WHe has been sticking to his good resolutions since Ash Wednesday and is now on the home stretch. Anyone who has shown too much human weakness will be given one last chance to demonstrate strong will during Holy Week. To persevere, it is helpful to look to role models who make it easy to do without. So the activists of the last generation refrain from sticking themselves on streets, an undoubtedly good thing, not only because of the better traffic flow, but also because cyanoacrylate, commonly known as superglue, is based on fossil raw materials. In return, Volkswagen has decided not to continue producing cars like the Multivan T 6.2, even though customers have been queuing recently. A European Union cybersecurity directive is said to be to blame. Well, we didn't yet know that we could or even wanted to access the Internet with the van. Anyone looking for role models in sport can look to national coach Julian Nagelsmann, who will be without some regular players for the upcoming international matches.
Now the idea of giving up, at least the one that saves the climate and the world, has been on the decline for some time, perhaps because the economy is too or because as a result of Corona and inflation many people have to do without some desirable things anyway. Renunciation is inner freedom, writes Father Anselm Grün in the register; despite millions of books sold, all luxury is alien to him. A possible conclusion: Where shortages or prohibitions prescribe action or inaction, people are deprived of any opportunity to do without. If chocolate or cream cake were banned, who could choose to fast from sweets of their own free will?
There could therefore be an opportunity in refraining from issuing excessive bans. We could leave behind an image of humanity that sees only the wolf in the individual and that has long been scientifically considered outdated. There are plenty of reasons to think about this in the near future, such as the planned PFAS ban, which would hit the renewables industry hard, or the upcoming revision of the ban on combustion engines. A regulatory fasting period would be something, initially on a trial basis for 40 days. We could do as the church fathers did: the Sundays in between would be excluded, where laws and guidelines would be allowed to rain down.
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