Performative Environmentalism
May. 30th, 2019 07:52 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rynlingSustainability vs the Mason Jar Aesthetic
https://thebibliosphere.tumblr.com/post/175923334416/sustainability-vs-the-mason-jar-aesthetic-joy-on
I guess the point of this lengthy ramble is a complaint that the aesthetic of sustainability is actually more popular than actual ethical sustainable practices. Too many people are concerned with looking like they care, but don’t actually want to get into the nuance of things. And I get it, I do. It’s nice to feel like you’re doing something good. Who doesn’t want to feel like they’re taking responsibility for their time on this earth and being the best version of themselves?
But it has to require thought, and method, and looking beyond the narrow scope of your own four walls (metaphorical or otherwise) and what that one person on YouTube said, while merely swapping one form of consumerism for another because it looks and feels ethical, but not actually exacting any kind of global change.
And that’s the difference between using a mason jar to drink out of, and the Mason Jar Aesthetic. Being aware of your impact on the earth and doing what you can within your limits and means (and respecting the means of others), vs wanting to be seen as such. And it’s an important distinction and one that requires self reflection and a great deal more thought than buying into an aesthetic.
This is some good writing.
Here is a true story, which I promise is related.
In the Spring 2018 semester I taught an upper-level seminar about the intersections between culture and the environment. I set up the course to examine the main issues involved from multiple angles, but the conclusion of all of the scholars and analysts we read was more or less the same: An overwhelming majority of people around the world are extremely concerned about environmental issues and are strongly in favor of “greener” public policy. Unfortunately, the reason these desires are not accurately represented in the policy enacted by many governments is because the laws that direct what these governments can do and how they can do it were written in historical eras with vastly different concerns than our own, and it is not in the interests of the people who are already in power to change these laws. (The Electoral College system in the United States is a representative example of what I’m talking about.) Therefore, before we can change public policy, we need to reform the laws that shape the scope of our national governments.
For fourteen weeks, in class after class after class, we talked about how local governments, media producers, citizens’ groups, and individual people are already quite environmentally conscious, and we also talked about why policy regulating the vast majority of pollution and resource management needs to be enacted at the national level. Individual actions regarding the environment are important and meaningful, of course, but the harmful excesses of global neoliberal capitalism are larger than any one person can combat on their own.
So, at the end of the semester, I got a course evaluation (which is basically a standardized form that students can use to give the university feedback about a class and its professor) from a student who wrote, in all caps: THE PROFESSOR PRINTS OUT THE WEEKLY QUIZZES ON PAPER, THIS IS VERY WASTEFUL AND DISRESPECTFUL TO THE ENVIRONMENT.
https://thebibliosphere.tumblr.com/post/175923334416/sustainability-vs-the-mason-jar-aesthetic-joy-on
I guess the point of this lengthy ramble is a complaint that the aesthetic of sustainability is actually more popular than actual ethical sustainable practices. Too many people are concerned with looking like they care, but don’t actually want to get into the nuance of things. And I get it, I do. It’s nice to feel like you’re doing something good. Who doesn’t want to feel like they’re taking responsibility for their time on this earth and being the best version of themselves?
But it has to require thought, and method, and looking beyond the narrow scope of your own four walls (metaphorical or otherwise) and what that one person on YouTube said, while merely swapping one form of consumerism for another because it looks and feels ethical, but not actually exacting any kind of global change.
And that’s the difference between using a mason jar to drink out of, and the Mason Jar Aesthetic. Being aware of your impact on the earth and doing what you can within your limits and means (and respecting the means of others), vs wanting to be seen as such. And it’s an important distinction and one that requires self reflection and a great deal more thought than buying into an aesthetic.
This is some good writing.
Here is a true story, which I promise is related.
In the Spring 2018 semester I taught an upper-level seminar about the intersections between culture and the environment. I set up the course to examine the main issues involved from multiple angles, but the conclusion of all of the scholars and analysts we read was more or less the same: An overwhelming majority of people around the world are extremely concerned about environmental issues and are strongly in favor of “greener” public policy. Unfortunately, the reason these desires are not accurately represented in the policy enacted by many governments is because the laws that direct what these governments can do and how they can do it were written in historical eras with vastly different concerns than our own, and it is not in the interests of the people who are already in power to change these laws. (The Electoral College system in the United States is a representative example of what I’m talking about.) Therefore, before we can change public policy, we need to reform the laws that shape the scope of our national governments.
For fourteen weeks, in class after class after class, we talked about how local governments, media producers, citizens’ groups, and individual people are already quite environmentally conscious, and we also talked about why policy regulating the vast majority of pollution and resource management needs to be enacted at the national level. Individual actions regarding the environment are important and meaningful, of course, but the harmful excesses of global neoliberal capitalism are larger than any one person can combat on their own.
So, at the end of the semester, I got a course evaluation (which is basically a standardized form that students can use to give the university feedback about a class and its professor) from a student who wrote, in all caps: THE PROFESSOR PRINTS OUT THE WEEKLY QUIZZES ON PAPER, THIS IS VERY WASTEFUL AND DISRESPECTFUL TO THE ENVIRONMENT.
no subject
Date: 2019-05-31 07:49 pm (UTC)also see why I wouldn't be allowed to be a professorI had a conversation with my mom about this about a year or two ago. Back when she worked a corporate job, one of her work friends (some yuppy who was way more concerned with material stuff and appearances than, I don't know, enjoying life... so like the antithesis to my mom, yet they still hung out because work ANYHOW) talked about how she found some cool DIY veggie garden stuff online. She went on and on about how simple it was and you didn't need that many materials to do it and you can set it up on your back deck and blah blah blah. And my mom thought it was cute, but was really put off by it. She tried to explain to said work friend why she felt this way. Back when my mom was a kid and hell, even when she first had my sister, she wasn't exactly rolling in money. Her mother showed her how to do gardening when they didn't have much space or money to do so. They did it because it was cheaper than buying produce from a grocery store. And she spent most of her life being ridiculed while doing this because it marked her as poor and thus inferior.
And now people are doing exactly what she did to survive because it's a Cool Aesthetic and Green™.
So yeah. I get this. Reminds me of why I stopped teaching yoga classes and even going to them. I'd rather eat my own foot than listen to a gaggle of Karens gossip in their designer yoga pants before attending a class where they can be a Good Person for an hour and a half.
no subject
Date: 2019-06-01 05:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-06-03 01:51 pm (UTC)Also, I love your use of adding a trademark after Karen™ and I might have to write it that way from now on XD
no subject
Date: 2019-06-03 03:53 pm (UTC)The aesthetics v survival thing is just so. wharblegarble *hand gestures* I'm not trying to dunk on anyone's creativity, okay, I love seeing the wild ass stuff that people come up with when given free rein! But please don't forget that you're building on foundations that came from necessity! It's kind of like disability inspiration porn: this is someone's actual life that you are co-opting to make yourself feel better about your privileged* existence.
* Obviously those stories appeal across several segments of socioeconomic divisions and not all privilege is created equal, but I hate the intrinsic Othering of this where it's not about someone's actual life but about the lesson their story can impart instead of, I don't know, devoting money to curb cuts/audio pedestrian signals/accessible buildings.