Q: What influences a person’s sense of stewardship for the natural
> environment?
> A:
This is going to sound AWFUL… but I think for a lot of my friend’s
and acquaintances… I think it is guilt.
I do not think it is altruism. I think it is self motivated
insecurity. I think that there is a public bandwagon that has
started, for whatever reason (political lobby groups like Greenpeace,
etc), and it is brainwashing people into thinking anything
“environmentally focused” is good. Of course, as arbitrary and vague
as that is, I agree with that logic. I also agree, however absurd it
is in this complex web of interconnectedness that is the world…. I
*do* think one person can make a difference. It might not be true,
but it sure as hell makes me feel good. So that is what motivates
*MY* sense of stewardship….. BUT…
BUT… listening to the modern lobbysists about the environment
creates a void, or dark hole, in our emotional psyche. The nature of
*ANY* advertising is to create a need… to instill a desire in
someone for something… so that they actually feel less complete
without it. Whether it is: music, a cleaning product, a car…. the
nature of advertising and promoting that product creates a void in our
pscyhe…. And “ENVIRONMENTALISM” has become a “product” of sorts.
As much as environmentalism has been promoted… people find
themselves doing environmentally focused things simply to “feel
better†about occupying their space and time in this world.
Environmentalism has not been so much a positive force in the
political world… instead of highlighting the good, and the
accomplishments… in an effort to further the agenda and secure more
funding, etc…. they are constantly creating a guilt minded
consumer… that it is each individual’s fault for the waste and
environmental degradation tha has befallen this planet… which is a
*TREMENDOUS* problem, because negotiating the infrastructure of the
problem, we see that it is HUGE HUGE HUGE… and much larger than one
person (not to mention they moved on to the individual realizing that
the people truly responsible.. the government and corporations, are
not and will not be held accountable for their actions). Albeit the
“one person can make a difference†idea is true, it isn’t a solution
to the much greater problem of environmentalism being an ornate,
interconnected web of issues… that every issue relies on another.
There is an issue with recycling because of the amount of fossil fuels
it takes to get the trucks around. And those fossil fuels ruin the
atmosphere, causing atmospheric problems, that cause problems with our
farming (too hot, for example) which means we have less agriculture,
which means we cannot sustain the population, which means there will
be a massive problem with society trying to function, which will lead
to poverty and homelessness, which will lead to much more trash and
dirtier streets, which leads to more problems with infrastructure and
recycling… etc.
Now… that is a long, out there line of logic… but it simply to
show that it is all connected, and having this mentality that “one
person can make a difference†devalues the complexity of the issue. I
understand that the “one person†idea is a marketing idea by the
environmentalists to stimulate grassroots activity, but it creates the
wrong overall philosophy….
So, in the end, we are not resolving the problems, but we are creating
a culture of humans that feel powerless and incapable of making a
difference… SO… so to fill the void, we put ourselves in a
situation where we participate in, possibly futile, social outlets
without ever resolving or addressing the real problems…