“It’s none of anybody’s business” will be the most frequent comment by people who read these posts concerning matters involving the family and raising children and what they are taught at school. Comments as this, whether delivered with vitriol or as a passing opinion, reflect the extreme individualism that has developed particularly in the culture of the U.S.
As nations have become more and more populated, there has developed more and more friction between individuals, groups and interests. Life has become more complex. Environmentally, our large numbers and ever higher standards of living have compromised our quality of life due to our abusive habits of domination toward our earth. Material sustainability has become a necessary influence to help us make rational compromises with our natural environment so that we can continue to live without fear of polluting our air, water, food sources and the playgrounds of our children.
Social sustainability offers necessary compromises so that everyone, equally, can enjoy a higher quality of life and to grow into their innate potential as anyone else would. This requires compromises in our social habits, attitudes, values and opinions. “It’s none of anybody’s business” in a society that has chosen to move toward social stability and social sustainability is rephrased to become, “It’s everybody’s business.” Social sustainability is not a “go it alone” choice where competition for resources of all types, whether material or social, creates separation between individuals and society.
In a society that has chosen to move toward social stability and sustainability, all options, choice-decisions, and decision-actions become everybody else’s business, but only to the extent where our individual, group and organizational actions interfere or become detrimental to the quality of life and to the development of the potential for growth to others. In a socially sustainable society our interactions are far more finely tuned to become sustainable than they are today.
What is taught in school is everybody’s business because education has an almost immediate effect upon everybody’s sustainability, locally and globally. It’s everybody’s business because we will need our collective skills to survive in the years to come.