Stephen Marshall, Who am I?

 

Assignment for CDAE 351 

Who I am, right now, is entangled with the volume and complexity of the work we are expected to do. I am wondering whether this was a good idea after all. But I will fight, I will muster any energy I can find, to do the work.

I grew up in a post-WWII development neighborhood in Yonkers New York, that was mysteriously free of black or colored folks (whom I met on the bus to the YMCA summer camp), which was safe and gave the illusion that somehow the world would keep going as it was. When I learned about the collapse of the Roman Empire, and the idea of the collapse of American democracy formed in my mind, I thought it was inevitable, given enough time, but not in my lifetime. Not understanding the injustice and inequality supporting the world that I lived in, or the depravity of the human soul, the promise of American democracy seemed perfect. I would never see its end. There was genocide and racism, but placed in my consciousness as side shows, that I could safely ignore.

But then there was the Vietnam War ("American War" to the Vietnamese), there was poisoning of the planet, overuse of resources, there was the Civil Rights movement, and invisible to me, the crass pursuit of personal wealth at the expense the lives and health of other people. There was the rise of the xenophobic, demagogic, racist politics of the Republican party under Newt Gingrich and his successors, then the continuing genocide and betrayal of the native Americans, and police brutality to support institutionalized racism, then global warming, and then there was Donald J. Trump. Apparently the liberal world order is fragile, apparently there are many people who feel they are getting shafted and that the liberal world order is to blame. Apparently the collapse of American democracy is possible, and it may occur within my lifetime. Apparently the "liberal world order" was a front for privilege and an excuse for doing nothing to help other people lift themselves out of poverty.

I imagine a world in which WE, humanity, turns toward helping each other. In which WE decide to arrange the economy and our relationship to the planet to provide means of survival for every person, and minimize harm to the planet. "I can only be safe if I make the world safe for you." In which every day our leaders are driven by the question, "How can I make the planet and my community safer, more healthy, more verdant and sustainable, today?"

Human beings have an instinct to address danger: the tribalistic impulse. When in danger, gather your people around you and put up defenses. A skilled manipulator, a proponent of the inequality and injustice that caused that danger, can take that fear and use it to destroy the last remnants of your impulse to share the American promise, can use it to destroy the hope of generosity and cooperation promised by the hypocritical liberal world order.

There was always inequality and it never mattered who was in charge, because the laws are always written to protect the wealth of the wealthy and drive the middle class into poverty. Democrats used a hypocritical allegiance to African Americans, poor people, and labor, to systematically hold onto their privilege, they used the promise of "growth" to defer justice, just like the Republicans. Republicans, without nuance or shame, disavowed any policy that would reduce the capacity of business to concentrate wealth for the few, and motivated their electoral base with the illusory notion of "freedom" and the right to get wealthy. By declaring for the right of each individual to act in their own interest, the Republicans have given Americans no opportunity for collective action except that which they, the Republican elites, would find useful. The Republicans have set up Americans for only one form of unity: the unity of war against other Americans.

Everyone is justified to be angry. The elites at universities, in government, in corporate boardrooms, have systematically deprived us all of a sustainable, just world, in service to their personal aggrandizement. Democracy in America was a hoax, just as the promise that "growth" will lift everyone out of poverty is a hoax. As a leftie from the '60's, I have been waiting a long time for the revolution. Revolutions are ugly and can't produce justice or sustainability. But justice wasn't, isn't, going to happen on the path we are on. Somehow, WE have not learned how to manage our affairs to make the world safe for everyone.

In ecological economics, we talk about cooperation and how to achieve it. As if the world is full of individualistic, self-fulfilling "rational actors" who don't know how to cooperate. But that is wrong. Those "individuals" are forming into a massive human action. We better get our heads out of our butts. Our current theory does not explain this.

So you can see what my interests are in a broad sense. I have been trying to understand what is worth fighting for, for my entire life. Science, anthropology, history, have informed my quest. At its root is the question, "How can I explain everything I am observing so that these beliefs and actions make sense relative to each other?" So my explanation does not depend upon someone else being wrong or the demon in my universe? So that we all emerge with a logical and purposeful intent, even if our concepts of the universe are in conflict with each other?

I read Paul Collinveux's Introduction to Ecology in 1988, and became fascinated by the r-K description of population growth. This dynamic, the variable strategies of rate of growth or sustainable maintenance, I thought explained a lot of human behavior. Also in my bundle of interests is the problem of Carrying Capacity. (Although I am an avowed liberal, the knowledge I propose to create could be used to justify genocide. But to me, it demands a just world, which makes conscious choices, allocates resources fairly.) This knowledge would help us to bring humanity into balance with the planet, could not operate without justice. That is what I care about.