS Goal of national economy is growth. System goes into conniption if it doesn’t get growth. 15:00 PART 1 “Remember goals, are the most important defining characteristic of a systems, more so than interconnections, more so than elements. A meaningful, moral, satisfying goal – with a sense of enough. Growth as a goal is asking for unsustainability on a finite planet. There is no way. There’s got to be an enoughness and the goal has to be something to do with real human fulfillment not just getting more” 29:35 PART 2 real human fulfillment 30:03 PART 2 cultural commitment to protect resource base 1:55 PART 3 we got to have an enough “If you get how we are interrelated with the environment and that all of this throughputs that run our lives come from the environment, go back to the environment and that we cannot be out of balance then you start inventing new functions and purposes. The first thing that you see is that growth is one of the stupidest purposes ever invented by any culture! We got to have an enough!” 07.38 PART 3 “The question of growth. If you just listen around you to the mindset, the current culture, telling you how growth is going to solve a problem. If you just, every time you here that start saying, ‘growth of what?, and why?, and for whom?, and who pays the cost?, and how long can it last?, and what’s the cost to the planet? and how much is enough? Just do that! You are going to screw up mindsets. People are going to hate it. But that what’s needed, is to start rethinking at this level, even if you don’t know the answers to those questions, and hardly anybody does because we don’t ask them, but you’ve got to admit those are good questions: growth of what, for whom, at what cost, paid by whom? for how long? and how will that fit within the capacity of the planet to support it, and when will we get there?, when will we have enough?, where are we going anyway? Those are mindset upsetting questions, paradigm upsetting questions” 9:22 PART 3 I THINKING IN SYSTEMS – A PRIMER “Purposes are deduced from behavior, not from rhetoric or stated goals” 14 “Keeping sub-purposes and overall system purposes in harmony is an essential function of successful” “The least obvious part of the system, its function or purpose, is often the most crucial determinant of the systems behavior” 16 “Life started with single-cell bacteria, not with elephants. The original purpose of a hierarchy is always to help its originating subsystems do their jobs better. This is something, unfortunately, that both the higher and the lower levels of a greatly articulated hierarchy easily can forget. Therefore, many systems are not meeting our goals because of malfunctioning hierarchies.” 84 “When a subsystem’s goals dominate at the expense of the total system’s goals, the resulting behavior is called suboptimization. Just as damaging as suboptimization, of course, is the problem of too much central control. If the brain controlled each cell so tightly that the cell could not perform its self-maintenance functions, the whole organism could die.” 85 systems beguiling events 88 “We have to invent boundaries for clarity and sanity; and boundaries can produce problems when we forget that we’ve artificially created them.” 97 “Ideally, we would have the mental flexibility to find the appropriate boundary for thinking about each new problem. We are rarely that flexible.” “Think how many arguments have to do with boundaries - national boundaries, trade boundaries, ethnic boundaries, boundaries between public and private responsibility, and boundaries between the rich and the poor, polluters and pollutees, people alive now and people who will come in the future.” 98 “Boundaries are of our own making, and that they can and should be reconsidered for each new discussion, problem, or purpose.” 99 bounded rationality 106 “Such resistance to change arises when goals of subsystems are different from and inconsistent with each other.” 113 harmonizing goals, align the various goals of subsystems through “an overarching goal that allows all actors to break out of their bounded rationality” 115 “one of the most powerful ways to influence the behavior of a system is through its purpose or goal. That’s because the goals is the direction-setter of the system, the definer of discrepancies that require action, the indicator of compliance, failure, or success toward which balancing feedback loops work.” 138 problem with GNP as a goal “An expensive second home for a rich family makes the GNP go up more than an inexpensive basic home for a poor family” 139 “If you define the goal of a society as GNP, that society will do its best to produce GNP. It will not produce welfare, equity, justice, or efficiency unless you define a goal and regularly measure and report the state of welfare, equity, justice, or efficiency. The world would be a different place if instead of competing to have the highest per capita GNP, nations competed to have the highest per capita stocks of wealth with the lowest throughput, or the lowest infant mortality, or the greatest political freedom, or the cleanest environment, or the smallest gap between the rich and the poor.” 140 “Any balancing feedback loop needs a goal…” 153 Technology, good or bad, depends on the goal of the one using it. 161 Growth as a goal, “Actually it’s the goal of every living population—and only a bad one when it isn’t balanced by higher level balancing feedback loops that never let an upstart power-loop-driven entity control the world. The goal of keeping the market competitive has to trump the goal of each individual corporation to eliminate its competitors, just as in ecosystems, the goal of keeping populations in balance and evolving has to trump the goal of each population to reproduce without limit.” 161, 162 Goals can be changed, look at Reagan. Importance of standing “articulating, meaning, repeating, standing up for, insisting upon, new system goals.” 162 Uncertainty 168 “The future can’t be predicted, but it can be envisioned and brought lovingly into being.” 170 what do we want, quantity or quality? “If quantity forms the goals of our feedback loops, if quantity is the center of our attention and language and institutions, if we motivate ourselves, rate ourselves, and reward ourselves on our ability to produce quantity, then quantity will be the result.” 176 don’t erode the goal of goodness 184 I ARBETSSAMHÄLLET – HUR ARBETET ÖVERLEVDE TEKNOLOGIN absurdity of work as a goal 9 is our society really that improved that is worth that a human being “becomes as stupid and ignorant as it is possible for a human creature to become. The torpor of his mind renders him, not only incapable of relishing or bearing a part in any rational conversation, but of conceiving any generous, noble, or tender sentiment, and consequently of forming any just judgement concerning many even of the ordinary duties of private life.” as Adam Smith said? 37 blind obedience hinders us from questioning the goals 40 Russel Bertrand on ethic of duty to work hard for others idleness, Nietzche on work using up energy for reason, reflection, doubts, dreams 41 not right to work but right to well-being, Kropotkin 48, 49 mix up of means and ends in relation to well-being, triumph of one-dimensional thinking rules out “what could be”, Marcuse’s second dimension 50 what is right and wrong was replaced with what works, but that will not work anymore! 53 “Politics finds its oomph in the relative deprivation, not in handling necessity but in the realization of possibility”, see p 50 above 94 “Let’s not speak anymore about capitalism, socialism. Let’s just speak of using the incredible wealth of the earth for human beings. Give people what they need: food medicine, clean air, pure water, trees and grass, pleasant homes to live in, some hours of work, more hours of leisure. Don’t’ ask who deserves it. Every human being deserves it”, Howard Zinn 96 Keynes on solving economic problem and creating existential nervous breakdown of humanity, “what purpose serves the eternal demand?” 108 2 hours of work to be able to eat 109 overwhelming totality 127 the need for a discussion of our needs 138 value of work is relational to our need 143 I ENERGY AND ECONOMIC MYTHS “Will mankind listen to any program that implies a constriction of its addiction to exosomatic comfort. Perhaps, the destiny of man is to have a short, but fiery, exciting and extravagant life rather than a long, uneventful and vegetative existence. Let other species-the amoebas, for example-which have no spiritual ambitions inherit an earth still bathed in plenty of sunshine” 378 I A BLUEPRINT FOR SURVIVAL 4 conditions for a stable society 8 Stuart Mill on goal PROSPERITY WITHOUT GROWTH Our prosperity is dependent on social fortune. It is curtailed in the presence of social calamity. Vision of human progress. Prosperity as a shared vision. 39 “To live well, and yet to consume less. To have more fun – but with less stuff.” 81 Amartya Sen and capabilities to flourish 91 “In the presence of these ecological limits, flourishing itself becomes contingent on the entitlements of those who share the planet with us, and on the freedoms of future generations and other species. Prosperity in this sense has both intra-generational and inter-generational dimensions. As the wisdom traditions suggest, there is an irredeemably moral dimension to the good life. A prosperous society can only be conceived as one in which people everywhere have the capability to flourish in certain basic ways.” 94 “Rather, prosperity has to do with our ability to flourish: physically, psychologically and socially. Beyond sheer subsistence or survival, prosperity hangs on our ability to participate meaningfully in the life of society.” 142 "Prosperity transcends material concerns. Doing well consists in part in our ability to participate in the life of society, in our sense of shared meaning and purpose, in our capacity to create and to care and to dream." 221 “This sense of common endeavour is one of the casualties of consumer society. Little wonder that we’ve lost our connection to others. Little wonder that our sense of the future is hazy and uncommitted. Little wonder that our visions of prosperity have become blind to wider and more durable social goals. We’ve carved up our sense of shared endeavour – sometimes quite literally – so that we can sell off the pieces at market price just to keep our economies growing. In the process, we leave ourselves bereft of common meaning and purpose.” 224 “Impossibilism is the enemy of social change.” 227 Ubuntu, "Prosperity is a shared endeavour. The roots of this idea are broad and deep. And its foundations already exist. Inside each of us." 233 I THE SPIRIT LEVEL: WHY MORE EQUAL SOCITIES ALMOST ALWAYS DO BETTER Yearning for balance 3,4 We are not alone in feeling that we want a better society. 4 the need for of a concept of a better society and a vision 240, 241 Importance of vision. People want more equal societies. Yearning for Balance See THINKING IN SYSTEMS – A PRIMER 241 political will dependent on a vision of a better society, regain a sense of optimism 264 bye bye economic growth, inequality is a relation 265 I ECOLOGICAL ECONOMICS – PRINCIPLES AND APPLICATIONS Economy is the allocation of limited resources among competing ends. Plows or SUVs? Difference between neoclassical and Ecological economics regarding allocation. What ends do we desire? Utility, and traditional economics wrongly equating welfare with what people want to buy and sell on the market. Market naturally misses important nonmarket goods. See THINKING IN SYSTEMS – A PRIMER on goals, DOUGHNUT ECONOMICS: SEVEN WAYS TO THINK LIKE A 21ST-CENTURY ECONOMIST on problem of utility and narrow picture of human beings. 3 Neoclassical economics believe human beings are insatiable why expanding growth is a desirable goal (end), with ever-greater provision of goods and service is thought to expand welfare. Market revealed desire ends. See THINKING IN SYSTEMS – A PRIMER on goals, DOUGHNUT ECONOMICS: SEVEN WAYS TO THINK LIKE A 21ST-CENTURY ECONOMIST: SEVEN WAYS TO THINK LIKE A 21ST-CENTURY ECONOMIST on problem of utility and narrow picture of human beings. Limits of pareto efficient allocation. Problem with efficiency. 4 Is there an ultimate end? Ranking ends, what society should we have? Objective value, better and worse states of the world. 42 presupposition of policy 43 we have alternatives 44 the end-means spectrum 48 Philosophy and religion discuss ultimate end. Idolatry, treating economic growth as end because it is not really ultimate. Ranking ends, setting a priority of ends is a consequence of scarcity, is an ethical problem. Economics starts with a given ranking or that any subjective taste is as good as anyone. Physics study ultimate mean. 49 “Thus, the remaining segment of the spectrum is the middle one of allocating given intermediate means ti teg service if a given hierarchy of intermediate ends. This is the significant and important economic problem, or rather political economic problem, quite distinct from the ethical and technical problems.” 49, 50 steady state, Mills 54 just desert for contribution to society, but how do you know you are contributing if the goal is not clear? 394 I DOUGHNUT ECONOMICS: SEVEN WAYS TO THINK LIKE A 21ST-CENTURY ECONOMIST change the goal 28 Steuart and Smith had a goal but Mills skewed it 33 economics lost its goal but economics is not value free. Idea of utility for example ignores billions without money 34 Kuznets, GNP and how growth grew to be a goal for the world, believed to be the panacea for many economic and social problems 36, 37 growth a way to deal with class struggle and poverty without redistribution, GNP or GDP output growth remain the same, growth fits the metaphor of progress, up. Meadows on growth as goal “growth of what, and why, and for whom, and whom pays the cost , and how long can int last and what’s the cot to the planet, and how much is enough?” 37 art of articulating an new goal, help politicians and economists who lacks the imagination and words to envision a better goal for the world. people, even economists, have thought about different goals, e.g Sismondi, Rushkin, Gandhi, Schumacher, Max-Neef, Sen. The doughnut of Raworth 40 already breaking 4 boundaries, new metaphor – good is balance 49 goal – human prosperity in a flourishing web of life 54 change the goal 135 limiting factor and stationary state of Adam Smith and David Ricardo and the vision of Mills and Keynes 205 growth does it matter? 219 sufficiency 233 if we choose we can (live within limits) and end poverty 235 I THE EMPATHIC CIVILIZATION: THE RACE TO GLOBAL CONSCIOUSNESS IN A WORLD IN CRISIS different views on meaning of life, “The embodied experience philosophers, hoverer, would argue that the meaning of life is to enter into relationships with others in order to deeply experience, as much as one can, the reality of existence. The meaning of life is to celebrate it as fully and expansively as possible” 156 transcending purpose 594 biosphere politics and a new narrative 615 I MYTEN OM MASKINEN: ESSÄER OM MAKT; MODERNITET OCH MILJÖ Bateson, Rappaport, mix-up of information flows and conflicting goal of systems and subsystems. 189 I WHY WE COOPERATE Joint goal creates an “us”, In shared cooperative activities individual rationality is transformed into a social rationality of interdependence. 41 Coordination around a goal, “In ‘shared cooperative activities,’ the collaborators must first of all be mutually responsive to one another’s intentional states. But beyond this minimal requirement, the two key characteristics are: (1) the participants have a joint goal in the sense that we (in mutual knowledge) do X together; and (2) the participants coordinate their roles—their plans and sub-plans of action, including helping the other in her role as needed—which are interdependent. Establishing a joint goal constitutes a kind of coordination problem by itself and therefore requires some specific forms of communication.” 61 Shared goal 65 Joint attention if joint goal, goals determine attention. “This dual-level attentional structure—shared focus of attention at a higher level, differentiated into perspectives at a lower level—is directly parallel to the dual-level intentional structure of the collaborative activity itself (shared goal with individual roles) and ultimately derives from it.” 70 “Human cooperative communication thus evolved first within the bounds of collaborative activities because these activities provided the needed common ground for establishing joint topics, and because they generated the cooperative motives that Grice established as essential if the inferential machinery is to work appropriately.” Example of pointing. Wittgenstein 74 “To sum up, the species-unique structure of human collaborative activities is that of a joint goal with individual roles, coordinated by joint attention and individual perspectives. It was by way of Skyrms’s stag hunt19 that human beings evolved skills and motivations for engaging in these kinds of activities for concrete mutualistic gains. Skills and motivations for cooperative communication coevolved with these collaborative activities because such communication both depended on these activities and contributed to them by facilitating the coordination needed to coconstruct a joint goal and differentiated roles.” See THE EMPATHIC CIVILIZATION: THE RACE TO GLOBAL CONSCIOUSNESS IN A WORLD IN CRISIS: THE RACE TO GLOBAL CONSCIOUSNESS IN A WORLD IN CRISIS and FINDING FRAMES: NEW WAYS TO ENGAGE THE UK PUBLIC IN GLOBAL POVERTY on Lakoff and language 73 Depend on each other for reaching a joint goal “The force of cooperative norms thus comes from our mutually recognized interdependence and our natural reactions to the failures of both ourselves and others.” 90 “Thus, social practices in which “we” act together interdependently in interchangeable roles toward a joint goal generate, over time, mutual expectations leading to generalized, agent-neutral normative judgments.” 91, 92 “Specifically, humans came to engage in collaborative activities with a joint goal and distinct and generalized roles, with participants mutually aware that they were dependent on one another for success. These activities hold the seeds of generalized, agent-neutral normative judgments of rights and responsibilities, as well as various kinds of division of labor and status assignments as seen in social institutions. They also are the birthplace of human altruistic acts, and humans’ uniquely cooperative forms of communication. Humans putting their heads together in shared cooperative activities are thus the originators of human culture.” 98, 99 The goal Change the system!