The Boy Who Cried Wolf

"Even when liars tell the truth, they are never believed. The liar will lie once, twice, and then perish when he tells the truth."

Now I know the story well enough - at least the version of the story that I know - to remember that the boy was indeed "having fun" with the villagers and purposely crying "wolf" in order to disrupt their activities.

I've often wondered if the modern environmental movement might be accused of "crying wolf" by those outside of the movement -- at least in the more extreme cases where "environmentalists" have made claims about life on earth as we know it coming to an end. And now, as the severity of the environmental - indeed, the sustainability - crisis increases and the sustainabilists continue to increase the magnitude of their collective voices... now so many people tune out those voices because they believe they've heard the message before.

Back to the boy...

What if the story is told a bit differently. This time, the boy actually sees a wolf in the distance prior to the time he first cries wolf. The villagers come, and in doing so scare the wolf away, so the villagers see nothing and accuse the boy of lying. This happens again, and perhaps again. And then the boy cries "Wolf!" but no villagers come. The wolf is not afraid...


Bringing this back to today, perhaps there are different messages for different audiences.
To the sustainabilists: be careful not to exaggerate the message, lest you be blown off. Yes, the message is ever more critical to communicate, and yet the world as we know it will not end tomorrow, or even the day after.


To the rest: rather than writing off previous warnings as wrong, thus rendering current warnings unworthy of your attention... instead consider the possibility that the previous warnings have only been a bit too early and a bit exaggerated, thus serving more as a forewarning to the challenges we see today and the future challenges to come.