Humility & Sustainability

The act of being sustainable is difficult. It’s become too easy not to be. But for those who have chosen to, the practice has become increasingly complicated by the cognitive dissonance that is a result of the disparity between their own viewpoint and that of the larger social context. Practicing an ideal as a lifestyle in what seems to be the early stages of a larger movement must always be difficult because you are by definition you are on the front lines. It is even more difficult to practice and spread the ideas of sustainability without appearing to be holier than thou. Say for instance, you abstain the use of pesticides on your lawn but Joe Neighbor does not share your perspective or maybe even conviction, how does one explain ones own decision to forgo those pesticides without condemning the man who brings in your mail while your on vacation? How can one disseminate an ideal while maintaining an essential humility? Because really it is humility that lies at the heart of the beginning of sustainability, it is accepting what we have done in the past is wrong and moving forward having learned from our mistakes. However telling someone they’ve been in the wrong and now they need to be humble about it, the delivery loses a certain amount of effectiveness off the bat. Now it’s socially taboo to discuss religion and politics, so I’ll leave religion alone. At this point unfortunately, both ends of the political spectrum have not fully adopted the ideals of sustainability. So when one prescribes to those ideals, most people believe that you must also buy into the sum total of tenants of the Left. However, sustainability is much more important than political allegiance and one of the problems with the early movement is that it has not yet been separated from this. Some people that I speak with about the issue believe whole-heartedly that adopting sustainability as a practice is admitting defeat to Democrats and they simply cannot separate the two.