Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentleman, dear colleagues and friends!
In Prague I prepared thoughtfully and carefully a paper explaining what I promised in my abstract. In Washington I have discovered, that reading of all 16 pages would take time about one and half hour. Therefore I offer you really merely thesis and I hope that you will accept this solution. If anybody would be interested, I have broader texts for his disposition.
My presentation consists from five parts.
I. Global world and globalization;
II. Sustainable development;
III. Contemporary Czech society in dependence to the first and second point;
IV. Only a few crucial general proposals of solution;
V. The main psychological barrier in accepting of sustainable development.
I. I believe that global world is possible to describe in only 7 attributes. You are extremely educated audience and therefore I will not describe these signs in details, but I will stress especially points important for political relationships.
1. The world definitely became a "global village", with dense material, energetic, information and "personal" flows. Well-known effects of butterfly wings or avalanche effect can now work on the planet scale.
2. Development of human society and all its major parameters (number of inhabitants, growth of industrial production, loss of agricultural soil, change of urban structure, using resources, pollution and production of waste etc. etc.) accelerates exponentially. These trends, not details, exist, continue and are generally known; I just argue, that human feeling of the reality and life is bio-psychologically done and culturally and historically adapted for cycling, constant or linear movement, not for exponential one.
3. Let me, please, to contribute to common knowledge with my definition of global problem. Of course it appears not only in environmental, but also in the social, security, economic, political and many other fields. But it is necessary to understand the global problem as a whole threat for human species, society, the planet and its nature, which is a consequence of cumulative or synergistic co-working local or regional impacts. No global instruments exist to solve the global problem, but again only local or regional instruments are able to do it and must be implemented particularly. Result: it is definitely necessary to undertake the individual responsibility for global state of the world. It is, besides, task for politicians how to manage it in society, in local, regional and global scale.
4. Catastrophe. Catastrophe is different from common daily risks. There is reciprocated ratio of probability and consequences between catastrophe and common risk. Common damages happen for sure, their consequences are relatively small and quantifiable, while catastrophes are not highly probable but their consequences are terrifying. That of course, with the restriction of available resources, creates a very difficult decisive situation with high level of risks for all decision makers from politicians to entrepreneurs.
5. All the twentieth century solved competition between centralistic and market economy about higher effectiveness, and market economy won. But: in this process market economy was reclaimed, step by step, but quite significantly, in social solidarity sense and later also in environmental issues. But: it happened in the rate of national state economies. At the end of second millennium the same problem arose again at the planet level. Multinational companies are de facto stronger than individual states and even than multinational institutions.
6. Humankind, I mean mostly Euro-American civilization, occupies the whole planet now, and so it reached borders of the system. Some authorities write about "full world", but I am afraid, that I mean something a little other. There are no more white spots on the map, there is no more space to expand to, but an expansion in time is not possible also. There are no new natural resources, no space for dumps, no other new markets; but also no time for inertia, with it green gases climb and threaten in future. The man lived through all history in opened systems; contemporary world is only one closed system. All these characteristics have no precedent; that is why considerable part of our historical experience is not quite simply extrapolatable and applicable.
7. The seventh attribute is an exception from this rule. It was here in all human history and we can call it simply selfishness or egoism. I mean characteristic description from Garrett Hardin in Tragedy of common (1968) or, being in United States, dialogue between Yossarian and his commissioned officer in Joseph Heller's, an American author, Catch XX. Yossarian, an American fighter pilot in the second world war, tells his major by name Major Major: "I wanna go home; wanna eat my apple cake by my mummy in Iowa, my Coca Cola, my girl. America might win this war or not, but not because of me!" - "And what about everybody would think like you?" asks Major Major. "In that case, I would be crazy to think some other way", Yossarian answers.
Well, what is globalization?
All arguments I argued above evidence, that globalization does exist. The protests against it or even rejecting of globalization are based on crucial mistake and misunderstanding. It is hidden in basic question: is globalization a project or process? Of course proper answer is "process". Globalization is not new project of world capitalism, according, for instance, Afro-American intellectual Abdullah Sharif, but objective process, in which we are objects - but subjects in the some time. We will talk about them later.
II. Sustainable development. I am completely sure that each member of this audience is quite able to have his own lecture about term "sustainable development". Therefore I will put on nothing more than one definition which proved to me as very productive instrument for explanation of connections in details.
Sustainable development is very complex strategy, which provides social needs of the people, material and spiritual, too, through the medium of economic tools and technologies, fully respecting environmental limits. In global world is necessary to redefine institutes and processes on the local, regional and global level, too.
Notice, please, that these words are not selected casually. Sustainable development includes obviously social, economic, environmental and political level; on the social one we have some needs, we dispose of huge file of economic instruments or tools to solve these needs, we can do it merely strictly respecting environmental limits, and on political level we really do need new or redefined processes and institutions.
III. Some known or less known reasons of the state contemporary Czech society.
1. "Economy first". I mean not only preference of economy before law, value an attitudes framework, but also conviction about economy as a superscience completely able to solve all problems of humankind including environmental issues and problems connecting to the nature and landscape. According this theory society is based only on competition of individual interests (Nobel award winner James Megill Buchanan says: "There is only one real interest: individual interest.") and therefore British writer J. Kingdom call it even "masturbating society".
2. Situation in policy: restriction of political transformation for only "standard" political parties on one side and no less "standard" voters on the other side. The open liberal civic society is missing. Gradually latent degradation of political culture occurred even before this culture had time to evolve.
3. Politics, long time ago and not only in the Czech republic, stopped to be reflection, governance and administration of public things; it is becoming much more technology and consume of power. By other words, politicians make politics, not policy.
4. Traditional political and ideological systems simply don't generate factual solutions to the point in totally changed global social situation. Differences between right and left are missing, the political wings are crossing; differences among liberal, conservative and social-democratic ideologies are much less important than sooner. New policies must be redefined horizontally and vertically based on new matter of fact. It is necessary to use some traditional values and attitudes from conservative ideology, principles of solidarity and mutuality from liberal point of view and to use liberal ability to create processes for providing rights of minorities and public interest on the other hand.
5. Transformation process not only in the Czech republic would have in fact not only two, but three pillars: the third one is orientation towards sustainability.
6. Sustainable development is, by definition, obviously the long distance running. On the contrary, whatever practical politics is strongly limited by the length of election period. It is a question of political courage but also of the ability to explain understandingly and convincingly the vast complex societal concept of sustainable development.
7. Sustainable life style is being often suspected of ascetic self-sacrificing gloominess. One possibility how to get rid of this superstition is combination of selective demandness and conscious modesty. It is obviously extremely difficult to explain it and to realize in consumption society.
8. Competition, not participation. On the other hand democratic development exists and continues 10 years. I have two messages about it - good and bad, as usually. The good is, in my opinion, that all stakeholders of social life know after 10 years very well the rules of democracy. Politicians, citizens, non governmental organizations, entrepreneurs and even extreme groups, they all have learned democratic processes, rights, freedoms and duties, their offices and deputies and the laws, of course, simply their democratic tools. The bad message is, that everybody use all these instruments as weapons, weapons for fight in the battle everybody against everybody. The significant majority of Czech interesting groups is fighting, only minority is able to co-operate and participate. I could demonstrate it by many examples, but it is not possible because lack of time. Nevertheless, in environmental field there is for instance case of restitution of municipal forest in the national parks or diversion (by pass) of Pilsen. Town councillors of Pilsen decided to solve a conflict with NGO's not in time and place of this cause, but through the novel of nature and landscape conservation act. Their idea was nothing less than to reduce strongly public participation of community in decision processes.
IV. Only a few crucial general proposals of solution.
1. Restoration of politics as a common, public service on the principles of subsidiarity and decentralization;
2. More factuality, matter-of-fact and less competitivity (more policy, less politics). By the way, it was Henry Kissinger, who said, that contemporary politician needs quite other kidneys to be elected then kidneys necessary to administer public issues are…
3. Definition long-term sectoral and regional strategies;
4. Positive definition of political parties instead negative delimitation against others;
5. Open liberal civic society building with the highest diversity of their participants and with highest participation of all stakeholders;
6. Downloading of sustainability as a basic and crucial criteria in legislature;
7. Education and public awareness to sustainability, of course;
8. Support of the media, of course.
Recapitulation: the task is to implement gradually sustainable development strategy to all spheres of society; I am realistic and therefore I should want to discuss the problems connected with it at the end.
V. Psychological barrier of implementation of sustainable development.
In my opinion there is still one important reason in the Czech society, why sustainable development is not generally accepted and successfully implemented. It is really very simple - it is a fear. Everyone is afraid of sustainable development:
scientists: that it degrades dignity and depth of scientific knowledge
conservationists: that limits are too soft
economists: that limits are too hard
entrepreneurs: that they loose big markets - big profits; that they will not be able to adopt
ideological economists: (in Czech I do the difference between terms "ekonom" and "ekonomista", but I am not able to express it in English): that they will have to stop presenting economy as something above, superior science and as something what is supposed to solve all problems of humankind
ideologists: that they will loose comfortable living which stems from few general truths (all sorts of one-way simplifications)
politicians: that they will not be able to explain this to voters (and opponents to politicians - to specialists in any field)
voters: that a global totalitarian regime will be set up
administrative workers: that there will be more paperwork for citizens and lengthy communication with them
journalists: public-oriented: that it will be longer than 80 lines only
commercial: that it is not bloody and violent enough
readers, listeners, audience: that confusion will be, or gray mainstream
teachers: that a sharp-witted, smart student will nail them…
optimists: that their historical optimism will be eradicated
pessimists: that their historical pessimism will be eradicated
malthusians: that a catastrophe happens
catastrophists: that a catastrophe will not happen…
exception - who is not afraid:
technologists: because sustainable development is a big challenge;
and - me: because sustainable development theory is how I make my living…
Thank you very much for your patience and attention.
Washington August 12, 2000
Ivan Rynda