Tragedy of the Commons

By Garret Hardin

The "Commons" is a resource supply which is commonly owned among the population. And "tragedy" as defined by the philsopher whitehead is "The essence of drmatic tragedy is not unhapiness. It resides in the solemnity of the remorseless workings of things. This inevitableness of destiny can only be illustrated in terms of human life by incidents which in fact involve unhappiness. For its only by them that the futility of escape can be made evident in the drama."

Hardin paints a picture of how the tragedy of commons develops.
An open pasture is a free utility to all the herdsman living around it. Every herdsman will try to keep as many cattle grazing as within their own means. They are mitigated by forces beyond their power for some time due to tribal wars, poaching and disease this negative feedback loop keeps both populations in check enough that the land remains healthy. A then comes the day of social stability. A herdsman can now raise more cattle to provided for his family. This produces one negative and one positive component.
1. The Positive: Function of the extra animal will increase the profits soley for this herdsman and his family
2. The Negative: The impact of one extra animal will put more pressure on the deredation of the land. But the herdsman who own this animal will feel only a fraction of this negative component.
This doesn't seem to bad until it the entire group begins banking on the oppertunity. Thus excelling the degradation of the pasture (commons).
This senerio has played out thousands of imes in the past and its as evident now as ever. The collapse of the cod fisheries in Atlantic Canada is a sobering reminder of how much we all depend on these shared resources. The trafgedy of the commons is also apparent when considering pollution. Same concept but instead of taking somthing out we are putting somthing in. The effects of harmful chemicals fro m industry being dumped in a river will cause illness to those drinking down stream.

So what are we to do? Hardin points out that biggest flaw in action to fix things that people look for a technical solution. "A technical solution may be defined as one that requires a change only in the techniques of the natural sciences, demanding little or nothing in the way of change in human values or ideas of morality." The tragedy of the commons does not have a technical solution. He provides an example "How can I win a game of tic tac toe? It is well known that I cannot, if I assume (in keeping with the conventions of game theory) that my opponent understands the game perfectly. Put another way there is no tchnical solution to the problem. I can only win by giving a radical meaning to the word "win." I can hit my opponent over the head; or I can drug him... Every way in which I "win" in spome sense abandonment of the game as we intuitively understand it."
The root or the issue is overpopulation people can reproduce as much as they so please which turns out be a whole lot. Parents who breed to exueberently will have a less decendents than more because they will not be able to provide for all their offspring. "Freedom in commons brings ruin to all (it was learned thousands of years ago but natural selection favors the forces of pshychological denial. The individual from his ability to deny the truth even though society as a whole, of which he is part, suffers. Education can counteract the natural tendency to do the wrong thing but the inexorable succesion of generations requires that the basis for this knowledge be constantly refreshed."
Another fault in the issue he believes to be is the Universal Decleration of Human Rights which describes the family as "the natural and fundemental unit of society."
Garrett Hardins says the only way to prevent our own imenent doom is to is to regulate the amount of children being birthed. This is an extreme solution but is well supported he concludes by say that the only way we can nuture other and more precious freedoms is by relinquishing the freedom to breed, and that very soon. "Freedom is the recognition of necessity."