Knowledge alone is not enough
May. 5th, 2004 02:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
openspace4lifeThe way I deal with my health is like the environmental crisis in miniature. Two examples:
My mother tells me I don't use enough toothpaste, but despite occasional toothaches, I tend to assume that the fact that I'm using toothpaste at all makes it very unlikely that I'll get a cavity. Similarly, half-measures aimed at protecting the environment are often assumed to be good enough simply because the government or corporation implementing them doesn't feel like doing any more.
I know I should get more exercise, but I put it off, telling myself that I don't have the time, or that biking to Harvey Mudd and back twice a week (at most a seven-minute trip each way) is enough, or that I'll take a fun PE class every other semester and that will be good enough even though it only meets once or twice a week. In other words, I'm trying to claim that what I want to do anyway is good enough. In this respect, I'm like a gung-ho free-marketeer who claims energy- and resource-efficient measures are becoming more profitable, meaning that corporations will want to do the right thing, and that therefore no regulation is needed.
Another aspect of the exercise problem: in an ad for Utne magazine, I saw a description of an article that claims exercise won't make you live longer. I haven't even read the article itself, but it nevertheless serves as an attractive excuse for not trying out the exercise machines at the gym. This is like government officials and oil-company executives putting their trust in a single study showing that human impact on the climate is negligible (despite a global consensus of climate scientists that the opposite is the case), because if they admitted that pollution posed a serious threat, they would have to try entirely new ways of doing things.
If it's that difficult for me to change my own behavior, imagine how much harder it is for society as a whole to overcome the same problems, even when everyone knows the problems are there.
My mother tells me I don't use enough toothpaste, but despite occasional toothaches, I tend to assume that the fact that I'm using toothpaste at all makes it very unlikely that I'll get a cavity. Similarly, half-measures aimed at protecting the environment are often assumed to be good enough simply because the government or corporation implementing them doesn't feel like doing any more.
I know I should get more exercise, but I put it off, telling myself that I don't have the time, or that biking to Harvey Mudd and back twice a week (at most a seven-minute trip each way) is enough, or that I'll take a fun PE class every other semester and that will be good enough even though it only meets once or twice a week. In other words, I'm trying to claim that what I want to do anyway is good enough. In this respect, I'm like a gung-ho free-marketeer who claims energy- and resource-efficient measures are becoming more profitable, meaning that corporations will want to do the right thing, and that therefore no regulation is needed.
Another aspect of the exercise problem: in an ad for Utne magazine, I saw a description of an article that claims exercise won't make you live longer. I haven't even read the article itself, but it nevertheless serves as an attractive excuse for not trying out the exercise machines at the gym. This is like government officials and oil-company executives putting their trust in a single study showing that human impact on the climate is negligible (despite a global consensus of climate scientists that the opposite is the case), because if they admitted that pollution posed a serious threat, they would have to try entirely new ways of doing things.
If it's that difficult for me to change my own behavior, imagine how much harder it is for society as a whole to overcome the same problems, even when everyone knows the problems are there.
