It's the hot new buzzword, incorporated everywhere. What does it mean? The word is tossed about with gay abandon, but few seem to consider the actual definition of the term. In point of fact, by definition, the term describes a requirement to maintain existing conditions. Quite obviously, this means that advancement or progress are inherently proscribed.
The concept of progress is clearly rooted in directional transformation; in other words, change. Change is antithical to sustainability, and nowhere in the world is the disconnect more clearly illustrated than in present-day USA - where many bleat about the beauty of sustainability, yet voted for a Presidential candidate who ran on a platform of change.
As noted in History of the Idea of Progress, the concept involves advancement from a condition of deprivation, ignorance, and insecurity toward the amelioration of these conditions. Such advancement, or change, or progress (take your pick; they all mean the same thing) is largely incompatible with the concept of maintenance, or sustainability.
The utopian ideal of sustainability, a mantra that is continually repeated today, is in fact little more than a call for the extinction of humans - although, curiously, those who call most loudly for "sustainability" generally do not themselves commit the ultimate act in support of their professed belief: as a rule, they don't commit suicide; instead, they pursue avenues by which to direct the behavior of less enlightened people. That would be you.
They love the planet. You're a pest.
