Saturday 17 January 2009

Sustainability

As we all know, they are existent - these keywords putting the social state of the art in a nutshell; annoyance belongs to them as well as fear, risk and irrelevance. All in all, these terms are a bit unpleasant, which disqualifies them for the have some fun and pay-slogans. Above all, they express no perspective dimensionality, but simply lament the present state.
Quite different is the case with another keyword: sustainability. As far as the author is informed, it has not entered into common vocabulary till the last 12 years. What makes it that interesting is his pardoxical construction, the contradiction between word content and use. Without doubt, it is a fashionable term which objects fashion trends. Sustainability implies austerity, circumspection, foresight, a sense of responsibilty, in short everything which is missing all the time. Especially today.
It is similarly paradoxical it is just the political elite, led by our head of government, the media chancellor, uses this term as if it was a matter of course. Just like the top managers he compliantly practices self-contradiction in action, for on modern public conditions there is no sustainable use of the word sustainability.
Sustainability is endowed with a deontic component of meaning; the term expresses an obligation, and it is very telling it had its breakthrough at one of these effectless world climate conferences. And just because they have no effects, the deontic component constantly gains splendour. The admonishing index is growing and growing.
The original idea of sustainability is an economic one - if we naively presusppose keeping house is coping with a lack. So sustainable economy is in principle a pleonasm like the notorious female woman, little dwarf or corrupt politician. But the fact sustainability counts as relevant instead of redundant is obviously due to waste as an end in itself. Above all it is the environmental resources whose waste has been causing voluptuous scenarios of distribution wars, but there is information, patience, intelligence, too. Everybody knwos we cannot go on like that, foresees the bill subsequent generations will have to pay. Therefore the term is used once more. a real invocation formula which seems to be meant to exorcize the demons of future shortcomings.
The issue of sustainability, its lasting relevance for social discourse, is based on the foolish dealing with scarcity. As the spiral continues turning, everything is running shorter and shorter faster and faster. And here lies the real, typically modern reason, for while former societies knew the problem of short goods, too, nowadays time itself is a short good, too. Less time is due to making faster and faster decisions, for everybody is running the risk of being forestalled by someone - someone who did not produce new blood or who simply has better nerves. In other words: someone unscrupulous - a tough, rational manager. Someone who will be capable of selling charterflights to the Mars as soon as the Earth will have completely been exploited. Impressive, is it not?
Of course we shall have to pose the question whether there is something that can be done in a sustained way at all. It is not accidental in the least this idea has been transferred into eternity, metaphysical. There is an air of modesty behind it the present show-offish technocrats can only despise. Who can tell anyway whether the expectations will become real? And how sustained is sustained? Which means, how long is the expected period of time during which the intended sustainability is meant to last? Temporal complexity, the acceleration involves nowadays we can only conceive sustainability as a breather which interrupts the staccato-like managing mania. This is something we ought not to leave aside, for otherwise we will confuse sustainability with making only one (albeit the right one) decision so that we can live after that till the end of all days contently and unmolestedly. Since this apparently does not work (as has been said above, risk is another keyword), annoyance and disappointment will spread all the more. Better, we will not do anything. Then we can make no mistakes. And that means any. Till then we can continue talking about sustainability. Maybe we can take some consolation from the fact desasters produce the most sustained states we can imagine.

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