Theoretical Analysis
Prompt
According to one or more of the authors we have read so far this semester, how does the concept of the future affect society, ecology, or technology?
- 1. For full credit your response to the prompt above must be at least 500 words long.
- 2. Please also cite and analyze at least one passage from the theoretical text you chose and then synthesize your analysis into the larger argument you make in response to the prompt.
- 3. All Blog Posts must be in MLA format when applicable and also include a featured image. The image you choose can illustrate claims made in the post, or you may want to pull a still image from the contemporary movie, TV show, or video game you plan to analyze for the Vide Essay.
In Sustainable Nostalgia, Davies talks about how the word sustainability is thrown around in daily language carelessly which, in turn, is causing it to lose some of its original effect on the public in the environmentalism sense. However, the continual use of the word has also altered people’s perspectives of the idea as a whole – is sustainability more than just a way to save our physical environment? Throughout the article, Davies argues that the idea of sustainability fed into society’s fears of change and a future different from what is known now.
Davies begins the article by explaining the origin of the sustainability movement relating to ecological crises. He then quickly dives into the words implications saying, “What ‘sustainability’ implies most readily is not separation but continuity, the keeping of things as they are and the diminution of the otherness of the future. A sustainable way of life is one that is self-reinforcing, one that is able to reproduce its essential features indefinitely” (Davies 263). According to Davies, this is why most of society is fighting for sustainability. People may not know it, but they are naturally afraid of change. Therefore, this buzzword that floats around in everyone’s daily lives hinting at the possibility of a forever present draws society in. When people look to a past moment in time, they remember all the best parts and good times and an aura of happiness. What they do not remember, is the negatives or the little things that went wrong that could now be fixed or changed for the better. This altered perception of the past is what causes societies disease of nostalgia – a longing for the past. In their minds everything that has changed is why the present is not as promising and marvelous as the past; and now they do not want a new different future, but they want things the way they used to be. That is when sustainability comes into play. The idea is that if they had sustained everything in that “perfect” past that they remember, then they would still be living in their best life. Society is taking the word sustainability to the next level, holding on tight to anything and everything, hoping that if they do, the future will be no different from this very moment in time. While there are positives to the idea that society’s fear of future change is helping to fuel the sustainability movement, sustainability is more than just sustaining. As Davies points out, if we look back to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries a simple cold or even child birth could easily kill someone, but because of technological progression people are living longer, happier, and healthier lives. This is not to say ignore all aspects of sustainability, for their are elements of the environment that need to be upkept for environmental health and aesthetic purposes, but it is to say that society needs to think harder on what can be improved upon (from past and current years) and be open to moving forward in solving those.
If life seems to be going great now, the idea of a changing future can be daunting, but as Davies said, “the sustainable life too might become a hermetic withdrawal or even a form of nihilism, transforming life into a deathly stasis” (Davies 267). The overall message is that nothing is beneficial if taken to the extreme – too much of anything is still too much of something. Sustainability is promising to the environment, but society cannot let it keep them from also looking for ways of improvement that do in fact cause change.