On the futility of action
-------------------------

It feels like the phlogosphere has been a little quieter than usual
lately.  This is an observation, not a complaint.  I wonder if the
appearance of finer weather in the Northern hemisphere explains a lot
of that?

Alex Schroeder made a post[1] late last month linking to an article on
climate change and how, in the opinion of one commentator, individual
action is "as good as futile".  This is something that weighs
relatively heavily on me, not exclusively in a climate change context
but with regard to all sorts of pressing issues.

I have fairly strong views on a lot of matters, and I tend to do my
best to put my money where my mouth is.  I have a moderately strong
green streak, and I try my best to make lifestyle choices which are
mindful of environmental impact.  I prefer owning thigns which can
last a long time and be economically repaired, ideally myself, to
keep them from going to waste too early.  I am strongly pro-privacy
and pro-user-autonomy, and I try very hard not to use computing
products or services which are counter to those ideals.  In all of
these respects, I often make decisions which, occasionally, are a
considerable inconvenience to myself or to my long-suffering wife.

I do these things even though I have to admit that I am, ultimately,
pretty pessimistic about global change for the best on any of these
fronts.  I do a pretty good job of not letting it get to me too much,
day to day, but I suppose at heart I am a so-called "doomer".  When I
look at the looming crises of climate change, peak oil, deforestation,
over-fishing ocean acidification, etc., many of which have been
looming for a substantial chunk of my entire life with very little
apparent effort to do anything, I am pretty damn dubious that we will
get through it all without an awful lot of pain.  Me, personally,
recycling everything I can and buying organic produce and riding my
bicycle is going to do absolutely bugger all to change these things.
Even if by doing these things I inspire one other person every week
to do the same things, this is just not going to be enough.  On the
computing front, for the very first time in, well, ever, I am every
so slightly optimistic (perhaps more accurantely, slightly less
pessimistic), that we might see some change, as mainstream media now
seems to be putting some attention on the idea that maybe having the
entire online personal life of the entire planet owned by a single
for-profit corporation might not be a good idea.  But I still do not
have high hopes.

In light of this hopelessness, it's a very fair question to ask why
I bother trying so hard to "do the right thing", as an individual.
If it's all going to hell in a hand-basket anyway, why not just
give up and enjoy the ride, indulging in the high-convience life of
unfettered consumerism?

I can imagine cynical commentators thinking that I do it to make
myself feel better than others.  Certainly, I don't think I am doing
it to make others feel worse about themselves.  I am not, in
meatspace, terrible evangelical about these things *at all*.  I know
that the vast majority of people don't understand or don't care
about much about most of these issues, so I tend not to bring them
up for fear of things getting awkward (of course, I am very vocal
about the computing side of things on Gopher because I'm just
preaching to the choir here).  I also know that taking a hard stance
on these things can come with a substantial cost (both financial and
social) which not everybody can bear as well as I, so I try not to
look down on people for not doing that.  And I'm certainly aware
that even if I try hard and do better than most, on the grand scale
of possible human lifestyles, I am still very, very far away from
the "least impact possible" end of the scale.  I try not to kid
myself on that.

At the end of the day, I think I just have a very hard time *not*
trying to do the right thing with stuff that matters.  Even if I am
convinced that the world is going down in flames, and even if I
know that I will go down with it with blood on my hands, if I have
the choice between going down with drops or with buckets.  I don't
believe in any kind of deity or afterlife, so I'm not doing it to
"score points" with them.  I think I just need to do it for my own
peace of mind.  Perhaps it's a coping mechanism, actually: maybe
it's easier to make futile taps on the brakes as you speed toward
a brick wall, compared to flooring the accelerator, even if you
know the collision is unavoidable.

[1] gopher://alexschroeder.ch:70/02018-04-26_Climate_Change