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Environmentalism and Enlightenment
Environmentalism is about forward thinking. It is enlightened thinking too.
Date: 4/20/2010 12:35:59 AM ( 14 y ) ... viewed 2504 times
Environmentalism and Enlightenment
The "environmental movement" has surely got to admit defeat by now. We have missed a lot of important goals and the trajectory of society is the other way.
Still, I feel proud to still be one of their number. I consider myself an environmentalist - someone who is concerned enough about the environment to do, say, think, and be kind to it. If it were my choice, I would change a few things.
I am going to go even further in my boosting my ego and say I think it is enlightened to be an environmentalist. We want changes to happen now that are going to happen sometime in the next 100 years anyhow, and by doing it now we would save so much. It just makes sense, it is forward thinking, enlightened thinking.
When we think of a different way to live, one that conserves nature and is more peacefull, more helpfull, then we are least trying to become enlightened. Enlightenment itself is perhaps what one achieves when all they do and all they think and know is "an act of an enlightened mind". Maybe living that way can help us achieve it, whatever "enlightenment" is.
We believe it is possible to have a better way to live. The violence and drug gangs and crime and wars and hate and inequality really are not essential parts of society, we CAN surely imagine a world without them. Sure, world peace. I said it. I am just saying it is possible.
We can live as examples of how to get there. If everyone lived like environmentalists do, if everyone consumed like us, we would be a lot closer to that better world. If nobody bought a new car "until they produce an electric car" we would have had them 20 years ago. If we all bought organic foods, agriculture would have been reformed to a much more earth friendly way, and we would be healthier. Eating and living in healthy ways is surely the state of an enlightened person.
There is also our votes. Votes really could count for something, but so far there are just two political parties that almost everyone votes for, so nothing changes. Environmentalists vote for one of the other parties, not even because we like their politics but simply because it would be a change from the two who have allways been in power - the ones who brought us to this point do not get our votes!!
The things we do, from how far we live from work to how we get our exersize and entertainment, and turning off the lightbulbs in between, are lifestyle choices that could change the world if we all did them.
Eventually there comes a state of mind that begs for that better world to come. We treat everyone with respect and when that gets really difficult then we try to be compassionate. It is said that on the journey of enlightenment the hardest part, and the most rewarding, is to become enlightened about the human condition. We be nice, nice R us.
Lifestyle, consumer power, votes, attitude - if you really consider what the impacts of your choices are, then you are on a path of enlightenment.
We must have a long ways to go because it is still considered a bit weird to even talk about enlightenment, or of being enlightened. It just sounds too elitist and snobbish to let the word "enlightenment" enter our conversations.
Still, I think it is possible to toss little tidbits out there at times, like when I mention "positive energy", and how we can try to spread positive energy wherever we go in our daily routine. "Be good to people and you will feel good" often gets a snort and a sneer, but some people try it out when they hear others say it.
We WILL get there eventually. It might be 100s of years, but there really isn't any other way - we have to learn to live sustainably, and with concern for others, or we will just die out, eventually. Lets do it sooner rather than later, because so much can be saved.
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