An Educational Road Block

I have heard it set by many authors and experts on the subject of environmentalism that the change required to save our world will come from the bottom up, not the top down. It will be the people, not the corporations, that swoop in and force things to finally change. A glorious revolution will be led by the normal people, finally made aware of the world around them and furious about what has been done to it. Once the masses begin demanding change, it is said, the businesses will have to provide it and then, finally, we can truly be on our way toward a sustainable future.

My only question is: are the masses ever actually going to demand such a thing?

I don’t doubt that if change is going to come it will indeed have to come from the general public. Businesses are far too content with the status quo, save for the odd and wonderful exception to the rule, and they will do whatever it takes to keep things just the way they are at whatever cost. One way or another, they will have to be pushed into change by those that pay their bills and inflated salaries.

The main problem that I see with this situation is that quite simply I do not believe the American public is educated enough on these issues to be able to be able to grasp what’s going on to its fullest extent, nor do I believe that this country has the proper infrastructure to educate the general public on such matters.

(Note: I limit my discussion to the U.S. on this issue because that’s the area that I have personal experience with and knowledge of, not because it’s the only place this is necessarily true, at least to some extent).

Let’s face it, the challenges our world faces are hugely complex. I consider myself an informed individual on many things, environmental issues included, but even I didn’t know the full extent of our problems or the changes needed to fix them until I took a number of college classes focused specifically on the subject and read books on the topic.

I may find these subjects fascinating, but I don’t believe this is the case with your average American citizen.

We need to restructure our entire economy, make shifts in our way of life, and vastly refocus our priorities. These are not concepts easily delivered in short sound bites in the news or in generalized, lowest common denominator political speeches.

Even if we started, right this very second, to implement sustainability and the necessary changes as a major focus in the curriculum of our public schools it would not be a perfect solution. The mindset of social mindset of the country could take decades to change before the children would grow up and into influential adults who actually had the power to change anything. Not to mention that the education itself would likely be inconsistent and lacking, due to the generally poor conditions of our educational system.

How are we going to turn our economic system on its head and start a revolution from the ground up if the people on the bottom who are supposed to get the ball rolling don’t even know they need to do anything?

Some of the changes that need to be made fly in the face of the patriotic propaganda that has fueled this country for so long that I believe they will be a really hard sell.

Work for the good of others, not to better ourselves?

Work together with other people and nations instead of maintaining our proud individualism?

Value the environment over good old cash?

Mimic nature instead of worshiping the alter of human ingenuity and technology?

Something tells me that there’s not simply a switch you can flip to get most of this country to adopt those values as easily as some of the educational elite might have, and this could pose a significant problem to our much-needed sustainability revolution.