Illness is the doctor to whom we pay most heed: to kindness, to knowledge we make promises only:
pain we obey. – Marcel Proust
From Part I of this exploration of pain we learned this: we need pain to survive.
Now in Part II we will explain the corollary to this truth: without sharing in the pain that nature and the poor are experiencing we will not survive. Not only will our destructive economic system not survive, but billions of us will also [probably] die of disease and starvation or simply give up. Nobody, including me, should be foolish enough to predict when and how this will happen or if we self-destruct with a bang or a whimper, but the lesson of pain is simple: no pain, no change, no survival.
You see life, especially successful life like us, sows the seeds of its own destruction. This is not bad or evil, it is just inevitable. In our case the logic of an idea called “The Progress Trap” helps us understand our current predicament.
A progress trap is the condition human societies experience when, in pursuing progress through human ingenuity, they inadvertently introduce problems that they do not have the resources or the political will to solve for fear of short-term losses in status, stability or quality of life. This prevents further progress and sometimes leads to societal collapse.
Sound like us today? Sure does to me.
And a Canadian, Ronald Wright, wrote a book entitle “A Short History of Progress” along with a 2004 Massey Lecture on this theme. While it focused on how ancient civilizations succumbed to the Progress Trap the film version of 2011, Surviving Progress, applied the same ideas to our modern world. Here’s the link to the movie trailer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDdhA_qCfYw
The underlying message of the film is that current models and strategies of economic growth have no practical connections with the real world. That is to say, the lack of an ethical underpinning in modern global economic practices is directly responsible for the overconsumption and exploitation of natural resources to the extent that the increasingly more probable future population collapse would take modern society right along with it.
I don’t want to get into the weeds by finding evidence to convince you but just for fun check out this short video on why our birth rate is collapsing [a form of a whimper – we just give up].
A wave of childlessness is sweeping the whole world https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6Wi1hnV6hU
So what does this have to do with pain? I think that our civilization’s success in extracting wealth from places far away which are then destroyed to support our monstrously high standard of living has been a very large part of the reason for our impending collapse. We have pursued policies that have sacrificed the future and other places and other peoples [including our own grandchildren which are not being born] for the sake of exponential growth and short term profit and pleasure. All those “sacrifice zones” exist because we do not share in the pain they feel. So, you want to save world? Share in the pain of the species going extinct. Share in the pain of those being flooded in Bangladesh. Share in the pain of mountains of West Virginia that no longer exist because they were destroyed in extracting the coal within them. Share in the pain of those who can no longer drink their well water because of fracking.
Here is another, slightly more sophisticated way, of seeing how sharing pain can save us from ourselves. Poker has an expression I love: “Skin in the game.” The idea is simple: you don’t get to play poker unless you put money on the table. You can’t play to win unless you also risk losing. You can only experience winning if you also risk losing [and great pain]. In fact there is a book with that title [2018, by N. Taleb] about this idea that is applied to all aspects of our society. Here’s its punchline:
Taleb argues that fairness requires symmetry: those who make decisions should share in the risks and consequences. He criticizes systems where decision-makers enjoy upside gains while transferring downside risks to others, such as in finance or political interventions. He emphasizes that ethical behavior is more reliably enforced through personal exposure to risk than through regulations. Taleb suggests that people behave more responsibly when they have something to lose.
In others words we cannot learn, change. adapt, survive and the thrive without pain.
So what can we do? All we can do now is wait [or better yet, accelerate this process] until those who have the money and power to share in the pain of those suffering now, both human and non-human, that they are inflicting on others. Second, an on a more personal level, help younger people you know prepare to be more self-sufficient. Help them to not support the billionaires and trillionaires extract more wealth from them with their too convenient products and services. When the super rich [that includes you and I] suffer with the poor and nature, things will change, and after some nasty bumps, for the better. A final note; the sooner the better. Just like any illness we have a greater chance of survival and a shorter time to heal if we diagnose the illness early and start treatment early. In fact, many [including me] would say its already late in the game – let’s just hope its not too late to start treatment to heal the Earth and our diseased societies. And it all comes down to sharing in the pain…
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