Found this in my old stuff...don't think I ever finished it! From an essay I read for a biology class at some point.
"The tragedy of the commons develops in this way. Picture a pasture open to all. It is to be expected that each herdsman will try to keep as many cattle as possible on the commons. Such an arrangement may work reasonably satisfactorily for centuries because tribal wars, poaching, and disease keep the numbers of both man and beast well below the carrying capacity of the land. Finally, however, comes the day of reckoning, that is, the day when the long-desired goal of social stability becomes a reality. At this point, the inherent logic of the commons remorselessly generates tragedy. As a rational being, each herdsman seeks to maximize his gain. Explicitly or implicitly, more or less consciously, he asks, “What is the utility to me of adding one more animal to my herd?” This utility has one negative and one positive component. 1) The positive component is a function of the increment of one animal. Since the herdsman receives all the proceeds from the sale of the additional animal, the positive utility is nearly +1. 2) The negative component is a function of the additional overgrazing created by one more animal. Since, however, the effects of overgrazing are shared by all the herdsmen, the negative utility for any particular decision-making herdsman is only a fraction of -1. Adding together the component partial utilities, the rational herdsman concludes that the only sensible course for him to pursue is to add another animal to his herd. And another; and another....But this is the conclusion reached by each and every rational herdsman sharing a commons.Therein is the tragedy. Each man is locked into a system that compels him to increase his herd without limit—in a world that is limited. Ruin is the destination toward which all men rush, each pursuing his own best interest in a society that believes in the freedom of the commons." (Herdin, The Tragedy Of The Commons)
Hardin's basic claim in his essay The Tragedy Of The Commons is that freedom in the commons brings ruin to the population as a whole. A commons is defined as an area where all may partake of its various benefits without disadvantage to them, as in the situation of the fields and the herdsman above. Evaluating benefits is done on a case-by-case basis (the individual herdsman deciding whether to add a new animal to his herd) rather than looking at the benefits and detriments such an action would bring to the group or area as a whole.
It is my belief that the problem does not lie with the issue of freedom, but rather the issue of what we do with it. How do we choose to act, and how do we teach our children to act? I think the problem is the perception of what that freedom means.
It starts at birth- or, rather, sometimes it doesn't. It starts with watching a potential mother agonize over the decision to see it through. It starts with deciding that a body, a lifestyle, a trip, a figure, is more important than that life. It starts with ripping a small growing being from where it first began, keeping it from ever experiencing anything besides conception and death. Because the advantages offer so much more than the disadvantages- to the mother. But to the world? What would that child have become? But that isn't something that crossed her mind, when she decided. It was all about her.
In childhood- which toys belong to which child? Who gets what, make sure it's fair unless it's in your favor. Children are the least susceptible to the tragedy of the commons, but nonetheless are a part of it. Watch them. Watch what they fight about- aren't they the most angry when they don't get their way? When the game doesn't go how they wish it to, when they don't get the toy they wished for.
And teenage years. Oh the sweet, sweet torture. The years of me. Am I pretty, handsome enough? Do they like me? What are they thinking about me? I bet they talk behind my back and say mean things. Does this look good on me? In some ways, this is an important time of self-discovery, of learning and growing, but in other ways, it is an epitome of the tragedy. This time that is more full of sadness and exuberance than any other, but also so much more self-centered. It is a rare person that will do something that doesn't benefit them in some way. "What's in it for me?"
This is the issue: What we teach them. How we live. What do they see? We are all the same at heart. We are all self-interested, with that nagging hint of virtue. But if we let the virtue rule, what a world that would be. Yet self-interest keeps it from happening. Self-interest destroys relationships, destroys people, destroys worlds. This is the true tragedy of the commons.
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