Every once in a while, I'm told that I need to cheer up, read happier books, relax, spend less time worrying about the state of the world. But recently I've been honestly wondering if the inverse is the case: have we humans reached a point at which we are creating change faster than we can adapt to it, that we aren't as "big picture" as the problems we face? This isn't cynical; it's not lack of faith in people, but a sense that we don't understand the gravity of the situation we're in and it won't sink in fast enough for us to avert some serious consequences. For instance, we know we've been changing the climate of the entire planet we live on, but in response most people do little more than recycle (if that). I have to believe that if we really thought it was going to cost our lives (literally for some, but certainly life as we know it for us all), we'd be more motivated to act. In fact, it is costing lives already, and we've yet to make the connection.
We still seem to be taking the path of least resistance and thinking that our small acts of treason against the world won't hurt anything. We seem to forget that we are part of a community of billions, and our actions together amount to a tremendous amount. So how do we buy things without knowing where or how they are produced, or shrug the vaguely-acknowledged reality off because we not the ones to blame, we're just buying things as we always have, we're innocent participants in the system. Our stuff has always been made in sweatshops. It's always been made of petroleum-based plastics. Our farms have always been huge fields of one overproduced and overfertilized crop for miles, that's how it's supposed to be. It all looks too lovely to have a dark side.
We say we can't afford to live justly and sustainably, it's too expensive, and giving up some of our gadgetry and creature indulgences is just too much to ask. We value our individualism, our right to choose and to buy. And the imposition of a value system that preaches sacrifice is anathema to our sense of entitlement. In fact, the imposition of any value system that uses "should" and "shouldn't" rather than "this is just what I think, you can think and do what you want" doesn't seem to get very far. I am not saying all of this to be negative, I just want people to think. And deeply, a really honest look at ourselves, at what we do and who we are, with an eye to our collective future and what we are going to do to create it wisely. I think that's actually quite positive.
