Environmentalism, Coercion, and Authoritarianism
Interviewers often ask “If you were a benevolent dictator, what would you do to solve our environmental problems?” They all frame sustainability as something you have to convince people to do or use coercive, authoritarian tools like passing laws that don’t yet have popular support.
I identified a big fork in the path of people promoting sustainability. It comes if you’ve found, as I have, that the more you live sustainably, the more you improve your life, family, community, nation, etc, versus if you believe acting more sustainably means burden and worsening your life, family, community, nation, etc.
If you think living more sustainably makes people’s lives worse, you have to become a better dictator.
If you think living more sustainably improves people’s lives, you learn to become a better marketer, entrepreneur, or leader.
Since almost no one, including the most ardent environmentalists, have tried living sustainably, they have no practical, hands-on experience. They believe unquestioned cultural myths like that it means returning to the Stone Age and other nonsense.
So they feel they have to coerce people. That path leads to authoritarianism and dictatorship.
There’s no substitute for practical, hands-on experience based on intrinsic motivation. All those environmentalists spouting myths and theory may know some science, but apparently not leadership.
From my perspective, ordering someone to do something joyful is counterproductive. It replaces intrinsic motivation with extrinsic. It implies you don’t want to do it so motivates them to avoid doing it. It reinforces the beliefs driving the behavior you want to change.
If you feel your goal requires dictatorship, I think we’re all better off if you stop. You’re not helping. I recommend you instead actually practice what you advocate and find the joy you’re sadly depriving people of.
I recommend taking my workshops to start by finding that joy and don’t inadvertently sabotage your own efforts.
It bears repeating:
If you think living more sustainably makes people’s lives worse, you have to become a better dictator.
If you think living more sustainably improves people’s lives, you learn to become a better marketer, entrepreneur, or leader.
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