Noble Tradition and Blind Spots In U.S. Sustainability Philosophy

Abstract

The foundational philosophy that provides the context in which sustainability operates in any given period in history would seem to be key to determining success or failure. In order to have the greatest chance of success, reasonable openness to a wide array of potentially useful ideas would logically appear to be essential. Progress needs context, ignoring neither the truths nor the errors of the past. However, certain blind spots exist that may cause useful ideas of the past to be ignored. This study focuses on the situation of the United States and considers one potential deterrent to long-run effectiveness of sustainability – the routine shunning by Americans of “noble tradition” stemming from the aristocracy and feudalism and its derivatives as anathema to the principles of American democracy. That tradition, though not without its flaws or abuses (no society is free from that), was built arguably on precepts of sustainability – even before the term really existed as it is known today. It is argued that the principles from medieval agrarian society that persisted in one form or another until republican revolutions, the Great War, and finally in the mid-to-late-20th century (depending on the country) are beneficial to consider, and learning from them can benefit modern industry in terms of promoting sustainable practices in systems of production and labour, as well as social responsibility. In order to create a conceptual framework that can be used to consider the potential impact on sustainability programmes of blind spots, a multipoint gravitational model is proposed. The model demonstrates mechanisms by which sustainability efforts may be harmed due to blind spots. Also, the potential for society to impose a cost on firms or individuals that attempt to consider unpopular tradition is considered via payoff analysis of strategic behaviour. That demonstrates the difficulty in breaking through the wall imposed by a blind spot.