The Anthropocene Tragedies
In the Anthropocene age we are faced with three tragedies. Firstly, the tragedy of the commons; secondly, the tragedy of horizons; thirdly, the tragedy of consciousness.
The tragedy of the commons points out the social structure in which individual users of a common good acting without regulation for that common good end up destroying the very resource they are exploiting. This principle applies right up to the planetary level and leads to the breaking of the planetary limits for survival.
The tragedy of horizons points to the domination of short term and expedient interests which are unable to take into account the deeper systemic structures that are distorted and damaged by ignoring them. This results in decisions which take no regard of the long term and of the related present trends that are eroding the viability of society. For example, the hijacking of the premium required to ensure resilience as immediate profit.The tragedy of consciousness has three aspects. Firstly, the way our brilliance at managing the complicated blinds us from seeing how to manage the complex. Secondly, the way our quest for rationality has blinded us to our real presence in the world and our effect on it. Thirdly the way cultural conditioning is preventing us from releasing the creativity needed to mitigate and transcend our predicament of which the climate emergency, pandemics and geopolitical instability are but symptoms.