Laura, last year I was in an online writing class with adult students from all over the US. We critiqued one another’s work. One guilty ecowife wrote about her neighbor who rides a bike and composts and how “the average person doesn’t do enough for the environment.” I checked her student bio and found out her husband was an airline pilot and she used to chauffer kids around to athletic meets. My reply to her was that the average person, by definition, isn’t that wasteful because they can’t afford a big SUV like a Cadillac Esplanade because their income is…average. She then admitted one of the neighbors on her block drove an Esplanade.
In a second class exercise submitted by a second ecowife, a vague argument was made that hinted our water treatment plants weren’t creating pure enough tap water. To this I replied that the ecologically conscious scientists who chose to work at those plants (with their families living nearby) were probably doing a diligent, consciencious job of cleaning up the water. I also stated that her writing implied a premise of there being a Golden Age Health via Pure Water in the 19th Century. But the 19th Century was characterized by a very high birth mother and infant mortality rate which even took the life of the wealthy Theodore Roosevelt’s first wife.
After criticizing these two women, I also want to state that the fault lies with the Green Movement’s guilt trip trumpeted in television, magazines, political parties, Al Gore’s movie, etc. They all have conspired to make these women feel guilty and not good enough Daughters of Mother Earth. These women need a champion like you, Laura, to tell them they are OK and worthy human beings if they don’t sew their own teepee and wash their family’s clothes in a stream with homemade soap, like Martha Stewart seems to do (if you believe every image you see on television).
Whatever problems we have today, will not be solved by Greenpeace arranging ecoguilt trips.
