"What we are missing, utterly and completely, in this government is accountability"
About this Quote
A line like this lands because it refuses the polite euphemisms politics lives on. “Missing” is gentle, almost administrative, then Hawken spikes it with “utterly and completely,” a phrase that shuts the door on incremental excuses. The sentence isn’t a policy critique so much as a moral diagnosis: the system’s central failure isn’t one bad bill or one corrupt official, but the absence of consequences that would make public power behave like it has an owner - the public.
Hawken’s intent is also strategic. As an environmentalist, he’s arguing that ecological collapse isn’t just a science problem; it’s a governance problem. Climate and biodiversity don’t fail because we lack data. They fail because responsibility is diffuse by design: agencies blame legislators, legislators blame markets, markets blame consumer demand, and everyone points to the clock. “Accountability” becomes the missing connective tissue between knowledge and action, the thing that would force decisions to match stated values.
The subtext is an indictment of structures that reward short-term optics and privatize risk. Environmental harms are famously slow, distributed, and hard to litigate; that makes them perfect for a political economy built to evade blame. By framing accountability as absent “in this government,” Hawken signals impatience with bipartisan inertia and regulatory capture without naming villains. It’s a quote engineered to travel: short, absolute, and accusatory enough to make listeners supply their own examples - from fossil fuel subsidies to toothless enforcement to revolving doors - which is exactly how a critique becomes a coalition.
Hawken’s intent is also strategic. As an environmentalist, he’s arguing that ecological collapse isn’t just a science problem; it’s a governance problem. Climate and biodiversity don’t fail because we lack data. They fail because responsibility is diffuse by design: agencies blame legislators, legislators blame markets, markets blame consumer demand, and everyone points to the clock. “Accountability” becomes the missing connective tissue between knowledge and action, the thing that would force decisions to match stated values.
The subtext is an indictment of structures that reward short-term optics and privatize risk. Environmental harms are famously slow, distributed, and hard to litigate; that makes them perfect for a political economy built to evade blame. By framing accountability as absent “in this government,” Hawken signals impatience with bipartisan inertia and regulatory capture without naming villains. It’s a quote engineered to travel: short, absolute, and accusatory enough to make listeners supply their own examples - from fossil fuel subsidies to toothless enforcement to revolving doors - which is exactly how a critique becomes a coalition.
Quote Details
| Topic | Justice |
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