The exchange between Brad McCormick and George Schrader on the issue of transport
takes on new perspective when informed by Reg Morrison's recent book, The Spirit
in the Gene. Morrison argues that any effort other than radical change, such as
Brad suggests, when quoting DeBord, will lead to a collapse of society.
Conservation and efficiency such as suggested by Schrader can do little but push
out the time of the collapse. This would parallel very well with Tainter's
historical study of civilizations, The Collapse of Complex Societies.
While Morrison's thesis uses Dawkin's concept of the selfish gene as the
foundation, he overlooks the potential saving grace in Dawkin's Meme, metonyically
represented by DeBord.
In other words, the work being done by such dedicated research organizations as
the Rocky Mountain Institute and Lovin's and Hawkin's forthcoming, Natural
Capitalism, do provide paths which will tread more lightly on the environment, but
fail, in the end, because they do not create the transformational shift in a
positive manner, thus resulting in Morrison's collapse.
Conservation, while critical, if it doesn't lead to a transformation, is a
manifestation of a looping behaviour which gives the sense and not the actuality
of a change.
thoughts?
tom abeles
