Last Blog! :D : The tragedy of tragedy of the commons

It is notable that this topic was a part of Political science, simple because this accentuates the dire issue of misused common resources. Be it the ozone layer or the oceans, fresh water, population growth, fish stocks or the grazing of land, with countries acting like individual agents each driven independently to behave according to their self interests, collectively amount to actions contrary to the best interests of the world by depleting these common resources. The lack of formal regulation can produce no other results but the exhaustion of natural and other important resources necessary for human existence.

I view the international arena as a "common" unregulated good. With almost free access and unrestricted demand for the finite resource of power, the earth ends up being over exploited with its benefits accruing to limited groups such as superpower nations motivated to maximize the use of  economic progress bleeding the earth dry, militarization and war wrenching the earth with its unlimited corpses, and nuclear development defecating the air, In the quest for power, each nation acts as it deems best while the costs of exploitation are borne by the lesser powerful nations to whom the resources of power are unavailable.

The depletion of any common depends upon primarily three factors: the number of users demanding it(every nation wants world domination), the competitiveness of their uses(each nation has jumped into the quest for power maximization therefore extremely competitive) and lastly, the relative robustness of the common. The earth as a common has shown tremendous resilience so far in persisting despite its exploitative uses by each country yet if the quest for power accelerates to the point of more world wars with the use of nuclear weaponry destroying entire nations, this common may not last long to provide any further benefits to the people.

The need for regulation in the international arena is therefore essential if we are to prevent the murder of human life by our own hands . By regulating the actions of nations, war and other harmful actions to the earth can be prevented and the common can be protected to live a longer and more beneficial life. It is interesting that the tragedy of commons was the first actual proven theory that isn't debatable in the subject so far. In fact its highly relate-able as well since in LUMS itself. With so many restaurants and none claiming ownership of the place to dine, the state of REC is highly deplorable. It is indeed a tragedy of the commons since whoever comes further pollutes it and no central body regulates the cleanliness and state of affairs there.

This topic brings me back to the initial classes; the debate between universal altruism and individual egoism. As individuals we work in the interests best suited to us yet in a family structure a particular altruism operates as we put aside our interests and work for the best of its members but at a greater level of civil society we again bow down to universal egoism by placing our own intersts above others. States, in an idealist approach are considered to be a community underpinned by mutual sympathy by placing the interests of its citizens first. Yet when nations work in the international arena they again work solely as egoistic agents. Therefore the levels of egoism and altruism coexist, explaining why the tragedy is so prevalent in the world, yet also why the earth hasn't ended in 2012 like the Mayans predicted.