This morning, I read an opinion piece by Observer columnist Sonia Sodha in which she concisely identified the inherent destructiveness of the rampant short-termism that goes hand in hand with late-stage capitalism. Politicians think less in terms of far-reaching political ideologies than four or five year election cycles, where power trumps principle every time. Business people see little beyond quarterly profit and loss; economists measure GDP but not the human cost of increasing it; employers read from a script of performance management as if performance is something that happens independently of people. Our societal hierarchy has 'people' and 'future' slugging it out for bottom place, with the former expendable and the latter, well, the future someone else's problem.
Sodha points out that, for all its undoubted horror and devastation, the 2020 coronavirus is (or perhaps, was) a chance for the world to pause, reflect and take stock. Maybe, without the dubious pleasures and constant pressures of consumption and externally-moderated success, we can press the reset button and do things differently, be something different. The world seems a much unhappier place than the one that last had such an opportunity following the financial crash of 2008. Certainly, for marginalised groups and those who, for whatever reason, struggle to meet the criteria of instant, statistically-demonstrable success, we are in the throes of an unprecedented mental health crisis. Shopping, spending and surfing social media all do a fine job of replicating happiness, and yet we remain miserable, unfulfilled and in endless conflict with one another. It's difficult to argue against Sodha's advocacy of cathedral thinking.
Shifted from the contexts of architecture and business, and viewed instead as a simple means of ensuring species longevity and increasing human happiness, cathedral thinking, far from being a difficult or abstract concept, is actually a bit of a no-brainer. Who doesn't want to make things better for longer? Who doesn't want to be part of building a happy, sustainable future?
If only it were so easy.
Our obsessions with capitalism and consumption are out of control, but by themselves are only part of the story. No longer is it enough just to crave the material benefits of capitalist success. No, those benefits, those material displays of wealth, are an absolute, an entitlement. And it isn't enough just to consume. Consumption must happen on demand, and without argument. Privileges become rights and rights conquer collective responsibility. Thatcher once said there is no such thing as society, but we still shudder at societal breakdown.
So far away from cathedral thinking are we that we refuse to consider either the realities of the world or the feelings of others. Such emotional empathy is weakness and a barrier to obtaining what is wanted in the moment. I wonder, if a modern-day Gaudi were to leave design blueprints for the completion of a building 100 years in the future, would the building ever be finished? Or, would somebody - a politician or a banker, perhaps - come along with a 'better' idea that represented good value for money and responded to contemporary challenges? We know the script and we know the answer.
Regardless of where we find ourselves now, we have to change. Change isn't desirable, it's essential. There will come a time - in the not too distant future - when we have nothing left to consume. Not even the wellbeing of disposable people, which is currently being sucked away. Profit, consumption and economic growth cannot increase indefinitely on a finite planet. Making the right choices for our collective future isn't the business of the hippies, the eco-warriors and the virtue signallers. It isn't someone else's problem anymore.
We all made this mess. And the clean-up belongs to us all.