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Begin forwarded message: > From: "Tony Black" <[email protected]> > Date: December 2, 2015 at 12:18:19 AM EST > To: "A-List" <[email protected]> > Subject: [a-list] The 'Tragedy of the Commons', the Pope, and Capitalism > Reply-To: [email protected] > > https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/the-tragedy-of-the-commons-the-pope-and-the-system > > The Tragedy of the Commons, the Pope, and the System > MICHAEL A. LEBOWITZ ENVIRONMENT NOVEMBER 30, 2015 > > There's an old argument that common property inevitably leads to exhaustion > of resources. > > In the parable of "the tragedy of the commons," the story is told that, given > the absence of private property, everyone had an incentive to graze his own > animals on the common fields without limit with the result that overgrazing > destroyed the land. No matter that, historically, individual communities have > always found ways to manage their common property; nevertheless, the story > continues to be told. There is, after all, a underlying lesson. The tragedy > of the commons occurs in a particular finite space, when there are separate > and indifferent self-seeking actors, when there is no communal consensus as > to how to manage the commons and where, accordingly, self-seeking actors take > whatever they can from the commons. > > Now, there is a sobering thought if we have paid any attention to the problem > of climate change. For, as Pope Francis's recent Encyclical Laudati Si, "On > Care for our Common Home," stresses, "the climate is a common good, belonging > to all and meant for all" and is 'linked to many of the essential conditions > for human life" (23). Not only, however, are we destroying those conditions, > the Encyclical argues, but, "the earth, our home, is beginning to look more > and more like an immense pile of filth" (21). > > The message of "On Care for our Common Home" is simple: the earth is our > commons, it is limited, and we are not managing our commons in a way that is > consistent with its sustainability and justice. Indeed, the Encyclical is > unequivocal in describing the despoiling of our common home: the pollution, > toxic waste, global warming, rising ocean levels, acidification of oceans, > deforestation, natural resource depletion, drought, and food and water > shortages, et cetera. How is it, the Encyclical asks, that we have "so hurt > and mistreated our common home as we have in the last two hundred years" (53)? > > Profit Worship > > At the core of the problem, it proposes, is Mammon - in particular, the > worship of profit. Thus, Pope Francis attributes the destruction of the > ecosystem to the search for "quick and easy profit" (36), to the "principle > of the maximization of profits, frequently isolated from other > considerations" (195), to the one-sided "pursuit of financial gain" (56) and, > to finance, which "overwhelms the real economy" (109). The Encyclical > accordingly calls upon us to "reject a magical conception of the market, > which would suggest that problems can be solved simply by an increase in the > profits of companies or individuals" (190). > > The key word here is simply. The Encyclical, after all, is not an argument > against capitalism. Rather, its perspective is to modify the one-sidedness of > a focus where "profits alone count." It argues against the worship of the > market (its deification) and pleads for responsible state regulations to > check the destructive effects of the market through "an integrated approach > to combating poverty, restoring dignity to the excluded and at the same time > protecting nature" (197, 139). The Papal Encyclical is a call upon people to > break with the dominant ideology, a call for a cultural revolution, a call to > struggle against privatisation and against neoliberalism. > > And, significantly, it is a plea for global justice. Although "the earth is > essentially a shared inheritance, whose fruits are meant to benefit > everyone," the document stresses that billions of people, the majority of the > planet's population, are excluded from those benefits and furthermore suffer > the most from environmental degradation (93, 49) Accordingly, our world, the > Encyclical insists, has a "grave social debt toward the poor" and thus must > hear "both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor" (30, 49). > > Of course it won't be easy to pay that debt when a minority of the world > believes "that it has the right to consume in a way which can never be > universalized" because of the limits of the earth (50, 109). But do we have a > choice? > > COP21 and Climate Struggles > > To respond to the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor requires much more > than concentration upon global warming and climate change. Struggling against > the processes generating global warming is the minimal condition for > preventing destruction of our common home. Right now, though, it is the > necessary focus as the COP21 governmental meetings in Paris on climate change > approach. To communicate our fears and anger over the present and future > state of our commons, people will be demonstrating around the world - > including in Vancouver on November 29 starting at the Vancouver Art Gallery > at 1 pm. > > Will that make a difference? All indications are that any verbiage and > actions that emerge from those meetings will fall (as they have in the past) > desperately short of the measures needed. > > There is a reason for this. The drive for profits dominates our world (and > the governments convening in Paris); indeed, the tragedy of our commons is > that our finite world is being destroyed by the relentless drive for profit, > by the system we must name - capitalism. And, when we understand the nature > of the system, we recognise that, though we may introduce particular > barriers, particular regulations and restrictions, capital will drive beyond > those barriers. Restrict one self-seeking firm and another takes its place; > regulate certain practices in one locality and capital moves elsewhere to > grow. As long as we deal with symptoms instead of the root of the problem, > our solutions will be the application of bandages for a terminal illness. > > The root of the problem, simply, is that human beings and nature are means > for capital rather than ends in themselves; accordingly, capital tends to > destroy both original sources of wealth in its drive to expand. Apres moi le > deluge is its message. But we can prevent the deluge by sending a different > message - not a message to governments but a message to ourselves by > demonstrating that we are many and that we are strong enough to care for our > common home. > > > > > Michael A. Lebowitz is Professor Emeritus of Economics at Simon Fraser > University. His latest book is The Socialist Imperative (New York: Monthly > Review Press 2015). > This article originally appeared in The Georgia Straight.
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