My Selfish Gene
Photo by Darren Robb/Getty Images
Chip Giller, founder of Grist, tells the Philadelphia Inquirer that appealing to the general populace’s innate sense of altruism when it comes to environmentalism may not be enough to win people over.
He says:
“Fundamentally, we live in a consumer society, and at a base level, the environmental movement needs to appeal to that,” he said. “I think it’s wonderful to do things for altruistic purposes, but America is a capitalist society, and those values echo down from corporations to individuals. We want to make it more fashionable and socially acceptable to drive a Prius than own an SUV.”
I understand how the wheels of the consumer capitalist machine revolve, but I’ve always raised a skeptical eyebrow towards green consumerism, which is quite different from consuming consciously. The latter places needs above wants. The former, however, objectifies the movement but sees no inherent value in something other than keeping in step with the zeitgeist, persisting in the same excessive spending patterns reflexively with neither analysis nor forethought.
The greening of popular taste is not without merit, of course, because the sudden spike in demand has not gone unnoticed by corporations who wield the power to reseed the playing field COMPLETELY through the sheer enormity of their supply chains. Which is why it’s important for us to continue to vote with our dollars. I think a large part of my ambivalence also stems from the fact that fads fade.
Environmentalism is about making better choices, that is still true. But it’s more than just vegetable-tanned leather and organic cotton skivvies, even though I regard both highly. Much more.
Grist editor David Roberts relays my point far more eloquently, noting that while reshaping social attitudes to make green “cool,” is a smart move, we need to look deeper beyond merely targeting self-interest.
In our consumer culture, many, many entities need you to think your self-interest is best served by freeing yourself of any hardship or inconvenience. Why use a brush when you can handi-wipe? Why deal with all the strange, dirty people when you can live in a gated enclave? Why cook when you can order in? And so on.
But it’s a grossly narrow and distorted conception of what our true interests are. Furthermore, it works actively against a whole array of progressive causes, from poverty and inequality to environmental health.
One of the things progressives need to do is contest this understanding of self-interest. We need to remind people that a good life includes healthy social ties, free time, good food, honest labor, commitment to something larger than yourself. Freeing yourself from all hardship won’t make you a good person or a happy person.
That’s the central obstacle. I have no objection to short-term tactical considerations, appealing to people’s base interests. But we should never stop trying to convince people that they’ve been lied to about what they are and what they can be. The ties of place and family and community are not annoyances to be escaped when finances permit. They are the very stuff of being human.
