Blog # 4

I am a strong believer of green values. A few years ago, my perspective of the American culture began changing after reading various books and watching various documentaries. I began to feel discontent in an environment that I felt was empty, meaningless, and unsustainable. Because my perspective and opinion on what is valuable was so different from everyone else around me, I began to feel isolated, frustrated, and trapped; I felt like I could not live in the real world if this was what reality looked like: People who thoughtlessly live their lives with no regard towards future generations; who make decisions with no regard for the environment or sustainability; People who are blind to their own emotional and spiritual needs and try to fill the void with consumerism, an empty substitute for fulfillment. I am in this course because I am a strong believer in green values. I have experienced working for a large corporation this summer and I must say, the work was far from fulfilling or creative. I don’t believe in “Giantism” or division of labor, which creates alienating, robotic and impersonal work. This system is like a mindless monster. Unfortunately, I am cynical when it comes to American culture because I think a lot of our culture’s unique and individualistic attributes have been lost. Our “industrial society” has taken away our holistic community. What industrial society gives us instead is a hoarder’s closet full of unnecessary junk because of our addiction to stuff, higher depression rates because of job unfulfillment, and high medical bills because of drugs we take to numb the effects of emotionally and physically unhealthy lifestyles. It’s all a vicious cycle that I fully believe in changing. 


         What surprised me the most was the intimate connection between our domination of the natural world and human domination over each other. For some reason, I had never made that connection, but now that I see it, it’s never been so clear. I believe in all of the green values, but I believe most in changing our mindsets to end all types of domination and hierarchy.