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Dedicated to Sustainability and Carpe Diem, again

(Picture: DS, Carpe Diem)

(Picture: DS)

Sustainability and Carpe Diem (3)

(29.6.2023) The Homo Carpe Diem is a spontaneous traveller, certainly, and, at times, even an easyjetter. The Homo Wiseforesightiensis, the proponent of sustainability, is no spontaneous traveller. A traveller, yes, perhaps, but only after much reflection, after researching, for example, if a location can be reached without flying being necessary. But occasionally also the Homo Wiseforesightiensis is discovering his inner Homo Carpe Diem, embarking on a trip with, perhaps, not enough reflection. Because at airports people might see you, and if you happen to be a prominent proponent of sustainability and, perhaps, even a prominent climate-gluer, this might result in a little scandal and people might accuse you of hypocrisy. But one thing is for sure: it is travelling, the field of travelling, that can and has to be mapped, if we want to become aware of contemporary beliefs and ideologies. And this is the endeavor we are undertaking here.

1) Mapping the Territory of Today’s Tourism Industry

The situation, in 2023, is this: the economy wants and needs the consumer to be a Homo Carpe Diem. But since also the Homo Wiseforesightiensis is on the rise, has been on the rise for quite some time, this results with a problem. Since the Homo Wiseforesightiensis is not a consumer according to the wishes of the economy, in that the Homo Wiseforesightiensis is reflecting about what is or might be necessary and what is or might be not. And the consumer consuming only the necessary minimum of anything cannot be a consumer according to the wishes of the economy, even if this economy is honestly propagating sustainability.

We are observing various strategies of the economy, especially of the branch of the tourism industry that interests us here, strategies that deal with this problem.

A) The tourism industry is offering a choice selection of travelling opportunities that all, apparently, meet the goals of sustainability, are designed and chosen according to the ideals of sustainability. This is the strategy that one could name the ›we think for you, so that you can be a Homo Carpe Diem without a bad conscience‹. ›We‹, the travelling industry, which is modelled here as the ideal Homo Wiseforesightiensis, which, at the same time, is inviting the consumer to do what he or she wants. B) The question of what is necessary and what is not, gets as little attention as possible. Which is not only the strategy the tourism industry is using, but the economy – the supermarket – as such. The supermarket is a particularly busy proponent of sustainability, while at the same time the supermarket supplies an already affluent socienty with much more than the necessary goods. And if the supermarket indeed would want its customers to be Homini Wiseforesightiensis, the supermarket would have to raise the question of how much and to what purpose, and this would not necessarily be in the interest of the supermarket. Which tends to use also strategy a) (We think for you, so that you can be a consumer without a bad conscience, a Homo Carpe Diem consumer), but not as unreserved as the tourist industry (which felt the Corona shock most intensely) does use it.

2) Negotiating the Degree of Necessary Travelling

If a radical proponent of sustainability is ›caught‹ using a plane, a little scandal follows, because people might accuse the proponent of sustainability of hypocrisy. But more interesting are the arguments being used to defend respectively to accuse the traveller using a plane. Academics, eager to show themselves on international conferences, cannot be happy with harsh restrictions on flying. Careers depend on opportunities to show oneself, and networking, perhaps, does not work particularly good in video conferencing. But what if the goal of travelling is actually – having no exact goal? Since the meaning of travelling can be: renew oneself by placing oneself into unfamiliar locations and settings, with no exact goal of what might be the effect or the result of that, exept perhaps: developing. Is it legitimate to just wishing to see Mexico? And if no, who decides over what people are allowed to do (with a bad conscience or without)?
Might it be convincing to argue that: I just did take a flight to scandalize the lack of alternatives to taking a flight? Probably not. But on sociological level we are observing all kinds of negotiations in contemporary culture, negotiations that one might also interpret as filling the voids of an all-too abstract discourse on sustainability. Various dimensions, yes. Harmony between economy, ecology and society, yes. Needs of generations to come, and needs of today, yes – but what does all that mean in practice? Every social system, every society has still to find out. And harmony of viewpoints is certainly not the most likely state in a social system at all. Conflict is more likely, while ideologies do present worlds full of harmony (see above) and without conflict (of aims).

3) A Pre-Corona World vs. a World Without Flights

Having memories, in 2023, of really bad meals, meals that are, or were offered aboard of a plane, is, in 2023, a really interesting subject matter. Since visions do exist of a world without flights, and of a world in which eating is the subject of all kinds of restrictions. And if such visions would become reality, our memories of really bad meals could turn into something really stimulating a bad conscience. Our sins of the past might come back, in terms of accusations. Accusations of having eaten a) too much b) the wrong food and c) aboard of a plane (for which there is conpensation necessary already today). But the Homo Carpe Diem is not a vision of the past, not a someone of which we know that, in hindsight, he/she etc. did exist. Once, in a distant past. No, the Homo Carpe Diem, see above, is a someone that the tourism industry is counting on. A someone the economy is counting on. And if the economy is the most eager proponent of sustainability, more eager, perhaps, that the climate-gluer caught on an airport, a little cautiousness is at place. In 2023, the world has become ideological, and ideologies could be understood as the quintessential bubbles, since they tend to become invisible – due to proponents of ideologies wanting them to be so.

The Art Museum of Sustainability


Monet on Sustainability

Velázquez on Sustainability

Van Gogh on Sustainability

Picasso and Sustainability

Hopper and Sustainability

Rubens on Sustainability

Caspar David Friedrich and Sustainability

Iconography of Sustainability


Iconography of Sustainability

Iconography of Sustainability 2

From Bruegel to Solarpunk (Iconography of Sustainability 3)

Sustainability and Carpe Diem 1

Sustainability and Carpe Diem 2

Concepts, Labels and Varia


Solarpunk

Renaturalization

Tipping Points

The Blue Hour in Ecotopia

Reforestation

Emergency Supply

Sustainability and Luxury

Eyes of Tomorrow

Bamboo

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