It Doesn't Matter

I am taking a class, concurrent to this one, on ancient political philosophy, we’ve been reading Thucydides’ history of the Peloponnesian War, which details the war between Athens and Sparta in ancient Greece. At one point, a plague wipes through Athens killing many people very quickly. As people die, the Athenians who are still healthy loose hope and become convinced they are next to die. With hope lost and nothing to loose, the people of Athens become all out hedonists. People eat and drink their life savings away, loot, and fornicate in the streets. Without hope the people lost their heads.

With that in mind, I believe it doesn’t matter if Braungart and McDonough’s optimism is misplaced. What matters is that people feel like they have hope. It matters that people feel this is a problem that can be tackled. Without hope, what’s the point of doing anything? Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth,” rocked the world and caught the attention of millions, but hasn’t lead to any sort of Green Revolution. Without hope, what’s the motivation to do anything? In order for mainstream America to embrace the environmental cause, they need to be inspired.

Cradle to Cradle is good for environmentalism. The question, is the optimism misplaced?, is not important. What’s important is that the book is overall hopeful, makes the argument from a ‘what’s good for people is good for the environment’ and outline steps to transform our society and save the world. In short, it inspires.