I listen to NPR/MPR when I am in the car. Which, to be fair, isn1’t that often these days. only to go grocery shopping, which is once or twice a week. One time, I heard a panelist talking about how people tend to think too much of the impact they have on the world. We like to think that what we does matter–when it doesn’t really, in the big scheme of things. She was…a mathmatician/data analyst of some sort I think?
Today, I heard a woman say we liked to have a clcar hero and a clear villain. She said history is not about that, but more about the choices individuals make. This was in relation to the desegregation of schools. How, yes, the KKK were involved, but it wasn’t as if non-KKK white people weren’t thinking and saying similar things.
I mention both of these because they seem to be at odds with each other. I will say at the outset that I agree with the first woman more than the latter. But, I do agree with the second woman that life is not a Marvel movies. It’s not, ah, Iron Man versus Thanatos. There are way more people who are just middling, and, yes, the choices we make matter. Sort of.
This is where it gets sticky. Let’s take environmental concerns. We’re fucked. We are past the point where we can save the earth. This has proven to be true. But, let’s pretend that we can do something about it. In that case, it would behoove us for everyone to do something. But, here’s the thing. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. The first two are more important than the third, which is the one corporations push. Why? Because it doesn’t affect their bottom line whereas the first two do.
Recycling doesn’t help. Much. It doesn’t hurt except that we’re running out of room to put the recycling. There is harm, however, in the messaging that if you recycle, then everything is all good–environmentally, I mean. There have been too much emphasis on recycling when the results are minimal.
There was a letter on Ask A Manager from someone who went way overboard in recycling at their place of work. Other people were casual about it, and they did not like it. They went digging through the trash to put the reclying in the right bin. That is odd, but fine because it’s mostly just about them. But then they got mad because it didn’t make a difference. the person(s) was still doing it. So they put it on top of the bins rather than sort the trash. They rationalized it by saying that they were doing it for the children and the planet, and someone had to.
Side Note: I hate ‘but the children, though’ as an excuse. It’s used to cover up a lot of bad behavior, and it’s something adults hide behind way too often.