Inescapable Path Dependency and Unbreakable Barriers: The Overpowering Presence of Capitalism in Sustainability Transformation

This paper is a contribution to a philosophical dialogue on the sustainability transformation, motivated by our observations of the modern world, wherein sustainability discourses often centre on transformation as a goal without critically examining where that transformation needs to occur. The continued seeming inability to achieve sustainable transformation seems to root in the very fabric of how the capitalist system operates. Trying to achieve sustainability within a system that has an opposing intent seems unable to produce transformation. The tension within sustainability transformation is described herein as a battle between truth and power and a threat to society’s ability to reimagine itself out of this path-dependent development, and thus requiring true autonomy, modernity, and civility. Through negative loops, such as accepting the normalisation of unsustainability as sustainability and taking path-dependency as inescapable, the narration of the inability to change becomes reality.