Social Sustainability – can’t we all just get along?

The focus of sustainability almost always seems to be environmental sustainability. This is perhaps the most important dimension because if we destroy our environment we could all be dead. But there is more to it than that.

The way our culture seems to be going, we need to focus a little bit of our attention on social sustainability. Think about it.

Politics: Didn’t our politicians used to get together when there were really big problems to solve and work together? I know there have always been conflicts, controversies, and other sources of purely partisan gridlock. There are even some great stories about conflicts among our Founding Fathers. But when push came to shove, they got together. Now it seems like many of our political leaders, while sometimes liking individuals on the other side on a personal level, hate the other side politically and are unwilling to talk, let alone compromise. How could Senator DeMint publicly hope that health care is Obama's "Waterloo"? He should be hoping that Congress and the President can craft some health care reform that works. And he should be helping out in the process.

Media: The recent passing of Walter Cronkite really highlights how the news media has changed. Our leading journalists and news anchors had credibility with politicians and citizens on both sides of the aisle. Now, it seems like all we have are extremist demagogues like Bill O’Reilly and Keith Olbermann who have lost any sense of civility. I think I have blogged on the research that shows that this kind of coverage really hurts the general public’s ability to respect their leaders.

The town hall meetings over the health care debate are good illustrations of what we have to look forward to unless some major changes are made. This is really scary. Sarah Palin’s comment that a “death panel” would have decided if her Down syndrome son Trig merited treatment is just irresponsible. And shouting down the Senators and Representatives trying to host these town halls is not just rude but counterproductive to positive debate. But I suspect that is not the shouters’ true purpose anyway.

I call this social sustainability because I see us on just as much of a downward slope in our civil discourse are we are with global climate change. At the pace we are going now, the environment could be so far gone in 10-20 years that we won’t be able to stop it without significant pain and suffering. I am afraid that the same thing is happening in society. Something has got to give.