Scapegoats, silver bullets, and other pitfalls in the path to sustainability

Abstract

This paper draws from The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula Le Guin to highlight some of the most likely pitfalls on the political road to a sustainable planet. Through the literary device of dreams that can change the world, Le Guin explores how the individual's egoistic desire to save humanity can be twisted by the limitations of our psyche and our society, turning an already uncomfortable future Earth into a devastated planet. It is a stinging critique of answers handed down from above, and a call to action for those of us who just get by here below. Her story warns of the ancient "road to hell", paved and trodden by would be saviors with the best intentions but also points to the license that public apathy provides to the powerful when the costs of environmental harm are borne by the powerless. These disconnects, combined with cycles of rationalization, silver bullet mentalities, and the tendency to scapegoat others for negative side effects, can all derail sustainability transitions. Lathe provides an allegorical assessment of this process, but much more study is needed to fully understand and regulate the resulting governance treadmill.

Moving beyond panaceas in fisheries governance

“…Like most other forms of management, ITQs create winners and losers. In the process, they can widen power disconnects, which arise when those who benefit from a governance system have greater political and economic power than those who are harmed by it (73). Power disconnects contribute to the panacea mindset by providing beneficiaries with the influence to ensure that such measures are adopted and remain in place.…”

Interpreting Perceptions about Coastal Fisheries in Sierra Leone: Scapegoats and Panaceas

“…There are elements of genuine panacaeing here because they meet the following features of panaceas. (1) They were sometimes advocated as single solutions or technical fixes for ending the fish scarcity crisis [19,48]. (2) They were presented alluringly with conceptual narratives [47].…”

“…(3) It is usually ineffective because it deflects attention from the real cause of the crisis and therefore does not solve the problem in the long-term [10]. (4) Scapegoaters rarely use the time bought to examine and deal with the real causes, but normalise the practice, so it becomes more important for them to look for scapegoats than for real causes [19].…”

“…However, the term is now more often used socially rather than medically, to mean any measure which people believe will solve the problems caused by the specific crisis facing them. It is linked to terms like 'silver bullet', 'magic bullet', and 'magic wand', which convey the message that there is a single solution for turning things around [19,20].…”

Learning from the Past: Pandemics and the Governance Treadmill

“…Because people have different capacities and believe different problem narratives, collective response to an impending crisis will depend heavily on power disconnects, which occur when people who have access to resources lack the understanding or incentives to use them effectively (i.e., they believe in maladaptive problem narratives) while those who have understanding and incentives to prevent disease (i.e., they believe in adaptive problem narratives) lack resources to do so [12,71,72]. Power disconnects are most often associated with the inequitable distribution of resources, but even in a highly unequal society the equitable distribution of perceived risk can provide incentives for powerful people to take preventative action, keeping power disconnects narrow [12,[73][74][75]. Nonetheless, when powerful people can use their resources to insulate themselves from negative effects of a public health threat, they can mitigate their own risk while failing to protect others.…”