Elizabeth Kolbert at Williamstown College of Art 4/24

Kolbert read parts of her book, The Sixth Extinction, and opened up the floor for a very brief question session.   Someone asked, if she could recommend three steps to President Obama, what would they be?   Kolbert said, carbon tax, get rid of oil subsidies, and when pressed for a third, do not build the pipeline.   There was also of course a resilient member of the climate denial team present.  His comments are not worth repeating here as we have heard the ‘arguments’ many times already.  

Kolbert’s response was swift, and no doubt well-rehearsed, she said, “well, you and I are not going to solve that today”, fine, next question.   What was striking was the absence of students.   Though it was standing room only, my best estimate is that students accounted for roughly 2-5 percent of the audience.   At one point when Kolbert said that it was up to you the students.  The “you” which should have been a resounding call to arms resembled more of a whisper.

The most intriguing statement by Kolbert, for me, was “We don’t have any initiative.”  Then she began to suggest ways that the government might extend subsidies and add more tax breaks for solar panels and other green initiatives.   Her suggestion was that we did not have enough outside stimulation for internal motivation.  In other words, human action needs reward in the form of external benefits for any real positive gains. This is a key point as this represents extrinsic motivation and not intrinsic motivation.  

What I argue (like Naess and others) is that we do have intrinsic motivation in the form of our character; the person we want to be.   Success in this sense is not represented by material wealth but by spiritual wealth and genuine concern for the well-being of others and ourselves.  (By spiritual I am not referring to any of the new wave spiritualists that seek (selfishly in my view) the “I” or “One” at any costs.)  By spiritual wealth I mean the physical nature of human character. 

The question that comes to mind in this scenario is a practical one given the world as it is.

Is caring antithetical to capitalism?