Who Rules the Earth is a book that tries to, as succinctly as possible, condense many ideals and methods that we can utilize in order to try and find the best way to move forward towards a sustainable future. I believe that the main argument underlying the text is that we must take action by creating and changing rules. We can achieve this by internalizing the externalities, changing mindsets and institutions to allow for growth, and unifying communities to streamline the rule-making process.
The market largely depends on regulation, as the market works most efficiently when each company in their market makes similar products and the ones that have figured out the lowest cost of producing can provide the cheapest cost to consumers, therefore resulting in more profit for the producer. This starts to break down when companies take shortcuts to minimize their cost, such as dumping toxic waste into a river; they are passing along that cost to someone else to deal with. That is why Steinberg suggests “internalizing the externalities,” which means that “the cost of producing a good is not borne by the producer but is instead foisted on someone else” (Steinberg, 2015). This requires making rules, for example making it illegal to dump waste into lakes, rivers, or oceans because it damages the ecosystem present in that body of water. Creating rules and regulations that make it required to be responsible for your own messes. This idea of internalizing the externalities is most prevalent to me in my social life, and I believe it dictates a lot of the actions I choose to make daily. Socially, internalizing my externalities is to understand what effect the things I say or do has on other people and to make choices based on if they will result in a positive or a negative externality. For example, a negative externality would be if I were to go to the Bon earlier than I normally would with my friends. By doing this I satisfy my own necessity, hunger, but at the expense of my friends feeling left behind. I have also been victim to my friends making choices that fulfill their own needs, at the expense of my feelings, so I now have set my own personal social guidelines of what I can and cannot do to preserve friendships and to internalize my own externalities.
The idea of “thinking vertically” is another concept that revolves around rule-making, and Steinberg uses the example of EU environmental policy in order to help the reader understand this concept. Thinking vertically allows change to be made from the bottom up and from the top down, as Steinberg uses the example that “…any country wishing to join the union must change their domestic laws to adopt the entire set of EU policies” (Steinberg, 2015) in accordance with how movers have “…leverage[d] large-scale change by innovating at home and then pushing for the adoption of their innovations at the European level” (Steinberg, 2015). It all starts with originality and desire to be unified, and in order to do that everyone must be on the same page. If change is to happen, innovation id needed to create rules to benefit the entire community. More people on the same page result in more success, environmentally and politically. On a scholarly level, it materializes itself as finding and implementing new strategies of learning and studying. In a classroom setting, you have the classmates, who are divided and have yet to learn about the subject, and the teacher, who educates and therefore unifies the students in shared knowledge. There are unspoken rules that are applied in a classroom, like listening when the teacher is speaking, and to be active and willing to learn. This would be an example of abiding to rules from the top-down. And from the bottom up, an example of that would be a student who wants to make a change, and states that perhaps everyone would learn better if there was more group work and discussions, and with that new rule implemented, the whole classroom setting has grown to further encourage the acquisition of knowledge.
And lastly, changing mindsets and institutions is a crucial component for leading us closer to implementing rules that will be substantial for the growth of our community, our world. As Steinberg has driven home in chapter nine, there are four ideas that will not change the world. The first being the misconception that scientific progress results from a mysterious and self-directed process of discovery separated from politics and society, the second being the assumption that environmental conditions automatically improve as societies become richer, the third being the notion that solving environmental problems require inventiveness through the operation of markets that are unfettered by environmental regulations, and the final one being the notion that we can save the planet if we do our part though lifestyle changes and greener consumer choices (Steinberg, 2015). If we are to understand these misconceptions, we can then create policies that prevent us from thinking this way while also leading us towards active participation where change will be made. It seems to me that Steinberg, in this section, emphasizes our need to be open-minded and realize the teachings that result in change. In my personal life this was apparent with the IA Symposium and the incident with unintentionally inviting Jessica Vaughn to speak. There were many people who showed up protesting her presence, but many students believed that what she had to say was viable and her opinion, and that everyone should have a voice. For the people who refused to hear her out, they are stuck in their own mindsets and are not perpetuating unity, but rather holding the community back from an inclusive community. This proves that change and willingness to understand different viewpoints is what will ultimately lead to a more unified community, making it that much easier to create laws and policies to sustain our right to our own opinions without fear of being harshly judged.
Internalizing the externalities, thinking vertically, and being open to change are just three ways in which Steinberg emphasizes the importance of rule-making to preserve our ability to give our community, our world, with a sustainable future. They allow us to take responsibility for our own misdemeanors will also working with different social groups to unify and agree to disagree.
Works Cited
Steinberg, Paul F. 2015. Who Rules the Earth?: How Social Rules Shape Our Planet and Our Lives. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.