One Deep Cultural Anomaly

national | miscellaneous | news report Tuesday September 24, 2002 22:03 by Graham Caswell - Green Party caswell at indigo dot ie

Our world is organised to facilitate unsustainable behaviour.

It is a fact that most people in the 'developed' countries act in an environmentally destructive way. They drive cars, use detergents, eat meat at every meal...

Most people don't compost, don't use low-energy lightbulbs and don't think twice about jetting half way around the world for a holiday. They aspire to a large, well-heated house with many appliances and a car for everybody in the family. Worse still, they set the example in lifestyle to the other 80% of the world's people.

Moreover, most people don't vote green. They aren't members of Earthwatch, or Greenpeace, or any other environmental or social-justice NGO. They don't write to their political representatives or newspaper editors on environmental matters and they don't protest unless an issue affects them directly and immediately. Ireland now supports three celebrity gossip magazines, several car magazines, and many other publications covering a variety of topics. Yet, in the richest time in Irish history, when environmental issues from Climate Change to Waste Disposal to the Collapse of Fisheries are becoming harder and harder to avoid, Earthwatch magazine- the country's main environmental journal - depends on an under-resourced FAS scheme for its survival.

This is not just an Irish issue. Around the world the fortunes of Man. United (Plc.!) are far, far more important than any rain forest or coral reef. The Oscars, or the Grammys, or a single sporting event will attract much more attention and coverage than the Nitrogen Bomb or the state of the planet's ozone layer. Average people can recognise hundreds of brands, but only a few plants or trees. Children don't realise that 'chicken' is the body parts of dead hens, or that 'pork' is pieces of a dead pig. The conditions in which these animals exist is practically unmentionable in polite company and the environmental effects of their misery is as far removed from the consciousness of those who eat them as awareness of the sweatshops of Asia are to those who pride themselves on their stylishness.

Amidst this profound apathy and ignorance more money is spent in a single advertising campaign promoting cola-flavoured sugar-water than is in Greenpeace's entire annual budget. Every day, much, much more money is spent promoting a single brand of car than is spent raising awareness about climate change. Far, far more is spent encouraging children to eat Big Macs than is spent promoting healthy eating. More is spent promoting alcohol than on treating alcoholism. Overall, hundreds of billions of pounds are spent each year to promote the message that happiness and satisfaction and purpose in life can be found in cars, or sugar-water, or cosmetics, or fast food. Practically the entire media is dependent on consumerism for it's
existence and thus the majority of people see their world through commercial-tinged glasses. This is normalcy - ordinary everyday life.

Environmental destruction may have been around for millennia, but it has drastically accelerated since the enlightenment, the industrial revolution and the rise of corporate capitalism. In the last hundred years we have already seriously damaged the ozone layer, wiped out much indigenous forest, made many thousands of species extinct, introduced many toxins into the biosphere, seriously damaged most of the world's fisheries, destabilised the climate - and on and on. This isn't a technological problem; it is a cultural problem. We have become powerful beyond our wisdom and have enmeshed ourselves in a self-referencing, commercially-mediated worldview that is drifting further and further away from the physical and biological reality of the natural lifeforms and systems with which we share this planet and on which we depend. We do not have 100,000 years to stabilise our relationship with the rest of life - or 1000 years. Perhaps we have 10 years, perhaps we have 100 years. There is certainly reason for a sense of urgency.

It is important to recognise that the many, many forms of environmental degradation are merely symptoms of one deep cultural anomaly. In the evolution of our modern, global culture we have taken a wrong turn and now the behaviour that flows from that culture is unsustainable – even unsurvivable. As a group, we value some things that we should not value - and we fail to value some things that we should value; we do things that we should not do - and fail to do things that we should; and we believe things that are not true - and ignore truths that are staring us in the face. In any context greater than a few centuries what most of us see as 'normalcy' is, in fact, a gross anomaly.

Moreover our social institutions - the very 'system' itself - have grown and developed in accordance with our cultural miss-step. Many people's livelihoods depend on continuing and promoting some of the most socially and environmentally destructive behaviour ever seen on this planet. The structure and functioning of our media is similarly biased. A privileged number of people - generally the most powerful and influential individuals in our society- derive great advantage from the status quo. Our world is organised to facilitate unsustainable behaviour.

What is to be done in the face of this big-picture predicament? Well, some things seem obvious. Individuals who care and are aware should constantly work to lessen their own footprint. Like-minded people should work together and direct their frustrations towards those who promote destruction rather than those who imperfectly search for solutions. The 'Green Movement' must be wedded to the truth and must be uncompromising regarding the necessity for social justice. Those who chose a sustainable path should be celebrated, and those who promote unsustainable behaviour condemned.

'Saving the world' from the unsustainability of modern global culture and behaviour involves changing the minds and hearts of millions. It involves changing the way people see their world and themselves. The tools are words, images, song, stories, symbols and media and, above all, personal example.