In our quest to motivate people to act when it comes to creating a sustainable economy and habitable planet, we keep returning to narratives, because stories are how we make sense of the world and we’re all influenced by them. In fact, we’re fed a constant diet of stories via advertising, and virtually every other form of media we consume.
When we think of ourselves as isolated and independent, it’s easy to buy into the narrative of social Darwinism…it’s dog eat dog world (ever seen a dog eat a dog?), “every man for himself,” or a lifelong quest to be your “best self.” The idea of being isolated can feed loneliness (currently an epidemic) and the sense that we don’t need to care about anything else and nobody cares about us.
Anyone who’s studied philosophy or anthropology will know that the idea of being an independent individual is very modern (historically) and very European. In many thought systems, the self is interconnected and interdependent with a whole lot of other conditions. In these traditions we have multiple selves and selves that are interwoven with other factors. We co-create a self in relationship to everyone and everything we encounter. We have a self that is derived from our personal history and memories.We have a self that slots into our roles and the expectations we must meet (like being a good lover, a good boss, a good friend). But we also have the animal self. The embodied self. The self that requires good water, healthy food, clean air, time in the outdoors, and the support and attention of other beings. All of these selves require relationships with other entities (nature, nurturing, social structures) to thrive. At bottom, human beings need to be in relationship to be happy. Community matters, and as our conventional ways of gathering together have eroded (churches, service clubs, bowling leagues) and our time is increasingly taken up with digital and virtual relationships (which are poor equivalents) it’s taken a toll on our mental health.
As much as the whole freedom convoy movement makes me sad, one thing that it has done is fulfill a need for people who felt ignored or discounted to find community. If it weren’t based so much on disinformation and rage I’d be encouraged by it.
I’ve often wondered why the environmental community hasn’t been able to achieve the same sort of traction. And I think part of it may be that isolated macho heroes banding together to fight a malignant villain is an easy story for people to relate to, whereas the story of recognizing our commonalities, our common vulnerabilities, our dependence on nature and relationship and each other is not a story that people get excited about. And while we can blame Big Oil and politicians for our environmental problems, we’re still happily buying that oil and consuming more resources than the planet can sustain, often simply because we can. It’s much more appealing to pick fights with people we identify as “other” versus taking a hard look at our own expectations, fears, and lifestyle. Not too many Hollywood movies are made about people who spend time cultivating relationships, gardens or care. We prefer movies with gunfights and well-defined villains and heroes. Not too many action heroes escape on bikes or in compact cars. We’d like to think that we understand right and wrong. But the world doesn’t work like that. The moral world is a sea of grey.
For a time, I was a teaching assistant in a course on the ethics of yoga. Most people who take yoga don’t even realize it’s founded in ethical principles, because honestly, it’s not a big seller when presented that way. There are five main ethical principles: not harming, first and foremost; not being greedy (i.e. not taking more than you need), being truthful, not taking what is not freely given (i.e. not stealing), and moderation (e.g. avoiding excess and overstimulation). And while I think most other religions echo these values, most of us have managed to divorce our personal ethics from our economic principles. A case in point, while we all believe in not being greedy, the whole driver of capitalism is a constant quest to get more. And hence, the argument that real estate speculators and investors are driving up the price of housing gets little to no airtime. No one seems to have an issue with someone owning ten houses with the mortgages being fully paid by tenants who simply cannot afford to get on the property ladder. The point is, we seem to have a large disconnect between our professed ethics and desires and our economic behavior. We say we want to impact climate change, and then we buy big SUVs and complain about the price of gas. We hand public institutions like nursing homes over to private enterprise, regardless of research proving that non-profits do a better job. Corporations, are not driven by ethics or relationships. Their main purpose is to generate profits for shareholders. We would do well to remember that in our current atmosphere of anti-government and pro-privatization sentiment.
The government is us. It’s an expression of our “collective self.” If we choose not to pay attention or follow or engage, then we can’t really grouse about what policies they enact. And if we don’t know what their policies are, and if we don’t care if they refuse to speak to media (BIG RED FLAG!), or show up to debates (another BIG RED FLAG!), then, as the saying goes, we get the government we deserve. Hopefully we can understand that self and others, people and government are all connected. We can choose isolation, or we can come together. We can tune out, or we can turn up. The society we live in is a continuous home improvement project, which is only as good as the effort we put in. If we can think of our selves as part of something greater, and grounded in ethical principles, we can find more joy and motivation to work on the hard things.
Weekly News Digest - “The Blowhole”
India has been in the news this week, but here’s a good news story that hasn’t received much press.
Some investigative journalism from The Narwhal about Ryan Amato and why the OPP has kicked the can over to the RCMP.
California is suing Big Oil for “Climate Deception.”
And a link to Gen Dread, which provides great articles about the climate crisis and how to cope with the emotional fallout.
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