Please be patient with me. The
following is just a brush with a much deeper conversation.
Frank Robinson (still living) was a
Major League Baseball baseball player. He has been attributed as the
person who first said, "Close only counts in horseshoes and hand
grenades." The quote appeared in Time magazine July 31, 1973. It
is a quote I once said often. Another phrase I currently use is,
“Green shaming is just another form of bullying.”
Green
Shaming is a specific form of what is known as Culture Jamming, a
tactic used by many anti-consumerist social movements. “There are
four emotions that activists often want viewers to feel. These
emotions - shock, shame, fear, and anger - are believed to be the
catalysts for social change.” (quote source Wikipedia) Also from
Wikipedia, “Guilt is a
cognitive or an emotional experience that occurs when a person
believes or realizes-accurately or not-that he or she has compromised
his or her own standards of conduct or has violated a universal moral
standard and bears significant responsibility for that violation.
So I will
explain how “horseshoes and hand grenades”, Green Shaming and
guilt tie in together for me today. But first I would like to mention
briefly another conjoining term. Activism Ethics. Activism Ethics
needs further open source study. There is research on this but most
are on those sites where you have to have academic credentials to
even read them. That is why I am an advocate of open source
knowledge. (my website page on this is here)
As an lifelong political and social
activist I have always tried to live by a set of values.
Specifically the philosophy of
Ahimsa. I also consider myself a
Pantheist as it relates to nature worship and my desire not to be an
Anthropocentrist
holding myself above the rest of creation. I have always had
struggles with that. But recently a situation has come upon me that
has garnered much anxiety for me. Mice.
In my home I have always had mice and
have used catch and release methods for years to deal with them. But
these days my physical body is not well and it is difficult to do
best practices with catching and releasing mice. I have been
agonizing about it for about a month now. I recently came to a
decision about it and now I find I am really getting stuck on Green
Shaming myself and also struggling with my Activism Ethics.
Living in this modern world and society
it is near impossible to adhere to these ethics. For instance how
many of us actually do not participate in the use of plastics? Or the
mining of rare earth metals that often come via some form of
Indigenous Racism just as oil and other natural resources we use
every day.
Bottom line I do not like Green Shaming
of others. But I find I am adept at using it on myself. And as far as
other activism I pour guilt on myself in regard to the mice of not
really practicing Ahisma or Pantheism. As a means of justification
many use what is know as “whataboutism”. Another action I abhor.
Can ther be a reverse whataboutism to use on one's self like saying,
“Ya, I kill and support racism but look at all these groups I
support and rallies I attend. Don't that balance it out?”
So if I catch and release my mice
directly into the garbage can with food, can it ease my mind that
when the garbage man takes them to the dump they may survive? Or is
it true that, "Close only counts in horseshoes and hand
grenades."? Do the Jains really never step on a bug? What do
they feel and do if they do? As an activist is “cutting ourselves
some slack” just a convenient excuse? Still wondering, no real
answers. It all may may seem silly but the anxiety is real. What do you think?
Just for drill a couple of articles:
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