Free Will, Responsibility, and Other Lofty Ideals

This morning we spent a great deal of time skirting around this question of societal obligation and free will, of whether or not we, as human beings and sentient lifeforms, are impelled to very actively participate in a solution to this grand issue of wastefulness and environmental irresponsibility. I was reminded immediately of a book I read not too long ago on, in its essence, the morality of war photography, Regarding the Pain of Others. This last work of the author, philosopher, activist Susan Sontag explored various aspects of conflict, and I believe many of those principles regarding responsibility are applicable here. I would like to include a quick quote from Sontag’s book and then explore this idea further.

“So far as we feel sympathy, we feel we are not accomplices to what caused the suffering. Our sympathy proclaims our innocence as well as our impotence. To that extent, it can be (for all our good intentions) an impertinent- if not inappropriate- response. To set aside the sympathy we extend to others beset by war and murderous politics for a reflection on how our privileges are located on the same map as their suffering, and may- in ways we might prefer not to imagine- be linked to their suffering, as the wealth as some may imply the destitution of others, is a task for which the painful, stirring images supply only an initial spark.”  

While this book dealt primarily with war, I find that it rings resoundingly clear alongside the issues we have been discussing and researching. This idea that people often disregard a cause  when they are sympathetic, that their moral standards are fulfilled by being conscience of the issue and that, in turn, their conscience is cleared as ignorance is slain. But knowledge of the issue is not enough, nor is the minute act of recycling on a small scale. Sontag discusses the issue of wealth and the grand divide that separates cultures living on the same planet, hell, the same country, and asks the question, how can this be? How can the people of Earth stand by and hoard resources as the remainder of the world fights for survival amid ever rising opposition due to the destruction of the planet? This is a critical question and one which leads us once again to the question of whether or not each of us is doing our part and, taking the thought even further, when is enough enough? Is it enough to sit idly in your home, stoically sorting your own papers and plastics as your neighbor hauls to the curb a trash bin overflowing with clean office paper, compostable peels, and cardboard boxes? This is the cognitive dissonance we must face in the coming years as we set forth on our path to zero waste and sustainability. We must all personally reflect and evaluate what is the appropriate amount of action to take to preserve our planet and, on an even more philosophical level, whether we have a choice. Whether we are obligated, by our mere existence on this Earth, to contribute to the cause, or we have the free will and the power to choose the path on which we shall forge ahead.