Inspired by Shannon Vallor’s book “Technology and the virtues: A philosophical guide to a future worth wanting“, in which she discusses a range of technomoral virtues that we need to cultivate in order to flourish (2016, p. 118-155), I am writing a series of short portraits of exemplars–people who embody these virtues.
Greta Thunberg (born 2001) embodies the technomoral virtues of courage, civility and magnanimity.
She became known worldwide for her “Skolstrejk för klimatet” (school strike for the climate), sitting in front of the Swedish Parliament in Stockholm. Since then, she has delivered speeches at TEDx Stockholm, at COP24, at Davoshttps://youtu.be/RjsLm5PCdVQ, at Strasbourg (EU), and many other places.
Penguin published No One is Too Small to Make a Difference, a collection of her speeches (May 2019). Her activism, speaking truth to power, has inspired millions to combat the climate crisis.
Thunberg embodies the virtue of courage because it takes lots of courage, strength, dedication and perseverance to do the work she does. Moreover, her courage can be understood as her unique way to move between fear and hope. Vallor defines courage as “a reliable disposition toward intelligent fear and hope with respect to moral and material dangers and opportunities presented by emerging technologies”, 2016, p. 131).
When Thunberg was 11 years old, she became depressed; she knew the facts about the climate crisis and saw that none of the people in power took action. She stopped speaking. Later, she turned her depression into positive action and transformed fear into hope for millions. Furthermore, she was diagnosed with Asperger (in the autism spectrum), which can help to interpret her way of reasoning: she knows the scientist facts–sees adults not taking action–and protests.
[Greta Thunberg responds to Asperger’s critics: ‘It’s a superpower’]
[https://www.ft.com/content/4df1b9e6-34fb-11e9-bd3a-8b2a211d90d5]
Her way of reasoning is scientific and objective, and at the same time passionate and emphatic. Thunberg convinced her father to stop eating meat and convinced her mother (an opera singer) to stop flying.
In this, Thunberg embodies the virtue of civility, which Vallor defines as a “sincere disposition to live well with one’s fellow citizens … : to collectively and wisely deliberate about matters of local, national, and global policy and political action; to communicate, entertain, and defend our distinct conceptions of the good life; and to work cooperatively toward those goods of technosocial life that we seek and expect to share with others”, 2016, p. 141). It’s like Asperger enables her to break away from social norms and to demand change. It’s like she cannot behave “normally” and is therefore able to see what others fail to see, or can choose not to want to see.
Moreover, Thunberg embodies the virtue of magnanimity–greatness of spirit/soul. Vallor describes this virtue as Moral Leadership and Nobility of Spirit (2016, p. 152). She has no ego standing in the way between her and her mission. In her most recent speech (for the French Assemblé National), she said: “You don’t have to listen to us, but you do have to listen to the scientists”.
PS: I write this post during a heat wave (The Netherlands, July 2019) and feel depressed about the lack of action to combat the climate crisis–both top-down and bottom-up. It is my hope that more people listen to Thunberg and become active, each of us in our own unique way, to change the course of our planet–because there is no Planet B.
Possibly, you find that Greta Thunberg embodies other virtues as well. Or you may have other ideas about the virtues discussed above. Please post them below or contact me at: marc.steen-at-tno.nl