What is Special Pleading?

The inside of the Hyde Hall Covered Bridge (Burr Arch design) built in 1825 at Glimmerglass State Park in New York.

As I continue to read more about the predicaments we face, I am constantly reminded of the biological imperative of the MPP and the narrative-generating rationalization for it, wetiko. I desperately want my predictions to be wrong, yet the evidence leads to confirmation of them instead. Now I understand how the Indigenous tribes felt as the Europeans expanded westward, wiping the Indigenous way of life out or pushing them further and further west. The Indigenous knew that their way of life was superior (in the sense of sustainability) to that of the white man, specifically because of wetiko. But because our species is rationalizing and not rational, we didn't listen or even try to understand for the most part.

This same dynamic presented itself at St. Matthew Island. The reindeer who lived there did exactly what any biological species does when presented with a sufficient food supply and no predators. Of course, the island, just like any land mass, had a carrying capacity. However, it was far more than the 29 reindeer introduced in 1944 to provide an emergency food source in case shipments couldn't be made to the island to the men who operated the LORAN station there in the 1940s. But it was also far LESS than the 6000 reindeer that eventually inhabited the island by 1963. This same scenario has repeated itself over and over every time a species goes into overshoot. Once in overshoot, a species will then experience the natural consequences of collapse and die-off. Sometimes a species will be extirpated by this scenario; other times there will be a mass die-off followed by a recovery.

Our troubles now lay in the fact that we have already filled in every habitable location, so there is nowhere to escape or run to. The predicaments we face are global in scope. They are caused by our collective behaviors, not by individuals, so individual efforts are more or less negligible. Yes, I've seen the pleas for hope and the pleas for "getting the message out" and the pleas for degrowth and the pleas for regenerative systems and the pleas for circular systems and the pleas for emergence and the hundred other items that people plead for. I've pointed out before and I will point out again that this is a logical fallacy known as special pleading. While I understand these pleas and even agree with the sentiment behind them, they are based upon a faulty premise to begin with. We lack agency to make them happen because of a lack of universal perspective regarding them. One can choose to believe in them, but this doesn't change any of the facts behind why those items either won't be instituted or won't change the outcome of the predicaments we face. In other words, these pleas are popular narratives that do not hold up under scrutiny.

As I was busy putting together the outline for this article, I came across yet another study that is rather depressing regarding our future (or should I say a lack thereof?). This is just the latest in a string of studies regarding the toxins and poisons we are ingesting daily through the air, water, and food. Check out this quote from the study:

"PET and PS were also found in nine leafy vegetables, with open-air crops exhibiting higher levels than greenhouse-grown counterparts. Nano-sized PET and PS were visually confirmed in plant tissue.

Older leaves and outer leaves of vegetables accumulated more plastic than newly grown or inner leaves, suggesting an accumulation over time.

Laboratory exposure of maize to plastic-laden dust resulted in measurable PET absorption in leaf tissue after just one day. PET was not detected in roots or stems under similar root-exposure conditions. Fluorescent and europium-labeled particles enabled visualization of stomatal entry and subsequent migration through the apoplastic pathway."

Due to civilizational inertia, even if we stopped plastic production entirely and immediately, we would still see increasing amounts of microplastic pollution for many years to come simply from what has already been produced. Of course, there is no way to continue civilization and stop plastics production because plastics are a necessary evil of the fossil fuel platform which powers civilization. Some people have seen what powers civilization as the issue when in reality, it is civilization itself, not what powers it, that is the issue.

Likewise, what is frustrating is that many people fail to see that what powered civilization before fossil fuels became the dominant source of energy was wood, charcoal (made from wood), and agriculture (actual clean, green, and renewable energy!). So, attempting to use "regenerative" agriculture or permaculture or vertical farming changes nothing, really. These are the same illusions as all the other so-called "sustainable" systems being hyped constantly. They aren't really all that more sustainable than today's industrial agriculture, and incremental improvements do not change the trajectories to a steady state. As long as civilization continues, the ecological systems surrounding us will continue to degrade and we will continue to get sicker and sicker (disease is one of the symptom predicaments of ecological overshoot). So, these ideas to survive as long as possible based on these types of bargaining to maintain civilization are really nothing more than illusions. Yes, they might be what many people today think they want, not understanding that the existing conditions in the future will be very different from today.

Many people will be forced to migrate away from the places they live today for one reason or another - whether it be due to climate extremes, destroyed infrastructure, lack of utilities, political instability, war, or some other reason, the idea that simply switching out different types of electricity or different types of cars or different economic systems or different types of agriculture really change nothing in the grand overall scheme of things. The ideas might work in today's world (for awhile), but not in tomorrow's. Even if all those ideas were implemented, the underlying support system remains technology use - the very cause of all the predicaments we now face. 

Many people criticize those of us who have sounded the alarm about these things, but all one really has to do is realize that the alarm has BEEN sounded time and time again for Overshoot, for Limits to Growth, for climate change, for energy and resource decline, and even for pollution loading (among many other symptom predicaments) for at least the last 5 decades and little if anything has been done to avert any of it. There have been some small incremental improvements here and there that were made, but these mitigations were made in the foreground while in the background the ongoing Great Acceleration continued unfazed. 

Art Berman talks about models in this article - specifically how they are built with intentions, bounded by assumptions, and shaped by values as described here, quote: 

"What concerns me is how deeply we’ve internalized the convergent frame, not just in our models, but in how we think. In a world of rising complexity, ecological constraint, and energetic limits, our tendency is still to reach for models that promise clarity, control, and continuity. But these are illusions. We are navigating nonlinear terrain with instruments built for smooth highways.

Guilford’s insight is not just about creativity—it is a warning against intellectual captivity. And Erica Thompson sharpens this warning. She reminds us that models are not neutral. They are built with intentions, bounded by assumptions, and shaped by values. If we fail to ask not just “what is in the model” but “why was it built, and for whom?”—we miss the deeper question: are we modeling the world, or merely projecting ourselves onto it?

To move forward, we might do well to think more consciously beyond the frame. Our models could serve us better if they were not only technically sound, but also philosophically grounded—humble in scope, clear in purpose, and rooted in an awareness of planetary limits. This calls for holding the tension between convergence and divergence, and recognizing that wisdom often arises not from resolving that tension, but from learning how to stay with it."

So, my constant questioning of how the systems surrounding us actually work, how we use those systems, and what the overall outcome is if these systems aren't abandoned are part of the wisdom I mentioned in my last article. Of course, that is just a small part of the questions I continue seeking answers for. This article sets the tone for my next article which is going to include some difficult material that I have avoided discussing far too long. It is necessary to take reality into consideration and think about what that reality commands moving forward. Models can help us, but are woefully incomplete and only tell part of the story at best.

For now, I leave you with Devils Fork State Park and Bald Rock Heritage Preserve and encourage you to see what they used to look like before Hurricane Helene and this year's wildfires changed them and the area surrounding them in inconceivable ways.