I have been traveling a lot recently (through Iceland, Denmark, and Norway – I’ll call them collectively Scandinavia for this post). Wherever I went, and got into a conversation about sustainability, the same problem arose that I observed during my sabbatical trip in 2010. Most people are oblivious to the real root of most of our ecological problems. There’s this illusion that by going ‘green’ with technology we can somehow avoid, and even reverse our ecological problems. Everywhere in Scandinavia there was information about the standard list of conscious behaviors – switch off lights, use green transportation, be sure to separate the trash from recyclable materials, etc.
They certainly seemed more gung-Ho and enthusiastic about it all than in the USA. Like in 2010, I somehow expected that the northern Europeans were way ahead of most of the developed countries. And on a superficial technological level they certainly seem so. If having merely green technology was the simple answer then we would all be saved. Sadly, it is only a part of the solution. I have made no bones about the fact that I believe that we can have a technological future. But, the mindset has to be very different, and that is what I have not seen change. Yes, there is a lot about ‘We Love the Earth’ but little effort to change our spiritual selves.
During a trip to Amsterdam in 2010, there was a trash collectors strike, and trash was everywhere. Not because people wantonly threw it away, but because there was so much of it in big bags getting torn open for one reason of another, and also that ALL the trash cans were stuffed to capacity. The people were very good about taking their trash to a receptacle but since they were already full most just tried to pack it in even tighter or just stack it next to the can! The family I was visiting did the right thing and took it home with them to recycle, reuse, or dispose of later. Most people had not yet made that leap of consciousness to have behaviors that prevented trash in the first place, or at minimum, to prevent exacerbating the trash problem as they wandered around the city. The materialistic consumer mindset was running full speed.
And people didn’t change their attitude to each other or the natural world as they went about with their everyday consumer beliefs. My latest trip through Scandinavia 13 years later showed the same problem still existed. I found the Scandavians very friendly but running at full speed with a materialistic-Consumer worldview. While friendly, they still were somewhat indifferent to each others is typical of this worldview. The competitive rush to achieve affluence and ‘get ahead.’ I found the service industry represented by citizens from the not-so-affuent countries. That and the gadarene rush to become a ‘cash-less’ society – well that all begs more observations for the next post.
Meanwhile some more comments from indigenous living by Chief Dan George:
“Love is something you and I must have. We must have it because our spirit feeds upon it. We must have it because without it we become weak and faint. Without love our self-esteem weakens. Without it our courage fails. Without love we can no longer look out confidently at the world. Instead we turn inwardly and begin to feed upon our own personalities and little by little we destroy ourselves.
You and I need the strength and joy that comes from knowing that we are loved. With it we are creative. With it we march tirelessly. With it, and with it alone, we are able to sacrifice for others. There have been times when we all wanted so desperately to feel a reassuring hand upon us…there have been lonely times when we so wanted a strong arm around us…I cannot tell you how deeply I miss my wife’s presence when I return from a trip. Her love was my greatest joy, my strength, my greatest blessing. I am afraid my culture has little to offer yours. But my culture did prize friendship and companionship. It did not look on privacy as a thing to be clung to, for privacy builds walls and walls promote distrust. My culture lived in a big family community, and from infancy people learned to live with others.
My culture did not prize the hoarding of private possessions, in fact, to hoard was a shameful thing to do among my people. The Indian looked on all things in nature as belonging to him and he expected to share them with others and to take only what he needed.
Everyone likes to give as well as receive. No one wishes only to receive all the time. We have taken something from your culture…I wish you had taken something from our culture…for there were some beautiful and good things in it.
Soon it will be too late to know my culture, for integration is upon us and soon we will have no values but yours. Already many of our young people have forgotten the old ways. And many have been shamed of their Indian ways by scorn and ridicule. My culture is like a wounded deer that has crawled away into the forest to bleed and die alone.
The only thing that can truly help us is genuine love. You must truly love, be patient with us and share with us. And we must love you—with a genuine love that forgives and forgets…a love that gives the terrible sufferings your culture brought ours when it swept over us like a wave crashing along a beach…with a love that forgets and lifts up its head and sees in your eyes an answering love of trust and acceptance. This is brotherhood…anything less is not worthy of the name. I have spoken.”
“Never be afraid to try something new. Remember the ark was built by amateurs…Professionals built the titanic.” What we are trying to do with creating a new world. It is up to us to create it. Some more thoughts coming to help you understand what I mean.
To Be Continued ………..
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