Opening Vignette: Generalist Versus Specialist
As adherence to nonviolence involves , not only humans but all aspects of life, sentient in nature, Gandhi should be considered as a thinker who was not a specialist in any one area of activity. Rather, he was a generalist, being able to obtain results in a variety of domains. The importance of such people in the twenty-first century had been pointed out by Nicole Torres (2016) and well illustrated in the June issue of the Harvard Business Review. According to her, individuals who tend to acquire a wide range of skills and demonstrate talent across a variety of areas are likely to be, not only, more unusual, but also, redeployable. Also, such people can be seen to excel in leadership roles.
Along the same lines, in a recent interview with CNBC, Vikram Mansharamani (2020) of Harvard University contended that “breadth of perspective and the ability to connect the proverbial dots (the domain of generalists) is likely to be as important as depth of expertise and the ability to generate dots (the domain of specialist).” Further, he concluded that the future belongs to the generalists, especially in the context of an uncertain future. And, today, while inthe midst of the COVID 19 pandemic, uncertainties about the future, definitely, loom large.
Even without the pandemic, the rampant destruction of communities and the natural habitat, the altering of the environment and developments in technology, our concerns for the issues regarding growth of communities and their sustainability, and degradation of the ecological balance are greater now than ever before with a big question mark regarding what the future holds for coming generations. Even experts at the National Science Foundation, USA, clearly state that the impact of technology is so strong and rapid that it would be difficult, or almost impossible, to foresee where and to what it will lead. At such uncertain times, wisdom is the need of the hour. And, who could be a better person to look up to than one of the wisest human beings of the previous century, Gandhi—a thinker, a generalist, a visionary regarding human values and survival, and above all, a person who led us with simple examples par excellence.
Yes, Gandhi was certainly a generalist, but, in no way, was he a “jack of all trades.” As this volume clarifies, Gandhi had relevant and cogent ideas for many fields of human endeavor, including, education, technology and its development, leadership in organizations, environmental degradation, the establishment of sustainable communities, the inculcation of moral and religious values and many more, which are beyond the purview of this volume. Moreover, he actually put these ideas into practice. While most of Gandhi’s life (after that night at Pietersmaritzsburg railway station when he was thrown out of the first-class compartment of the train in which he was traveling) were spent in fighting against oppression and for the rights of people, he created, alongside, a values-based system of education, technology which was appropriate for the times and communities that were sustainable. The guiding spirit all along was truth, which for him was God, and which could be followed only through the right means, namely, ahimsa or nonviolence. Whether in South Africa or in India, for Gandhi, nonviolence was not a simple pragmatic strategy to be used for the attainment of specific ends. Nonviolence was not even a principle, for Gandhi. Rather, it was a creed to be exercised in every domain of life and to be extended to all forms of life. This was the guiding force behind all his endeavors—personal, social or political, and was best exemplified by his steadfast belief in Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (nature is my family). Moreover, he was of the firm opinion that Mother Nature provides for all. It is our selfishness and lack of concern for others that create the problems, a concern which he voiced through his now famous words, “there is enough for every man’s need but not for every man’s greed.”
Tragedy of the Commons
Decades later, in 1968, Hardin expounded on the same idea and gave an explanation for it based on what he called “the tragedy of the commons.” According to Hardin, there are a whole host of problems for which there are techno-fixes, leading to problems that can be nomenclatured as “no technical solutions problem.” Explaining it even more explicitly, Hardin takes the example of the grazing commons of the Western world. As the name suggests, these are public grazing grounds for which payment is not needed. Seeing greater grazing opportunities, a few herdsmen add more animals to their herd and so earn greater profits. Their example sets off others, who follow suit. The result is that individual herdsmen keep on adding animals till the land becomes insufficient for the ever-increasing herds, making the whole proposition unfeasible. As Hardin puts it,
Each man is locked into a system that compels him to increase his herd without limit—in a world that is limited. Ruin is the destination toward which all men rush, each pursuing his own best interest in a society that believes in the freedom of the commons. Freedom in a commons brings ruin to all. (Hardin 1968, p. 1244)
The same may be said of many other commons: the oceans and rivers, which are constantly being polluted, leading to the extinction of many species; the atmosphere, which is being polluted by noxious gases and airborne particles, not to speak of sound; even free parking spaces and playgrounds face a similar threat simply because they are part of the commons, being open to all and, yet, not requiring payment.
The tragedy of the commons clarifies the fallacy of Adam Smith’s statement in his book, The Wealth of Nations (1776), that individuals who pursue their own private interests are so to say, “led by an invisible hand to promote… the public interest,” (p. 423). The tragedy of the commons reveals that humans, left to their own choices, may not always work for societal good.
Today, in the year 2020, almost five decades since Hardin professed his ideas, where are we placed? What have we done to Mother Earth through the tragedy of the commons and various other acts that have led to the degradation of nature? While Vaughan (2016) presents a long list, we will enumerate just some of them, enough to show the havoc we have caused.
- Rising levels of airborne carbon particles.
- Increasing concentrations of the noxious carbon dioxide since the Industrial Revolution.
- Nitrogen and phosphorous levels have doubled due to rising use of chemical fertilizers.
- Increased use of nonbiodegradable plastics which will leave indelible fossil records for generations to come.
- A marked increase in the extinction rate of flora and fauna. If we go the way we are going, we would see the extinction of 75% of plant and animal species within the next few centuries itself.
Evidence for Rapid Climate Change
All of the above, and more, have led to rapid climate changes, the effects of which are clearly visible. A recent NASA Global Climate Change Report (2020) presents compelling evidence, a summary of which we will now present. There are, at least, nine aspects which serve as evidence to show that rapid climate change is taking place.
- 1.Rise in global temperature: The average surface temperature of the earth has risen by about 1.62 degrees Fahrenheit since the late nineteenth century due to mainly increased carbon dioxide and other human-made emissions into the atmosphere. It may be amazing, but it is true, that most of the warming has occurred over the past 35 years, with the five warmest years on record taking place in the very recent past, that is, since 2010. The NASA analysis also reveals that the year 2019 was the second warmest year on record since modern record-keeping began in 1880 (NASA 2020).
- 2.Warming oceans: Much of this increased surface heat has been absorbed by the oceans, as a result of which we are witnessing a rise of about 0.4 degrees Fahrenheit in the top 700 meters of the ocean, since 1969.
- 3.Shrinking ice sheets: Would you believe that the once ice-bound Greenland and the Antarctic are witnessing a massive decrease in mass of ice sheets, so much so that Greenland has lost an average of 286 billion tons of ice per year between 1993 and 2016 while the Antarctic has lost about 127 billion tons during the same period. Further, the rate of ice mass loss in the Antarctic has tripled in the last decade.
- 4.Retreating glaciers: Around the world, whether it is in the Himalayas, the Alps, Andes, Rockies, Alaska or Africa, glaciers are retreating at an increasingly fast rate.
- 5.Decreased snow cover: As far as the Northern Hemisphere is concerned, the amount of spring snow cover has decreased over the past five decades, and each consecutive year sees the snow to be melting earlier.
- 6.Rise in sea level: Over the last century, the global sea level has risen by about eight inches. Further, as in the case of snow cover, one can understand its enormity, when we consider the finding that the rate of sea-level rise over the last two decades has been nearly double that over the last century and is constantly accelerating.
- 7.Declining Arctic Sea level: Both the extent and the thickness of the Arctic Sea have declined over the past several decades.
- 8.Extreme events: The total number of high-temperature events has been increasing in the USA as also around the world. At the same time, the number of record low-temperature events is decreasing along with a rise in the number of intense rainfall events.
- 9.Ocean acidification: So gre...