428
X. Zhang
This being said, it’s easy to conclude that ecological civilization needs its own
assessment system, that is, the “green baton.” There is an old adage in Suzhou, “one
has rowed the boat for quite a while, only to find the mooring rope still tied.” If the
“mooring rope” of the “green baton” remains tied, our ecological efforts would be
inefficient; but if the “mooring rope” of the “green baton” is untied, our ecological
efforts would be much more efficient.
2 Changing Values and Reshaping Ethics
The current inertial growth pattern and trend has to be changed, starting with changing
our way of thinking, like how the Enlightenment Movement in Europe emancipated
people from the shackles of religious doctrines.
The 2030 Agenda underscored economic, social and environmental development
for the fulfillment of sustainable development goals, but left out cultural and political
development in comparison to the five spheres stressed in ecological civilization. In
the transformation of civilization, what’s more essential and crucial is the establishment of values and ethics. That’s the underlying reason why the commercial
civilization, which is dominated by the west, has found itself going down an ever
narrower path, even going astray in some areas.
Culture deep down is a matter of values and ethics. Adam Smith, the founder
of western modern economics and the great British economist, emphasized in his
The Wealth of Nations the existence of two preconditions for market economy to
function and the “invisible hand” to play its part. First, a society has to have a sound
government and sound social organization; second, a society has to have solid morals
and ethics. Only when these two important preconditions are in place will market
economy function in such a manner as not to harm the health of the nation and the
society—preconditions that the mainstream western society has almost forgotten or
has been trying to avoid since neoliberalism caught on after American President
Reagan and British Prime Minister Thatcher took office. The collapse of America’s
Nasdaq in early twenty-first century was blasted by the exposure of the Enron scandal,
and it was no coincidence that the global financial crisis in 2008 was blasted by the
bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers caused by its own fraud. In both cases fraud and
deception were the root cause, and the US government played “double standards”
both times, so it all boiled down to morality and ethics in the end.
Human realization of nature’s value and their nature-related values can trace back
to Renaissance that took place in Europe between the 14th and thesixteenth century,
and the Enlightenment Movement later that gave birth to the humanistic spirit that
put man instead of god in the center. Humanitarianism emancipated the mind and laid
an important foundation for the new round of industrial revolution and commercial
civilization. Ecological civilization, a new form of civilization, also needs a new
industrial revolution, which is preluded by the new mental emancipation and new
values. This is bound to bring about the switch from “human-based development”
X. Zhang
This being said, it’s easy to conclude that ecological civilization needs its own
assessment system, that is, the “green baton.” There is an old adage in Suzhou, “one
has rowed the boat for quite a while, only to find the mooring rope still tied.” If the
“mooring rope” of the “green baton” remains tied, our ecological efforts would be
inefficient; but if the “mooring rope” of the “green baton” is untied, our ecological
efforts would be much more efficient.
2 Changing Values and Reshaping Ethics
The current inertial growth pattern and trend has to be changed, starting with changing
our way of thinking, like how the Enlightenment Movement in Europe emancipated
people from the shackles of religious doctrines.
The 2030 Agenda underscored economic, social and environmental development
for the fulfillment of sustainable development goals, but left out cultural and political
development in comparison to the five spheres stressed in ecological civilization. In
the transformation of civilization, what’s more essential and crucial is the establishment of values and ethics. That’s the underlying reason why the commercial
civilization, which is dominated by the west, has found itself going down an ever
narrower path, even going astray in some areas.
Culture deep down is a matter of values and ethics. Adam Smith, the founder
of western modern economics and the great British economist, emphasized in his
The Wealth of Nations the existence of two preconditions for market economy to
function and the “invisible hand” to play its part. First, a society has to have a sound
government and sound social organization; second, a society has to have solid morals
and ethics. Only when these two important preconditions are in place will market
economy function in such a manner as not to harm the health of the nation and the
society—preconditions that the mainstream western society has almost forgotten or
has been trying to avoid since neoliberalism caught on after American President
Reagan and British Prime Minister Thatcher took office. The collapse of America’s
Nasdaq in early twenty-first century was blasted by the exposure of the Enron scandal,
and it was no coincidence that the global financial crisis in 2008 was blasted by the
bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers caused by its own fraud. In both cases fraud and
deception were the root cause, and the US government played “double standards”
both times, so it all boiled down to morality and ethics in the end.
Human realization of nature’s value and their nature-related values can trace back
to Renaissance that took place in Europe between the 14th and thesixteenth century,
and the Enlightenment Movement later that gave birth to the humanistic spirit that
put man instead of god in the center. Humanitarianism emancipated the mind and laid
an important foundation for the new round of industrial revolution and commercial
civilization. Ecological civilization, a new form of civilization, also needs a new
industrial revolution, which is preluded by the new mental emancipation and new
values. This is bound to bring about the switch from “human-based development”