The Hidden Enemy Of Environmental Sensitivity
Why your inner "no" is the environment's greatest ally
Environmental sensitivity is part of a greater penumbra of awareness – of other people, of the world, of your intuition, of your own emotions.
And once you start paying attention to yourself, you realize when you need to stop consuming.
Capitalism can't have that.
In this article: (photo credits at the end)
Who's working against your sensitivity
“Stand up straight, soldier” is...
…what’s killing the environmental “no”
Consumption isn't free
What do you want to say no to?
Who's working against your sensitivity
Large, powerful, connected corporations depend on your continuous work and consumption.
They can't have you saying no: no to more work, no to more purchasing, no to more media consumption.
That's part of the point of school, to train you to ignore your inner “no.”
You can't say no to the teacher. You can't say no to the assignment. You can't say you're tired and need to rest and you can’t sit through another class today.
In this way, school is like prison or the military: everyone resets to the same standard.
“Stand up straight, soldier” is…
…ignoring the fact that every body has a different tolerance for consumption.
Some people can eat a lot at a single meal and go all day on the calories they consume.
Other people prefer consistent snacking over time to produce regular energy.
But school trains us to all consume the same amount, all the time, consistently, heedless of whether that fits our own inner energies.
School is like the force-feeding of content.
And we are like the foie-gras-producing ducks. It's not healthy for them to be force-fed fat and grain, but the health of the ducks is not the primary concern. Their livers are sacrificed to produce delicacies for the wealthy and powerful.
Sit in a row, look straight ahead, don't talk or get support from your peers until the teacher says it's okay. Go to six classes a day. Study things that make you feel bad. Don't look away from the teacher. Don't put your head down; don't break eye contact.
You'll listen to what we say until we're ready to stop.
Ignore your inner no, that small voice that says you've had enough.
Because when capitalism trains viewers to binge watch the next Netflix show instead of realizing that they're tired, stiff, or need a break, it creates a market with 10x the appetite for content.
But if you, as an individual, binge watch the next Netflix show, you are practicing what you learned in school: tuning out for long periods of time.
…what’s killing the environmental no
And that means you're tuning out from your environment, too.
Nature has its ways of saying no.
But you don't notice those, either.
You don't notice that the local stream in the park is becoming choked with debris.
I can't tell you how many times I have seen people in the UK walk by litter on the edge of a canal and not pick it up.
You know who picks it up? Me! Because I have a terrible trouble walking by plastic next to a water course and not picking it up.
It's like I'm surrounded by zombies completely desensitized to the damage being done to the environment.
Damage that they could easily address by spending five seconds picking up a plastic cup and putting into a bin, which is often no more than a few yards away.
But we've been trained to look straight ahead, to not see what's around us, to ignore our other inner no: “No, that's not good for our environment.”
No, we need to keep our space clean.
Instead, our hunger is all we think about: the constant consumption of new entertainment, products, and ideas, even articles like this one.
About three years ago, my Spirit team told me that for every single hour I spent consuming somebody else's content, (watching a video, listening to a podcast, reading an article) I would have to spend five hours marinating in my own ideas.
I said, “Five!?! I thought it would be like 1:1 or even maybe 1:2. Like, for every hour I consumed, I would need to spend an hour working on my own thoughts.”
And they said, “We knew you wouldn't take it seriously unless we made it extreme.”
Because, apparently, I'm not sensitive enough to take a hint.
Consumption isn't free
Now that I know that if I spend an hour listening to a podcast, I need to spend five hours writing my own articles, making my own art, doing my own editing, working on my own projects…
… I am much, much more choosy about what I consume.
It's like food.
I know I can't consume more than a set number of calories per day, and so I think very carefully about whether the food I'm eating is what will sustain me.
I listen a lot more to my inner “no.”
Powerful forces in our society want you to ignore your no.
And once you do that, it becomes much easier to ignore the environment's “no,” too.
What do you want to say no to?
How would your life be different if you listened to your inner no?
Comment and let me know, or tell me what you think of my answer below.
Photo credits:
Coke can in Bristol, UK - these “friendly” cans give me the chills!
Rubber duck by Steve (with filter) - found on a barge on the River Avon
A great example of “no” - sign in a yarn shop window in Neath, Wales
I need to say "no" to the idea that it's not good for me to explore my own ideas, even if they are not immediately practical or positive. Marie Curie spent years pursuing theories that might never work out. I need to be brave enough to do that, too.