Regarding the inevitable and necessary direction of the automobiling industry, the concepts of sustainability and competing come up in the form of questions. The purpose of this writing is to share a few thoughts in regards to these concepts – thoughts that could be explored further.
It is important to understand that sustainability can only be achieved by active and appropriate ethics being integrated into that which has an upward thrust. In other words, ethics, ethical behavior, will by necessity be the way of working for those who will be participating in the process of sustainability. Also, trying to achieve sustainability by focusing only on arresting entropy (run down) or by trying to be neutral (non-harmful) is inadequate. Negentropic (run up) work is necessary. In the case of automobiling (and true for many others), we can see a path – nonpolluting, injury free automobiling – that not only has an upward thrust, but effectively arrests entropy as well. Given this reality, it becomes quite obvious that we need both an understanding of ethics – what is appropriate and sufficiently encompassing – and a clear mission/operation-able vision such that an upward thrust can be pursued. With these we can have both the firm ground to stand upon and an ethical base for competition and competing – competing in ways that will produce a better world for our own children and for all children.
As I reflected on the concept of competing, I recalled a conversation I had with a business leader from Canon. We were discussing development, realizing one’s potential and the uniqueness of each and all – a natural subject given that development is a common process in Japanese philosophy. He offered the thought that if we focused on developing our uniqueness there would be sufficient space for each and all to compete – implying of course there is no need (or wisdom for that matter) in each and all of us trying to occupy the same space. I also reflected upon competition as the Greeks viewed it. They tended to see it as a means to excel together; they discovered that if one person ran against another, both ran faster. So the aim of competition was not so much the victory (or “killing the competition”) as it was a means to get better and better, not only as individuals within an industry, but as an industry itself. The American version of this shows up in county fairs and trade fairs. Here we hold competitions of demonstrated capability with clear recognition by knowledgeable people as to whose skill or product is the best. Transparency is often present such that the skill is demonstrated in a way that all could see – the only question being did those who were observing have the willfulness and dedication to develop the required ableness? Here the competition – its aim – is all about advancing one’s own ableness, the ableness of the trade and the industry. The focus is not upon the nature of victory and defeat that engenders hatred, for nothing is more effective at diminishing ethics (thus sustainability) than hatred… the same hatred that diminishes our capacity to advance our humanness. Fairness, cooperation and competition are essential values of the American way of life, and will certainly be called into play in the step change being demanded of the automobiling industry.
Moving to this new platform will require a few shifts in our perspective. We will have to anchor and encompass our thinking in virtue and wholeness (for example, the virtue of automobiling, the virtues of America and her people, the wholeness of an industry, the wholeness of the planet earth). These will provide the anchors, the context, the mission, and operation-able vision for our pursuit of sustainability.
Hopefully this “charcoal sketch” is sufficient to give a sense of the nature of thinking and work called for in the automobiling industry and for realizing sustainability. In closing, we are reminded of a comment by Einstein:
We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if mankind is to survive.
