Opus 2012-203, Green Pieces: Levels of Environmentalists, Level 1, The Unwashed Masses

We need to admit something about life.  It is not a new insight.  It is the way it is.  Most people don’t have a clue.  The majority of people living in the Soviet Union during the days of Stalin probably got up, went to work, came home to dinner and went to bed.  They may have had complaints but that is normal.  They had no real opinions.  They had no society changing ambitions.  They were the sheep of the culture.  They were not hassled by the Communist government because they caused no problems and were no threat.

The majority of Americans and almost all Europeans fit into this category.  They have no sense of the long term.  If they can’t taste it, touch it or hear it, they don’t really care.  They have no real thoughts about the future.  I remember talking to man who was a third generation American.  His great grandparents came from Mexico.  He was a teacher and a great human being.  He had a comment about the families he served in the Los Angeles Unified School District.  He said they get a check.  The rent is due next week.  The utilities are due now.  They need groceries and school clothes.  What do they do?  They go to Disneyland.  That was what they wanted to do today.  Tomorrow they will complain because they don’t have any money.  Note this was his analysis, now mine.

Most people are this way about the environment.  They don’t even think about it.  It is not that they want to destroy it, but they are not tripping over trash now, so why not throw the cigarette out the window.  The kids I work with think nothing of brushing trash off their desk onto the floor, after all, that is what we have janitors for, right? 

This is where they are in life.  There is little in their entertainment and leisure that will change it.  The school is concerned about bullying and global warming.  The students are smart enough to roll their eyes and go back to texting.  They grow up and the behavior continues.  If they vote they will vote the way their parents did, usually on a straight party ticket.

You can tell them to recycle but they will still throw their empty cans out the window.  You can tell them to buy a Prius, they will still go for the horsepower and noise.  You can tell them, but they are not paying attention.

To be continued...

homo unius libri