Flourishing: A Frank Conversation about Sustainability by John Ehrenfeld & Andrew Hoffman

Author:John Ehrenfeld & Andrew Hoffman [Ehrenfeld, John R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Published: 2013-06-14T16:00:00+00:00

PART II

LIVING WITH A DIFFERENT STORY

CHAPTER 6

Reexamining What It Means to Be Human

Let’s take a moment to recap where we’ve been. I’ve defined sustainability around the notion of flourishing forever; I’ve pointed to the ways in which the “story” of our modern culture has led us away from that direction; I’ve discussed how efforts at “corporate sustainability” are based on perpetuating that cultural model and are therefore misguided; and I have challenged you to consider why “more is not better” and that we need to change the way we consume.

Now, I want to pull all that together to suggest that we need a “new story,” one that helps us to achieve the full possibility of flourishing. The story that individuals and collectives live by is only the plot. The way the plot becomes realized in practice depends on the individual actors—the way they interpret the story in their immediate context. That means that any solutions and how-to’s I offer are not particularly special, and would not be likely to fit into any specific context. This part of our conversation is designed to focus on the new story line, to tweak our thinking, and to enable us to design the solutions that can create sustainability. After reading this chapter, you may see that canned solutions to our persistent, most challenging problems are usually part of the problem, not the solution.

I want to tell this story in two parts. In this chapter, I challenge you to reexamine what it means to be human, asking how we can redefine our notions of consumption and derive authentic satisfaction and meaning. In the next chapter, I want to challenge you to reconsider our place within the whole of nature. So this first part is about the individual, and the second part is about the system of which we are a part.

Let me begin with a fairly simple question that I am often asked: “What is ‘normal’ sustainable consumption?” This question comes from the notion that there is some level of consumption that is both consistent with sustainability and with accepted societal norms. Many approach the question by asking for the consumption level that matches the carrying capacity of the Earth (a monumental measurement task if it can be accomplished at all). But this is the wrong question to ask. We really do not have a clue as to what normal or sustainable consumption “should” be. We know that consumption must be much less than it is today. Sooner or later we are going to have to return to a footprint that matches the one Earth we inhabit.

In utter disregard of that fact, consumption will continue to combine basic subsistence and authentic care for our concerns with the much larger inauthentic overconsumption generated by pressures from the powerful voices of our culture. Those voices can be damped down, but will not disappear. If we continue to advertise the wonders of this or that product (as I am certain we will do for a long time), it will be normal to respond by purchasing ever more.

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