Education for Well-being Education as if people and the planet mattered

“Too big to fail.” That’s what we say these days when institutions, driven by myopia, greed, hubris, ignorance, and wishful thinking, become unsustainable. We bail them out for fear of making matters worse. “It’s a bad situation, but the alternative is worse”, goes the lament. Those that didn’t make bad decisions end up sharing in the loss. Failures are socialized. Profits are capitalized.

Despite the complaints from many–especially those on the right– and a lot of press (and a recent book), this too big to fail concept seems to have no connection to that other important too big to fail system of ours: the biosphere. There is so much disconnect as a matter of fact, that videos like the one below still need to be made in 2010. One only has to read the video’s comments to see how much push-back it generates. Those who profit from the status-quo have done a brilliant job telling us why nothing needs to change. While deregulation didn’t work out so well in the financial world, we’re sure it’s overrated when it comes to the biosphere. Yep.

I’m wondering, what would happen if schools–all schools, including B-schools–started to ask some simple questions about limits.  Our schools, if they are to be institutions that engender well-being, will have to start addressing the issue of  infinite growth on finite planets. Their missions will have to become more sophisticated than “creating productive individuals in an ever-changing world [who can grow the economy]“. That mission statement is old, tired, and needs some serious updating.

In our time, great effort is being made to deny that there are any physical limits to our use of the earth or to the legitimacy of human wants. David Orr