Amerika

For any environmental protection to work, it must be unimpeachably honest, effective, and streamlined into the already-existing activities of human beings. The green industry however is dead-set against this because they thrive by making people feel exceptional.

Politics can kill us through memory. Once an issue is set forth in the press, we start reacting to that issue and we stop thinking about the situation it refers to. In the case of green politics, the politicization of the green idea quickly replaces the concept of protecting our environment.

When we talk about our environment, then, we should cast aside our expectations of left and right and the issues they’ve raised — issues that are largely symbolic and don’t address the problem itself. Instead, let’s just look at the problem: our world has finite capacity and we need to share that with the natural flora, fauna and ecosystems they together create.

It’s hard for us to do that in public however because whether socialist or communist, our societies operate by getting lots of people excited about an idea through self-interest. In the case of minority politics, that has conventionally happened by convincing people they are enlightened or should be self-righteous about a certain issue.

And it’s hard to argue with that. It brings in the bucks. It gets the issue in the press because there are a lot of people out there who feel better about life if they are the ones to bring it up in conversation, media or at a vote. However, because they are motivated by self-aggrandizement, they ignore any parts of it that will not be popular to a group.

In turn, they also end up creating the curse of the modern time, which is “make-work” activity. These actions occur when you look out there and find a news item or chore to fit a need to be seen doing something, or having something new on your front page. It’s the exact opposite of common sense, which is to find an activity that fits the goal.

As a result, we get “green” products that are ineffective but big moneymakers, and even people inventing hype so they can advance their own careers, culminating in blatant corruption as people with something to hide start highly visible public activity to make them seem like “the good guys” instead of the bad. Pretty soon we’re all just cheering for our team at the expense of truth, and because our proposals are flawed by dishonesty, are distancing ourselves from any chance of being effective.

But in the short term, that doesn’t matter, because most people are involved with these issues for a simple reason: to make themselves look good. Your friends think you’re smarter, your consumers think you’re safe to buy from, your constituents think you’re looking out for them, and your advertisers feel good to be part of a hot new trend. However, the problem of getting things done remains elusive.

Even worse, because the point of the activity is to be seen as addressing the problem, the best “solutions” are those which are highly visible but not effective. Back-breaking labor, throwing out everything you own for paltry substitutes, and creating awkward governmental process to certify some activity as “green” — these are the modern self-flagellation. Just as you wouldn’t argue with a man of God who whips himself twice daily, it’s hard to argue with someone buried under paperwork, green products and new expenses.

As we continue our green coverage here on CORRUPT, it’s important that we all think about the real bottom line — not dollars and sense, not whether it’s popular, but whether our proposed ideas solve the damn problem. If we want to overcome bipartisan chaos, we need to first and foremost have effective suggestions that fit into modern life as it is, making them easy to adopt and effective once adopted.

Tags: conservationism, environmentalism, greenism