On the futility of action

It feels like the phlogosphere has been a little quieter than usual

lately. This is an observation, not a complaint. I wonder if the

appearance of finer weather in the Northern hemisphere explains a lot

of that?

Alex Schroeder made a post[1] late last month linking to an article on

climate change and how, in the opinion of one commentator, individual

action is "as good as futile". This is something that weighs

relatively heavily on me, not exclusively in a climate change context

but with regard to all sorts of pressing issues.

I have fairly strong views on a lot of matters, and I tend to do my

best to put my money where my mouth is. I have a moderately strong

green streak, and I try my best to make lifestyle choices which are

mindful of environmental impact. I prefer owning thigns which can

last a long time and be economically repaired, ideally myself, to

keep them from going to waste too early. I am strongly pro-privacy

and pro-user-autonomy, and I try very hard not to use computing

products or services which are counter to those ideals. In all of

these respects, I often make decisions which, occasionally, are a

considerable inconvenience to myself or to my long-suffering wife.

I do these things even though I have to admit that I am, ultimately,

pretty pessimistic about global change for the best on any of these

fronts. I do a pretty good job of not letting it get to me too much,

day to day, but I suppose at heart I am a so-called "doomer". When I

look at the looming crises of climate change, peak oil, deforestation,

over-fishing ocean acidification, etc., many of which have been

looming for a substantial chunk of my entire life with very little

apparent effort to do anything, I am pretty damn dubious that we will

get through it all without an awful lot of pain. Me, personally,

recycling everything I can and buying organic produce and riding my

bicycle is going to do absolutely bugger all to change these things.

Even if by doing these things I inspire one other person every week

to do the same things, this is just not going to be enough. On the

computing front, for the very first time in, well, ever, I am every

so slightly optimistic (perhaps more accurantely, slightly less

pessimistic), that we might see some change, as mainstream media now

seems to be putting some attention on the idea that maybe having the

entire online personal life of the entire planet owned by a single

for-profit corporation might not be a good idea. But I still do not

have high hopes.

In light of this hopelessness, it's a very fair question to ask why

I bother trying so hard to "do the right thing", as an individual.

If it's all going to hell in a hand-basket anyway, why not just

give up and enjoy the ride, indulging in the high-convience life of

unfettered consumerism?

I can imagine cynical commentators thinking that I do it to make

myself feel better than others. Certainly, I don't think I am doing

it to make others feel worse about themselves. I am not, in

meatspace, terrible evangelical about these things at all. I know

that the vast majority of people don't understand or don't care

about much about most of these issues, so I tend not to bring them

up for fear of things getting awkward (of course, I am very vocal

about the computing side of things on Gopher because I'm just

preaching to the choir here). I also know that taking a hard stance

on these things can come with a substantial cost (both financial and

social) which not everybody can bear as well as I, so I try not to

look down on people for not doing that. And I'm certainly aware

that even if I try hard and do better than most, on the grand scale

of possible human lifestyles, I am still very, very far away from

the "least impact possible" end of the scale. I try not to kid

myself on that.

At the end of the day, I think I just have a very hard time not

trying to do the right thing with stuff that matters. Even if I am

convinced that the world is going down in flames, and even if I

know that I will go down with it with blood on my hands, if I have

the choice between going down with drops or with buckets. I don't

believe in any kind of deity or afterlife, so I'm not doing it to

"score points" with them. I think I just need to do it for my own

peace of mind. Perhaps it's a coping mechanism, actually: maybe

it's easier to make futile taps on the brakes as you speed toward

a brick wall, compared to flooring the accelerator, even if you

know the collision is unavoidable.

[1] gopher://alexschroeder.ch:70/02018-04-26_Climate_Change