Swedish teen, 16 year-old Greta Thunberg, stood before the 2019 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland and said, “Our house is on fire!” She spoke to the rich and powerful about the price tag of unfettered growth on the environment and on future generations and the disastrous implications of choosing to nothing in the face of climate change. She said, “I don’t want your hope. I do not want you to be hopeful. I want you to panic! I want you to feel the fear I feel every day… I want you to act as if the house was on fire, because it is!”
For generations, we have lived under the assumption that “individual freedom” gives a person (or a corporation) the right to do whatever they want irregardless of the impact of their actions. Our founding fathers held the “inalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” as essential to the success of the American experiment. American individualism at its foundation rejects limitation, regulation, and interference while at the same time rejecting responsibility and culpability. Individualism gives us the luxury of not caring about the conditions of others – even when our actions have created those conditions. Individualism gives us the freedom from consequences. We simply shift the burden to others. It is “their problem.”
Greta Thunberg prophetically reminds us all that every individual act has corporate ramifications; and that individual rights must give way to collective interests if we are to survive. In the end libertarian beliefs and laissez-faire attitudes and policies lead to social destruction.
We have lived by the creed of Cain, excusing ourselves of responsibility of caring in the name of “individual freedom.” “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Cain asked in response to God’s question about the whereabouts of Abel. Cain’s question is actually a statement. “My brother’s whereabouts or condition is of no concern to me. I have no responsibility in regard to him. His circumstances are not my problem.” Beneath the statement is a deeper issue of the heart: Disconnection. The more disconnected from others we understand ourselves, the more we will pursue self-interest without considering the consequences to the world and the generations who will come after us.
The apostle John wrote, “From the beginning, you’ve heard this message: Love one another. Do no be like Cain…” (1 John 3:11-12). Living as if we are independent from one another – as if we have no mutual interest or interdependency – is to live like Cain in ignorance and sin.
Are we the keepers of our brothers and sisters? The answer is, “Yes!”
Tongue on Fire 