Towards an Ecology of Being

I recycle my junk, I shop locally as much as I can, avoid plastic as much as I can, I don’t eat meat, I avoid toxic chemicals, my flat is powered by renewable energy; I do the things, but I do them to curtail the guilt of consumption, to alleviate a sense that my very existence is inherently destructive. I developed this sense at six years old and recently it has become articulated in mainstream discourse. The guilt I felt about eating meat as a child was overwhelming, and for the longest time it made me the object of ridicule. Consumption was my abject fixation, and it’s the focus in the confines of a consumer-based economy. But I know nothing I’m doing is making a meaningful difference. I strike a match in a tornado.

I fear that doing the things are equivalent to marking the box on the ballot paper and returning home with smug satisfaction; I’ve done the thing. These rituals are drainage for outrage, safely circumventing the systems which generate the outrage in the first place. The consumer is not to blame, but it is the consumer burdened with guilt. Do the things, because ritual is important, but remember that global industry requires us to be busy striking matches in the tornado, so it can go on undisturbed.

Pixels: https://www.wnycstudios.org/story/otm-how-environment-got-political

Originally published at girlgotakeyboard.wordpress.com on November 30, 2018.