November 10, 2008

One of the ideas that stuck with me from last night's conversation with Dr. James Gallagher was that of the short-term orientation of democratic systems and their inability to create infrastructures to solve long-term problems. This idea resonated with me because I had just watched a video from Jared Diamond in which he talks about what causes civilizations to decline. In his video, Diamond lists five characteristics of declining civilizations using the example of the Greenland Norse for illustration. The factors leading to decline include:

1. human impact on the environment: people destroying the resources on which they depend.
2. climate change.
   
3. relations with friendly neighbor societies which prop up the society.
4. relations with hostile societies.
5. values that prevent them from solving their environmental problems.

Diamond then goes on to say that an important factor in causing decline is the self-interest of the ruling elite. He states that a society can go into decline when there is a conflict of interest between the short-term interests of decision makers and the long-term interests of the society as a whole, especially if the elite can insulate themselves from the consequences of their actions. This is how he explains Enron and other cases of corporate greed and self-interest (and how we could explain the current financial crisis).

Another important factor for causing decline, according to Diamond, are the values of a society. Some values may be good in most circumstances, but they may be bad in others. In the case of the Norse, their strong religious and cultural ties held them together for four centuries, but made it difficult for them to learn from the Innuit in order to survive in Greenland. I wonder if the same might not be true of our society, to get back to Dr. Gallagher's point about democracy. While our democratic practices and ideals are an important element of what keeps our society together, it may in the long run be detrimental for our survival if it prevents us from creating long term infrastructure because things change every time there is an election.