Note from Molly: Many are concerned about the hurtful words and accusations being used at public meetings and in this blog and want to encourage communication that builds our community instead of dividing it. South Berwick resident Scott Landis offers his thoughts here.
An 1833 book on population coined the term “tragedy of the commons” to describe a dynamic of medieval village life in which narrow self-interest was allowed to run amok. Over-grazing of the public commons by one individual’s sheep turned out to be a disaster for the herd and its owner as well as for the environment and the community at large. The farmer unwittingly became the agent of his own demise.
This 19th-century concept, which probably has much earlier roots, has been applied to many ecological disasters since. Indeed, it has become shorthand for any condition in which “free access, and unrestricted demand for a finite resource, ultimately dooms that resource to over-exploitation.” The phenomenon has been used to describe the decline of the world’s great forests and the decimation of the North Atlantic cod fishery.
Some might argue that the metaphor only applies to ecological relationships, but it seems to me we are suffering a parallel modern crisis in public communication that is every bit as tragic and perhaps even more dangerous than any environmental disaster we have faced. (more…)