Editor’s note: This op-ed is by Will Patten, former executive director of Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility.
A lot has been written about the state of post-industrial society recently. Very little of it reflects the optimistic belief in progress that I grew up with. There seems to be a general understanding that industrialization, which transformed us from an agrarian to a wage-based economy, has run its course and the new digital technology is now replacing the jobs that generated those wages.
One of the books on these topics that I have found most illuminating was written almost 40 years ago by Rufus Miles entitled “Awakening from the American Dream.” Miles sees many of the trends that are so worrisome today — the end of cheap energy, the death of the middle class, the degradation of our natural environment – and predicts that we, in our time, will need to make critical decisions that will change the course of history.
The Industrial Age was driven by ever-increasing consumption of energy. Miles observes that the accelerated use of energy created a centrifugal force that shattered the building blocks of our civilization, the family and community. The era of cheap oil created decades of extraordinary affluence that became more compelling than those mutually supportive structures which were, prior to industrialization, the centers of our lives.
The dissolution of family and community has created what Miles calls a “chasm between rights and responsibilities.”
The dissolution of family and community has created what Miles calls a “chasm between rights and responsibilities.” In pre-industrial agrarian societies, says Miles, “rights are few and inconspicuous, while responsibilities are the foundation of family and community life.” In small communities, “… the concept of responsibility … can be and usually is inextricably integrated with daily living.”
For the past two centuries, the list of rights accrued to American citizens has grown very long: from the basic rights asserted in our Constitution to more modern rights such as unemployment insurance, minimum wage, consumer protection, deposit insurance, adequate housing, public and equal education.
However, the responsibilities assigned to Americans today are the same as they were two centuries ago: work to support oneself and one’s dependents; obey the laws; pay taxes and vote. Sadly, our society has been more efficient in defending our rights than enforcing our responsibilities.
We Vermonters pride ourselves on our sense of community. But Rufus Miles points out that communities are a balance between rights and responsibilities. For instance:
• We have the right to private property and capital and the responsibility to manage them to the benefit of the common good.
• Health care is a human right provided at the expense of all and we are therefore obligated to make responsible life style choices.
• We have the right to the public education for our children and we have a responsibility to participate in that education at home and at school.
The end of cheap abundant energy has signaled the end of an era of affluence and entitlement. We will indeed have hard choices to make as Miles predicted. The balance between rights and responsibilities that is captured in our state motto, Freedom and Unity, is coming back to life today in Vermont. As we get back to basics, families and friends are once again becoming the center of our lives.
