Function Dictates Form

“Function dictates form” is a belief that the on-the-ground, real and specific changes that any group or person advocates for are a reflection and an embodiment of the new reality that this person or group would create. In other words, the “function” of the group—the policies it advocates for, the actual reforms it pushes—exemplify the “form” of the change the group is promoting. The function of large scale government investment dictates a form for society that is new, forward-oriented, and empowering.

We here at Breakthrough (Generation) are often accused of wanting to techno-fix our way clear of any serious social or cultural change. In other words, a will to create clean energy so that we can maintain our overly consumerist, overly isolationist, and overly self-involved American lifestyles is often projected onto BTI and BTGen. This is far from the case. Instead, we are believers in what I call the “function dictates form” model of social change. A discussion about function versus form might benefit all of us who wish to bring change to the world, be it to solve climate crisis, lift billions out of poverty, redefine the American city, or achieve energy independence from foreign oil.

Regarding Breakthrough Generation, Our Controversy and our Perceived “Tech-Fix” Fixation

But the fact remains that when we put our money into technological innovation in this country, we are able to achieve at a pretty rapid pace…If the money and the motivation were there, I don’t think it’s wrong or ignorant of me to say that we could be taking potentially massive strides in clean energy technology.

I am going to apologize up front if this is too self-referential for some people’s tastes.

Right now, I am two parts confused, one part troubled and (I’ll admit it) one part amused regarding the flak we at Breakthrough Generation have been drawing the past few days on ItsGettingHotInHere and the conversations it has sparked and mood it has set in the office. I don’t think any of us are any less determined to advance a mission we see as essential, but how we do so and what that means has been the cause of some serious discussion.

The smart and passionate people I work with are working through some serious inner turmoil over the direction the movement represented on IGHIH is headed. I have come to question whether this movement is even capable of seriously advancing an agenda of clean energy, global prosperity and just and equitable social change. My new friend and BTG summer fellow Helen Aki posted a serious, thoughtful and questioning post on IGHIH hoping to explain where we are coming from, and where we would like a place on the quilted mosaic of the youth climate/energy movement, and thus far she has been met largely with bitterness and a refusal to recognize even the goodness of our intentions. Yes, we have been criticized for our style, but also for content and beliefs that are projected upon us and that we do not hold.

Are we part of an Environmental Movement? (Or, What to do When Energy Becomes Our Number One Priority)

I have said before that I don’t consider myself an environmentalist. You might be saying, “What is this kid doing at a think tank which is so clearly ecologically concerned if he doesn’t think he is an environmentalist? Wham-bam thank you ma’am, you ARE an environmentalist.” Well, let me explain what I mean. Some of my friends went to Powershift, and I stayed on campus to pursue other interests. I started going to Student for Environmental Action (SEA) meetings on my campus to increase my social connections. It was at SEA that a friend lent me Break Through, which made it clear that climate change is an existential crisis. If it is not stopped, climate change poses a direct threat to our country, our society, our world, and our ability to help everyone on this earth—by improving the lives of those in this country, by creating the conditions for modernization abroad, by helping governments discover their ability and responsibility to lift their citizens out of poverty, by empowering people everywhere.

I see that our civilization’s great strides towards global prosperity are taking a toll on our planet—but it doesn’t have to be this way. In the end, I see that these two problems—the ability to give every person the right to life, quality of life and life choices, and the ability to treat our Earth responsibly are linked. This link is energy: how we use it, where we get it from, how we think about it. The existential crisis of climate change is so exhilarating and momentous because, in solving this crisis, we have the opportunity to create a society that both treats the planet responsibly and allows for universal well-being for all people.