We all hear about the stereotypic radical environmentalists in the news who do crazy things like throw cans of paint at fur coats or chain themselves to trees to prevent them from being cut down. And at some level, this makes sense to me. We should do everything we can to prevent further degradation of the environment by humans. Ideally, we should do what will benefit the most people in the future, whether or not it's good for us; whether or not we'll go to jail, or in other ways negatively impact our own lives or living conditions.
But, although I'm pretty idealistic, I don't think I'm THAT idealistic. Besides, I've come to realize that we view everything through the lens of our own humanity. That means that while we're working to save the environment and fighting to maintain a feeling of connection with the natural world around us, we can't forget that we are human, and we also have a responsibility to our own kind.
So, although we should work to stop wetland destruction and to find alternative fuel cells, there are more important issues at stake. People are dying by the millions. And while some of their problems can be fixed by fixing environmental issues, we should work on saving the humans first.
People feel this desire to feel connected to the Earth around them. Through the Earth, we can find God; we can view Creation in all its glory and get a feeling for just how small and insignificant we really are. Well, that's all well and good, and I think that we should work at expanding our horizons and realizing that we as humans are not the only things with intrinsic value. However, I think that some people take this feeling too far and forget to see the value in the people around them. Instead of looking to find God (or worth, for those of us who aren't sure about the whole God thing) in the snowflakes falling outside the window right now or the trees in a forest, what about the worth of your annoying roommate? Or that person who just ALWAYS says something annoying in class? Or the poor who don't have enough to eat, or enough money to buy their children Christmas presents?
The point I'm trying to make is that people can take radical environmentalism too far. While it is good to care for the environment and to find truth and beauty and God in the world around us, we should also search for the same truth and beauty and love in the people around us. We should realize that while we are connected to the natural world, that same connection connects to all the other people around the world, and we should do our best to care for them too.
Monday, December 3, 2007
Saturday, December 1, 2007
Making a Difference
What's your ultimate motivation?
I was asked this question recently, and my first impulse was to say something trite, like, "to save the world." It's a harder question than it seems at first though. Really, how many of us stop and think about the reasons for all our actions? Something about the question really stuck with me, and I've been thinking about the answer for the past few day. What is the motivation that drives me, that makes me, me? I would like to say that it is something noble and self-sacrificing, like working to save the world, or to help people, or to stop global warming, but I think that not only are those incredibly broad categories, they are also narrow at the same time and even shallow and single-faceted in a way. Because really, how can someone ignore self-preservation and the biological imperative for self-interest to focus solely on something like helping others? And wouldn't the aspect of life that makes them WANT to help others actually be their ultimate motivation, not the desire itself?
I would like to say that my "ultimate motivation" is the search for truth. This can take many forms, like not being very good at all the little white lies that we tell each other in our daily social interactions, to the more broad search for the truth about the meaning of life. I feel like in my recent life here at college, most of my choices have been striving to find the meaning and identity of God--is there a God, and if there is, who is (S)he? How can there be so many different ideas about religion--they can't all be right, can they? How do our ideas about God and religion affect our relationships with the people and world around us? It seems like the more I read and the more ideas I learn about, the more questions I have. But I keep searching, because even if there is no objective truth, I feel the need to determine some subjective ideas that I can accept, even if they aren't necessarily the opinions of the majority.
So, there's that--my overwhelming question that affects all my choices. But thinking about that leads to yet another question, can these ultimate motivations change? And if they do, are you still the same person you were? According to one of my best friends, you can't really change who you are--all you can change is how you go about accomplishing your goals. In other words, you can mature and change how you go about achieving said motivation, but you can't actually change what it is. I don't know how I feel about that. I feel like I've grown so much in the past year, especially, that I'm not at all the same person that I used to be. I don't think it would even have occurred to the me of last year to try to determine what was making me act the way I do. But maybe the fact that I wasn't aware of it doesn't necessarily mean that the motivation wasn't there.
So, what's your motivation? Has it changed, or do we continue to be driven by the same things throughout our lives?
I was asked this question recently, and my first impulse was to say something trite, like, "to save the world." It's a harder question than it seems at first though. Really, how many of us stop and think about the reasons for all our actions? Something about the question really stuck with me, and I've been thinking about the answer for the past few day. What is the motivation that drives me, that makes me, me? I would like to say that it is something noble and self-sacrificing, like working to save the world, or to help people, or to stop global warming, but I think that not only are those incredibly broad categories, they are also narrow at the same time and even shallow and single-faceted in a way. Because really, how can someone ignore self-preservation and the biological imperative for self-interest to focus solely on something like helping others? And wouldn't the aspect of life that makes them WANT to help others actually be their ultimate motivation, not the desire itself?
I would like to say that my "ultimate motivation" is the search for truth. This can take many forms, like not being very good at all the little white lies that we tell each other in our daily social interactions, to the more broad search for the truth about the meaning of life. I feel like in my recent life here at college, most of my choices have been striving to find the meaning and identity of God--is there a God, and if there is, who is (S)he? How can there be so many different ideas about religion--they can't all be right, can they? How do our ideas about God and religion affect our relationships with the people and world around us? It seems like the more I read and the more ideas I learn about, the more questions I have. But I keep searching, because even if there is no objective truth, I feel the need to determine some subjective ideas that I can accept, even if they aren't necessarily the opinions of the majority.
So, there's that--my overwhelming question that affects all my choices. But thinking about that leads to yet another question, can these ultimate motivations change? And if they do, are you still the same person you were? According to one of my best friends, you can't really change who you are--all you can change is how you go about accomplishing your goals. In other words, you can mature and change how you go about achieving said motivation, but you can't actually change what it is. I don't know how I feel about that. I feel like I've grown so much in the past year, especially, that I'm not at all the same person that I used to be. I don't think it would even have occurred to the me of last year to try to determine what was making me act the way I do. But maybe the fact that I wasn't aware of it doesn't necessarily mean that the motivation wasn't there.
So, what's your motivation? Has it changed, or do we continue to be driven by the same things throughout our lives?
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