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greater democracy, civic participation, and economic equality. In this second option,
social capital (of which civic environmentalism and civic democracy are a part)
substitutes for natural capital.
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III. The Oil Endgame and the Remaking of America
A looming global energy shortfall. A deep-rooted and causal connection between
energy and what we call the American Liberty Project. The current administration’s
worrisome willingness to curtail democracy at home while waging war wherever the oil
seems most abundant. Any one of these trends by itself would be cause for concern and a
motivation to recalibrate our intellectual machinery. Taken together, they should ring
every school bell, sounding an alarm that demands our attention, not just as independent
contractors, but as members of disciplines and institutions. We need what Paul Hawken
describes as a “shared mental model,” a general agreement about what is challenging our
thinking (the problem to be solved), and specific products and programs that are designed
to solve the problem. This is not just a dismal warning, although it is a warning. But it is
also a challenge for those of us in the academy who generally—as a rule—are not asked
to solve real and immediate problems (unlike our engineering and business colleagues
who make real money doing consulting work that, indeed, solves real problems.) The
good news for all of us here is that the United States is at a junction that will require our
collective and best work as theorists and educators. This work, if it is done right, will
help manage the transition to a society that must “fess up” to the thermodynamic
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It is my hypothesis that there is an inverse relationship between natural and social capital. As natural
capital becomes more plentiful in a social system, social capital wanes, in part because there is less reliance
on others, which leads individuals to think and act like independent sovereigns. The eventual control of the
stocks and sources of natural capital likewise create wealth and power structures that tend to limit civic
democracy. Inversely, as natural capital becomes scarce, social capital can—though not necessarily—
create systems of mutual aid, enforce virtues of thrift, and generally encourage social and interdependent
behavior.
Convention