A Good Without Light Essay
Curtis White: A Good Without Light In a world where carbon foot print, green initiatives and conservation efforts have become common place household words, a voice of irascible reasoning challenges the capitalist technocracy that created it. In his essay, “A Good Without Light”, Curtis White proposes that sustainability has taken on philosophical properties and is a futile attempt by empirical science to figure out ways to maintain the status quo without impacting social norms. He argues that our global capitalistic society is governed by a system in which scientists, engineers, and technicians have high social standing and political power. He claims that our capitalistic nature, supported by egotistical scientism, is incapable of finding solutions to our environmental crisis. White suggests that humans are incapable of change due to our capitalistic nature. He validates his point with the metaphor “Barbaric Heart”. White draws a direct connection between selfish violence and virtue, and suggests that the solution to our environmental issues may very well come from the unexpected sector of arts, religion, and moral imagination vice those that created it (836).
“No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it” (Einstein). The picture that Curtis White paints has manifested itself in the literary canvass of many scientific minds and great thinkers alike. White states that we can talk about our plans to save the world, but we can’t talk about the economic system that put it in jeopardy in the first place. White feels that we as humans act in general accordance with our social conditions and that the transference of the religious, scientific ideology from the mouths of the influential redirect blame from the elite ruling class to the common person (836). This paradox essentially provides the catalyst needed for generating self-guilt for the predicaments we find ourselves in. White’s essay builds a philosophical conceptual
“No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it” (Einstein). The picture that Curtis White paints has manifested itself in the literary canvass of many scientific minds and great thinkers alike. White states that we can talk about our plans to save the world, but we can’t talk about the economic system that put it in jeopardy in the first place. White feels that we as humans act in general accordance with our social conditions and that the transference of the religious, scientific ideology from the mouths of the influential redirect blame from the elite ruling class to the common person (836). This paradox essentially provides the catalyst needed for generating self-guilt for the predicaments we find ourselves in. White’s essay builds a philosophical conceptual
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