Oldal 111 [111]
What can I hope for (from politics)? 1109
approach, because they are capable of changing their inner state in
response to the external challenges they face. In the case of beings
capable of symbolic communication, these internal changes take place
primarily in response to contact with their peers, "... through the
formation of interdependencies among the members of the population",
claims Amos Hawley, who formulated the human ecological paradigm
in the mid-twentieth century." Their autonomy is therefore no
independence from others, but rather a mode of mutual dependence,
the only mode worthy of man. It is a state in which we do not live
separately from others with the freedom of personal choice. Instead, we
consider the effects of our decisions on others, from whom we hope for
recognition and support.
From an ecological perspective, confusing freedom with the
independence of individual decisions is already absurd with regard to
the possible objects of the decision. Goods accessible in limited
quantities, especially natural resources, are available to us or not
depending on others’ behaviour. For instance, the possibilities of future
generations are drastically impacted by the behaviour of those alive
today. The situation is similar for those interested in modes of profit¬
seeking utilisation, when they realise that they can acquire the material
conditions of their choices only at each other’s expense. Those who wish
to build a line of hotels and a yacht harbour on the lakeshore and those
who wish to preserve the reed marshes and their species cannot freely
pursue their goals independently of each other. I decide in vain to live
a healthy life worthy of a human being in my town of birth if I cannot
convince the majority of my fellow citizens of its advantages. However,
the example of dwindling natural resources warns us not only that there
exist indivisible goods that can only be enjoyed together. For the
pressure of public opinion also has a far-reaching impact on my
decisions regarding the goods which, in theory, I should be able to
enjoy without the cooperation of others. But let one try to buy only
healthy, traceably sourced, local food where the majority are not
interested in this and therefore it is not produced. Or to oppose the
religious, sexual, etc. prejudices of the majority in an intolerant social
environment. One will immediately discover that the dominant view
of the good life is itself a common good. It is even possible that our
chief good is itself the Good — the social consensus regarding forms of
97
Amos Hawley: Human Ecology — a theoretical essay, p.7. The University of Chicago
Press, Chicago, 1986.