Being Reasonable and Living Reasonably in the 21st Century

In our society today, does a reasonable person exist? Do we as consumers actually make decisions on our own? Most big companies will have us think that we do while we actually don’t. Being fatigued from working hard to earn money to buy stuff, we don’t always take time to make decisions about what we’re buying or what we need versus want. We are used to and familiar with this system of buy fast, buy often, and buy bigger that we never take the time to really make a decision that will be most impactful and important to us. When was the last time you read all the ingredients of different brands of canned spaghetti sauce or cereal to choose the best one? Becoming more mindful of our choices will result in choices that we feel better about making. This can result in a trickle down effect that will affect other behaviors becoming more sustainable and important after seeing the benefits to the self and environment.

But how do you to get people to turn against years of over consumption and societal norms of luxury to live a simplifier life? The Reasonable Person Model gives us a good base to start with examining our behavior and how to go about changing it. The components -model building, being effective, and meaningful action- can help usher in this new change in behavior in a way that is not forced but can happen in a more comfortable way. In order to become more mindful of decisions being made, new mental models must be made to adjust the way we think and the way we go about doing things in a more sustainable manner. These will go against our norms and heuristics we have already developed but with practice and reinforcement can be changed to reflect more sustainable, mindful ones. Our new models will not work as fast the old ones because we will be taking more time to evaluate the option that will give us the best reward. With a high satisfaction and competency with the choices we make, we will see how effective we are being and will want to continue more of these behaviors.

The last part of the RPM, meaningful action, helps to tackle this problem by showing people that living a more sustainable life should be meaningful to them as it makes them feel better and is positive for the environment. Meaningful action also means participation within a community and its effects on that. Community will become vital in the resource descent, as people will rely on others for goods, social needs, ideas, and information. One’s actions will not only be meaningful to self and family, but also community where there is interdependence upon one another. By implementing these concepts in a plan for reduced consumptions and more sustainable living, people will be able to flourish and adapt to changes better. This will be a better way of life that people won’t need to be forced into but instead will look forward to the challenges that will be present in the future. With the inevitable need to lead a simpler, sustainable life, it is important that we try to get people to change their behaviors now so they will become more acclimated to these changes.