This is a story about the word sustainable. It’s a story about Game A and Game B, about the will to do things differently and at the same time to belong. It’s a story about this time, from the perspective of this time. It’s also the story of the digital Forum Romanum and its narrowing. And it’s actually just one story: yours.
“I was asked what the essence of Familiafeliz’s activities was. My answer, as always, was based on the first sentences on our website: to create a social space for personal happiness. The question came immediately: Where would we create these spaces and invite people to use them? The answer was again: Where we are right now. (Juan Petry)”
A networking meeting in Halle an der Saale, Germany, provided the framework for this dialogue, which was to be followed by many others. Ronny runs Öpunkt – Nachhaltige Haushaltsauflösungen, a socially and non-profit-oriented, owner-managed enterprise whose mission is to reduce the amount of waste generated by affluence, through reuse where possible, or to find some other form of further use. Only the truly unusable residue should be separated as accurately as possible and sent for traditional recycling. Finally, it is thermally recycled, but that will come later.
Familiafeliz visits places like Ronny’s. On the one hand, recycling and upcycling are often a more cost-effective solution, and on the other hand, networking events are important for bringing together stakeholders in new circular economies, just as was the case back then with the hunting club, the carnival club, the charity club, or the meeting of the guild of master craftsmen. People know each other, they help each other, but only if they know each other. New generations engage in different activities, and so they also try out other forms of gathering. The goal of the actors is modern: to establish a sustainable form of resource use oriented toward the common good and, through this, to create true social justice.
It is by no means the case that these kinds of thoughts and ideas exist only in the minds of members of a living community. Analogous to compost in the garden, an entire subculture oriented toward the common good has emerged, often driven by public funds and willing self-exploitation, seeking to utilize for good what, in established turbo-capitalism, appears to be no longer usable. The up-cycling of household goods intertwines with the up-cycling of brownfield sites and old living and utility spaces. For the property owners, this often means recycling leftovers at the scrap heap. In the end, it is thermally recycled, but that will come later.
When the old no longer works, and the new is not yet fully recognizable, it is important to persevere and save oneself and one’s assets into the new era. This is also motivated by the hope that these resources will still have value in the new. Game A – the traditional economy – is sleepwalking into its own downfall, traveling further into the abyss than some would like, and at the same time less than others would like. In the end, it will be thermally recycled, but that will come later.
The protagonists see meaning in their actions and regularly confirm this in their exchange of code words. The common good and sustainability are highly valued. Finding a common language has always been a good thing, in every hunting party, whether in front of a pig in the forest or in front of a canned food in a container. Those who cultivate a common language can understand each other in a smart way… in the smart city.
So some people set out to ponder Game B. Everyone agrees. It will be a different game, much bigger, more fundamental, and it’s long overdue. Game A was results-oriented and ignored the time after the quarterly financial statements. Game B sees everything more in terms of movement, in the process. You start running differently when it’s definitely only 100 meters than when it could be a half marathon. The next 100 meters don’t come suddenly and unexpectedly. Or not?
In the chain, after the household clearance comes recycling and further use: secondhand, flea market, further processing, or even metabolization. But the question does arise: what is sustainable? In the end, it is thermally recycled, but that will come later.
The delicate thesis that sustainability is bad requires a good foundation, especially among the hunting party in front of the dumpster. It all probably starts with recognizing that terms from classic Game A are reused and reinterpreted, loaded with different conceptual concepts, and then, unfortunately—upon closer inspection—are no longer of much use in Game B.
As a young boy, I quickly realized that becoming an adult would also involve displacing old ideas and their protagonists and making room for my own, new ideas, namely, innovation. There was little desire or interest in preserving the old, tried-and-tested. As a young person, one saw all too clearly the finite usefulness of these old concepts. In the end, it ends up being thermally recycled, but that will come later.
So we turn the thesis into a mantra: Sustainability hinders innovation. And that’s not a bad thing. A counter-force can motivate, sort things out, and point the way.
As a young person, I wished for older people who would encourage my drive to bring the innovations I had in mind to life by simply clearing away what they themselves needed for their existence. There is no such thing as sustainable fashion. What should – and can – be sustainable when clearing out a household? The ice quickly becomes very thin when the terminology is strained by the demand for the content it conveys. The repetition of the term in a group promotes social interaction, and with clever placement, even one’s own status. But does that bring us closer to Game B?
This article first appeared in the blog of our decentralized community. Perhaps it is being read there right now, in its first life. It could have gained a second life in the form of a compendium in book form, as part of a common thread in the endeavor to rethink the concept of the term “community” – albeit with old brains. The article could gain a third life in constant citation, as a source for a story about Game B, perhaps written in C. For now, it remains digital. This article has no physical representation, apart from the accumulation of electrons in the RAM on your device at this moment. That is very fleeting. This website is attacked by 1,000 bots every day. The battle in the digital debate space claims its victims. The promise that better digital surveillance of citizens can put an end to this activity is absurd; even more absurd is to consider it possible, and even more absurd to believe it.
Perhaps this article will disappear altogether. The overhead costs of defense rise with the real threat. AI is helpful. The publication has no profit motive, but the use of bots does. It then looks as if a small community is losing access to the digital Roman Forum. The real loser is somewhere else. Do you have any ideas?
The landlords of leaky, poorly heated old industrial buildings are the recyclers of a declining industrial culture. They are still firmly entrenched in Game A. Ronny has somehow stepped out and changed gears and is searching for new relative equilibria in the chaotic system of life. With the sword of Damocles of constant rent payments, fixed costs, and the venture of being a sole proprietor in a post-factual society on the Magic Mountain, he is also firmly entrenched in the old Game A. In the end, it will be thermally recycled, but that will come later.
Nature, on which all these games are based, appears to be the only sustainable thing. As subsystems, however, they can represent neither meaning nor sustainability. They come and go in the process of life. The sad thesis of the second law of thermodynamics will come to an end with the same prophecy. The process heat while reading this article provides a clue.
Ronny has quit his job in the public sector. After more than 10 years, he could no longer stand this working situation. He is committed to the common good. He himself speaks of his mission. Ronny left the civil service and landed in the public service. Now it is his self-determined service to and for the public.
As in so-called science, every attempt at a definition ends with a declaration of faith. Define sustainable. Define common good. Why the Indian mother sends her six children to the dye factory as child slaves is examined from a moral perspective, why she has so many children, fewer, and what her real alternative would be, probably not at all. As always, it gets complicated.
Meanwhile, investors are buying up old debt securities cheaply so they can auction off attractive real estate even more cheaply. That’s totally Game A. Or not?
At the end, it will be thermally recycled, but that will come later. Or not?
