Throughout my reading of Who Rules the Earth?, my thoughts and ideas about how environmental and social change happens have been challenged. Before reading the book, I was a main believer in the power of individual-level change, believing that if we all recycled all that we could and put our food scraps in the compost instead of the trash, climate change, little by little, would diminish. However, upon finishing the book I realized that individual-level actions alone will not save the earth. To reverse climate change, one must first understand how the rules that produced climate change were made. Paul Steinberg’s Who Rules the Earth? has taught me that social rules rule the earth, and because of this, to make any sort of change one must change social rules.
Before diving into the technical aspects of social rules and how they shape the earth, Steinberg first has to define them. He does this by providing the example of a person taking a leisurely walk on the beach. Although to the average viewer walking on the beach may seem like a simple act, upon digging deeper one finds that there are many social rules influencing all aspects of the walk. First of all, social rules influence the possibility of being able to walk on the beach at all. In the United States, the guarantee to walk in the sand comes from the embracement of the public trust doctrine. Additionally, the content of the water and the surrounding environment has been influenced by social rules, which govern human influences both on and off the land (Steinberg 2015, 22). In all, I have come to understand that social rules are rules, created by governments and social norms alike, that heavily influence all aspects of life. The idea that almost every aspect of my life was controlled by rules outside of my control seemed daunting at first, although by understanding what these rules are and how they came to be, my fear of them subsided.
Social rules do not just impact one at the individual level; they impact how nations are governed and how change happens. By suggesting ideas such as thinking vertically and offering insight to scaling up and scaling down, Steinberg shows how social rules truly impact all aspects of a nation. He exemplifies this by noting that “Every day national governments craft innumerable rules that shape our planet, for better or for worse, long into the future” (Steinberg 2015, 135). Since there are so many rules influencing our daily lives, it is important to fully understand these impacts as well as understand what we can do to change them. Thinking vertically enables one to think about social rules on all levels of the rule, not just the individual or institutional ones. Furthermore, by understanding how rules can be scaled down to the local level or scaled up to the global level, one is provided with the skills to create a change in social rules. Looking ahead to my future and the change that I want to see in the world, Steinberg has helped me understand the value of national governments and what factors influence how they create social rules.
Finally, by going beyond social rules and introducing super rules, Steinberg offers a closing statement as to what one person can do to initiate change. He does this by introducing a whole new layer to social rules; super rules, which are, in a way, the guardians of social rules. He distinguishes these two types of rules by writing, “The first are those rules designed to affect substantive outcomes in the world… The second type of rules – super rules – govern the rulemaking process itself” (Steinberg 2015, 246). If one wants to change something, they can tackle the problem upfront by focusing in on the single problem and nothing else. However, although this solution fixes the problem, it does not address the institution that created the problem. Therefore, the institution will continue to create problems like the one that has just been solved. To create long lasting change, one must change super rules, which will result in the formation of new and improved social rules. As I was reading this, I became more concerned that all of these changes happened at the institutional level and that there was nothing that I alone could do to help the earth. Steinberg assured me that, in fact, individuals still did matter when he wrote, “It is a matter of balance, complementing these everyday acts of individual conscience with larger actions that promote social change” (Steinberg 2015, 278). So, even though there are countless social and super rules acting upon you while you walk down the beach, it still matters whether or not you pick up the trash littering it. Change occurs at multiple levels and by thinking vertically on each of these levels, a larger positive change of social rules is possible.
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.