Value as a Reason for Action

Mitigation of overshoot requires a determined approach by large numbers of people who might be described as “persons of good will”, persons who would do no harm, who do not covet more than their fair share of Earth’s bounty or do no good in return for pointlessly large salaries. But how "good" does this will need to be? Long ago, Greek philosophers identified a fundamental defect in human functioning which they named akrasia, weakness of will that arises from the tendency to act for  present comfort whilst defering actions for the future. Akrasia on a grand scale thus perfectly describes our predicament.  No amount of objective, value-free knowledge, important though it is, can overcome akrasia because wisdom does not stem from knowledge alone.  Values that motivate the actions necessary even at this late stage to mitigate ever worsening effects of overshoot are most likely to be developed through active participation. Active participation in turn generates the need and desire for knowledge but this in turn will come to nothing without development of emotions.  Discernment comes through experience that offers the opportunity for knowledge to become understanding.  Passive listening in classrooms or passive consumption of what appears on screens can only ever result in weakness of  will  ending with anxiety, paralysis and fatalism.