Is Less More? Part.1
Prudent or reckless?
Natural or wrong?
Legal or illegal?
Subject to regulation or a personal right?
Anecdotal and irregular or a growing reality?
Mandated by necessity or a matter of choice?
Sign of the times or example to avoid?
Sharing or distressing?
Real or photoshopped?
Something to scream about, to smile about, to think about?
And Now The Scenarios
There’s a few more ways to go about this picture and tap into its many hidden meanings. I will identify five of them through five scenarios.
Scenario 1: Inequality
This picture represents the inequality of the modern world, whereby some are affluent enough to use a motorcycle as a personal vehicle of transportation whereas others have to pile up on one because it is the only way for them to get around. The perfect example of how unfair the world is.
Scenario 2: Overpopulation
This picture represents overpopulation and how people are growing too fast for their own needs to be met. Resources are not enough and need to be hogged for people to get by, putting a strain on the planet and, in effect, each other.
Scenario 3: The Analogy
A model for how we have been treating this planet’s ecosystem i.e. hogging it, revving it and riding it all at once, with one goal in mind: to get ahead, while neglecting to realize that it can only do so many miles under such strain without breaking down and injuring some of us in the process.
Scenario 4:The Future
A vision of the future. With the mad party over and austerity setting in, resources will have to be shared. Energy will no longer be wasted on one person alone but will be put to its maximum use by serving as many individuals as possible. Food, fuel, housing space, all sorts of utilities and resources will need to be saved and maximized. Individual and personal space will give way to shared and collective space, where everyone will share things with each other in order to make this planet more efficient, this economy more viable, and this society less prone to individual abuse, setting everything back to sustainable mode.
Scenario 5: A Different Future
Another vision of the future. With the mad party over and austerity setting in, resources will have to be rationed and people will have to be reined in. Energy will no longer be wasted on one person alone as individuality is gradually substituted by a sense of collectivism. Personal space and use of equipment will be disallowed in order to curb the wastage caused by free markets, and individuals will be molded into sharing everything, setting off a new age of sharing and sustainability.
The scenarios are not mutually exclusive. Mix them up as you see fit. Having said this, let me close up with a little thought experiment:
Let us assume that there are not enough resources to go around. What follows from that is that we must use them more efficiently. To do so we have to tone down our rhythms and share more things. Yet sharing increases usage and puts a strain on equipment, causing malfunction and breakdown. It also increases personal exposure to one another, which can lead to tension and, thus, confrontation. To avoid tension and confrontation one needs more personal space and more control over one’s affairs. To do so people need more freedom pertaining to movement, thought, and resource utilization. Which brings us right back where we started, describing the course of human development throughout the centuries.
Just something to think about when going about our business, trying to improve on this world.
In the second part of this article, I will propose a way out of this conundrum. In the meantime, remember that sharing is like greed: when done to the extreme it can turn dysfunctional and dangerous. Think about it. Or would you rather be riding that motorcycle?
Image source: http://ashonbikes.com
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