Thinking about consequences. People are so driven by comfort and self-preservation. And that should work to the advantage of the planet…because we need it to be comfortable (we need it to be anything… obviously).
We respond pretty reasonably to immediate personal cause and effect scenarios. We can weigh the consequences of our potential actions and bypass our immediate desires in order to serve our greater self-interest. But for some reason, on a large scale…we are less willing to act in the interest of this type of self-preservation.
Take sex for example. Most people would prefer to have unprotected sex. It is not always convenient to plan to do otherwise. Yet in the interest of avoiding the variety of discomforts that unprotected sex can result in …most people will opt for taking a few extra steps.
Everything we do has a consequence. We are seeing that large scale as fires rage and plastic rains from the sky. But most people cannot be bothered to consider how their actions are playing out on a large scale.
Maybe it’s a faulty defense mechanism. Since we can’t seem to figure out how to fight and there’s no place flee.
Like how prey goes into shock while being eaten alive.
Our collective attitudes and outdated ideas about excess somehow equating success. Excessive consumption is just a synonym for gluttony. And that is red lined as a sin, isn’t it? But we are just out here littering, buying unnecessary items, not being accountable for what we are using and where it goes when we are done.
If you could get the clap because you don’t recycle, would you do it? What if you got a new STI every time you littered or bought a case of bottled water? Just curious.
In the grand scheme of things I’d rather have an STI than suffocate to death on toxic fumes while little kids are choking down water full of lead…but here we are. Making bad choices…because we are kind of lazy.
Our selfishness should be the main motivation behind putting the environment first. It should work to our advantage. But it’s not, because society has taught us to prioritize material accumulation over everything else.
And so many of us are hoping that somehow it will all be okay.
And it will be (in one way or another).
Just maybe not for us.
And the solution isn’t taking sides and yelling at each other about whose fault it is. We need to rewrite our values as a species and move forward like our lives depend on it. Because they do.
There is a large percentage of the human race competing for the Darwin awards, and at this rate…even those who aren’t competing are probably getting a trophy.
© Elizabeth McLaughlin | August 24, 2019
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