For the last couple of years Ive became more environmnetally with my entire lifestyle, went veggie, recycle almost everything, clothing, shopping, transportation, etc. Although here lately I seem to obsess and frown apon everything I see because I know where it will all end up. Ill be driving on the highway and only see pollution, the same way at work, and pretty much everywhere I go. Ive become overly frugal to the point that i am having a negative image on everything. Anyone else feel this way or have some input on what can help? Thanks all shawn
sometimes the truth is more depressing...albeit more fulfilling. i would rather have the peace of mind in knowing that im not one of "those people". as for the negative image, theres not much you can do about the constant pollution and assholes who drive SUV's, i try to just see past that and appreciate what's beyond the filth of human consumption, which is, of course, a beautiful world!
This way I saw people becoming misanthropes, the ultimate prejudice , as one is not accused of hating reds, yellows, rich people or gay people, because one hates the whole mankind. I can tell something: there are people who have a strong instinct of collaboration, mutual care, and predisposition to help the others, and there are people who live their lives ignoring such impulses, in case they did have them. If one has such natural positive social feelings, good, but it is not sane and sound to demand all the fellow people to have them. On the other hand, I naturally have a non-USA approach to the environmental issues. USA in the only country where you see millions of people buying and driving SUVs in well paved road and streets with more than a few cases of mad people committing arson with SUV showrooms and warehouses, "to save the environment". The we-are-individualistic-as-a-group approach of American society has lead to a quasi-religion zealot-like "environmental caring" people whose main goals seem to be to keep themselves pure and innocent about a sort of "damnation of the Earth", while keep trying to tell other how to live their lives, some times with an attitude that adds deals of affectation and/or fascism to what should be good example and education. He or she who likes to do something about the environment maybe would invest their time recycling a little less and paying attention and finding ways to install that pollution originated in driving a SUV is "not trendy" and individuals who buy a SUV, not having them to visit all the corners of their cattle ranch, are very low class people, even lumpen, trying to impress beyond what they really are. Use the time you spend in recycling five sheets of paper to write a letter to an ABC advertiser saying you won't buy their products because they sponsor "Extreme Makeover" where they like to build bigger than necessary cardboard houses with 1000 gallons bathtubs filled with a Fontana di Trevi of hot water, just to prize a fellow who did something socially responsible like donating a kidney, a contradiction no matter the angle you look at it. Changing general behavior on environmental issues is like having a lever: better you get not confused yourself by flower sniffers, raw vegetable eaters or hut lovers and investigate where a good fulcrum can be found in your society to make it change. Otherwise you are in peril of becoming a cynical person, or worse, to raise the lever above your head and menace the others to give vent to your frustration. [You're welcome to correct my English]
As the old saying goes, "don't think about change, BE the change". You'll do more by example than anything else you can do. (Moderation) You don't want to appear as an extremist. Concern for the environment wasn't even on the public radar screen until the 60's. People are still becoming aware. It takes time to turn a big ship like this around. But we are. Keep pushing. x
Nothing wrong with hating the human race... I embody the saying. "I'm not a racist, I hate everyone equally" Ok, ok... I hate breeders, pro-lifers, homophobics, and Über-religious people more than anyone else. Suffice it to say, I hate Catholics.
