Sermons at St. John’s Presbyterian Church

The Failure of Free Enterprise to Address Global Warming

 
Transcribed from the sermon preached October 10, 2010

The Reverend Max Lynn, Pastor

Scripture Readings: Psalm 98:4-9, Jeremiah 29:1-7, 2 Timothy 2:3-15, Luke 17:11-19

It is one of the lessons of life that playing a game by the rules is more fun than playing without them.  I learned this lesson in zone dodge ball, which is basically team dodge ball on a basketball court.  One team is on one half and one team on the other.  If you get hit, you go out behind the half-quart of the other team.  When everything is clicking, the people who are in and the people who are out get the people who are in on the other team in a pickle.  It is a fun game if you don’t mind getting smashed in the face with the ball every once in a while.

    Sometimes, some people wdecide they don't want to go out when they have been hit, or they don't want to stay within their lines. Nobody likes to get nailed and go out, so it is understandable. But if everybody begins to play only for themselves, disregarding the rules, then it stops being a game with any real point, and just becomes people throwing balls at one another.

 Dodge ball was where I first learned it that rules can be good, but the rule holds for other sports too.  When kids would disregard the rules in whichever sport, or keep the ball for themselves without sharing, the game wouldn’t last as long, because people get bored or frustrated or angry and quit.  The person or persons who didn’t want to go out, or give up the ball, or didn’t want to admit a foul didn’t get as much in time or opportunity to play and do well because the game ended earlier. In may situations in life when we agree to play by a set of rules we have more fun.

It is also a fact that the team who has people who are willing to work hard at the non glory positions, who have folks who will begin dodge ball on the back line, or the linemen in football, or the second string on any team…the harder they work and the more enthusiastic they are the more likely the team is to win.  It was abundantly clear yesterday that the defensive line of Cal dominated the offensive line of UCLA.  This meant that the quarterback for UCLA was running for his life, and his backs and receivers never had much of a chance to do anything spectacular.  Cal kept getting the ball back, with ample opportunity for a glorious win.

In Jeremiah, the Israelites had been knocked out of their court by the Babylonians, but Jeremiah tells them to stay in the game and play for the good of all, for it will work out better for them in the end.  The author of II timothy is saying the same thing.  Hang in there, play by the rules, stay true to the faith and to Christ, and despite the current circumstances, God is faithful still.

Today’s world is faced with a number of problems that call into question the common notion that technological and economic growth will allow us to play the game of life by our own rules, disregarding teamwork of communities.  Some argue that solutions to population growth and global warming are to be found in technological and economic growth.  “A technical solution may be defined as one that requires a change only in the techniques of the natural sciences, demanding little or nothing in the way of change in human values or ideas of morality.”  Due to population growth and levels of consumption, we need a miraculous change in values and morality. 

Many conservative communities promote high birth rates among their people.  “Increase” they say.  The idea is that the more people they have the better they can protect themselves and wield power in the world.  We see this thinking among some Mormons and some conservative Christians.  Some Orthodox Jews want to populate Israel and Palestine with like-minded clan so they can maintain a majority or just plain drive out the Palestinians.  Recently an article, forgive me as I don’t remember the name or author, argued that many American Jews, especially young liberal Jews, are getting tired of the conventional “Israel right or wrong” stance of the American Jewish community.  As they value and work for justice and equality here in the US and around the world, they are tired of putting on blinders when it comes to Israel.  Criticism of this article came fast and heavy.  One of the critiques said, we don’t have to worry about this guy and his kind of Jew, because they are not repopulating or maintaining what is worthy of Jewishness.

I have seen the same argument against paying attention to the Presbyterian Church.  Don’t worry about them or their opinions, they are shrinking and not having enough babies and their faith is weakening.  They will soon be irrelevant so we might as well treat them that way now.  Similarly, I will sometimes hear on Christian radio, that white Americans (though they don’t say white) should shut the border and have more babies before America is no longer America.

Never mind that the nations with the highest rate of population growth are also the most miserable and therefore likely to immigrate elsewhere.  We have to make our babies and get ours faster that they do.  The greatest fights are already over water and resource scarcity, but their solution is to make more of themselves so they can be stronger in the fight.  They do not see that after surpassing optimum population, the likelihood of peace and stability decreases for the entire population as it continues to grow.

These groups will argue that the solution for resource scarcity is technological advancement spurned by individual selfishness of capitalism.  In the past, with the relatively unlimited resources of a lightly populated, untapped continent, the individual seeking his own self-interest may have been part of an “invisible hand” which promoted public interest.  Self-interest still works in solving many problems; individuals see a need develop and seek to get paid addressing it. Still capitalism has yet to determine the moral value and needs in a world of scarcity, especially for those commodities we can’t or should not make private property: in particular water and air or atmosphere. But with maximum population and finite resources individual disregard for the community and environment around him will lead to destruction of the livelihood for all. Without some common values and goals for where and how we should seek our gain, waste will deplete resources and increase conflict.  It is what Garrett Hardin called the Tragedy of the Commons.

The philosopher Whitehead said, "The essence of dramatic tragedy is not unhappiness. It resides in the solemnity of the remorseless working of things…this inevitableness of destiny can only be illustrated in terms of human life by incidents, which in fact involve unhappiness. For it is only by them that the futility of escape can be made evident in the drama." (Quoted by Hardin)

Empires will rise and fall.  Israel was liberated from Egypt, became a powerful nation and then was destroyed and driven into exile in Babylon.  And it would be 70 years before they would return.  Jesus was crucified by the empire.  Paul was in chains and would die soon after writing to Timothy.  The Christian community in Asia Minor was poor and marginalized.  This was the nature of the world, “the solemnity of the remorseless working of things.”  They could be sad and unhappy, or bitterly and relentlessly work their way up and do unto others as they had been done, confirming the tragedy all the more.  Or they could, by the power of the Holy Spirit and the grace of God, live still as if they were confident that they were chosen to be a blessing to the world and the community in which they found themselves.

Allow me to quote Hardin at length, for he does well in explaining how unrestrained self-interest and growth in a finite world eventually damages all.

“The tragedy of the commons develops in this way. Picture a pasture open to all. It is to be expected that each herdsman will try to keep as many cattle as possible on the commons. Such an arrangement may work reasonably satisfactorily for centuries because tribal wars, poaching, and disease keep the numbers of both man and beast well below the carrying capacity of the land. Finally, however, comes the day of reckoning, that is, the day when the long-desired goal of social stability becomes a reality. At this point, the inherent logic of the commons remorselessly generates tragedy.

As a rational being, each herdsman seeks to maximize his gain. Explicitly or implicitly, more or less consciously, he asks, "What is the utility to me of adding one more animal to my herd?" This utility has one negative and one positive component.

1) The positive component is a function of the increment of one animal. Since the herdsman receives all the proceeds from the sale of the additional animal, the positive utility is nearly +1.

2) The negative component is a function of the additional overgrazing created by one more animal. Since, however, the effects of overgrazing are shared by all the herdsmen, the negative utility for any particular decision-making herdsman is only a fraction of -1.

Adding together the component partial utilities, the rational herdsman concludes that the only sensible course for him to pursue is to add another animal to his herd. And another; and another.... But this is the conclusion reached by each and every rational herdsman sharing a commons. Therein is the tragedy. Each man is locked into a system that compels him to increase his herd without limit--in a world that is limited. Ruin is the destination toward which all men rush, each pursuing his own best interest in a society that believes in the freedom of the commons. Freedom in a commons brings ruin to all.

Some would say that this is a platitude. Would that it were! In a sense, it was learned thousands of years ago, but natural selection favors the forces of psychological denial (8). The individual benefits from his ability to deny the truth even though society as a whole, of which he is a part, suffers.” (Hardin Tragedy of the Commons)

Society has dealt with the tragedy of the commons, less than perfectly through private property.  But this solution has not worked with water and air. 

We see the tragedy of the commons all over the place in today’s world.  Feliciana tell the story that as a little girl, they would pluck large crabs and lobster from the river next to her village.  Now, with population increased, and each person polluting a little and each person catching as many lobster and crab as possible, there is a polluted river with no more lobster or crab.  All suffer.  And nations, assuming the inexhaustible resources of the ocean and maximizing their catch bring species after species closer to extinction and create a ball of plastic the size of Texas in the Pacific.  It also profits individuals and corporations to pollute the air, to add to the carbon levels that increase global warming. 

Hardin again: “The rational man finds that his share of the cost of the wastes he discharges into the commons is less than the cost of purifying his wastes before releasing them. Since this is true for everyone, we are locked into a system of "fouling our own nest," so long as we behave only as independent, rational, free enterprises.

Acknowledging the fear that those who keep watch need watching, Hardin advocates mutual, agreed upon coercion.

“Every new enclosure of the commons involves the infringement of somebody's personal liberty. Infringements made in the distant past are accepted because no contemporary complains of a loss. It is the newly proposed infringements that we vigorously oppose; cries of "rights" and "freedom" fill the air. But what does "freedom" mean? When men mutually agreed to pass laws against robbing, mankind became more free, not less so. Individuals locked into the logic of the commons are free only to bring on universal ruin; once they see the necessity of mutual coercion, they become free to pursue other goals.”   (Hardin)

We know already that in a populated community the freedom to defecate wherever we please, or throw trash out our car window, decreases our freedom to live without disease and our freedom to enjoy the natural beauty of the environment we live in.   So we mutually agree to regulate the community, including ourselves, to maintain the freedom to have a clean environment.

It is clear today that the freedom to increase the size of our family and ethnic or religious community, and our freedom to consume and pollute the environment will actually decrease our freedom from conflict and the ability of all families to survive in peace and prosperity. 

We see in our Gospel lesson, that the one who is praised is the one who, after being cleansed, doesn’t just rush headlong into the future, embracing the status quo now that he has his chance to get some; but the one who stops, and takes enough time to give thanks and praise.  It is the gratitude and praise that makes him a child of God, not his race.

Blessed with incredible wealth and technology, cleansed and free, may we stop long enough to give thanks and praise for the miracles around us, and like a good team member who knows the value of rules, work together with all, toward a world where those blessings will continue to be enjoyed.

 ⁴Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth; break forth into joyous song and sing praises.

⁷Let the sea roar, and all that fills it; the world and those who live in it.

⁸Let the floods clap their hands; let the hills sing together for joy

⁹at the presence of our God, for she is coming to judge the earth. She will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with equity.