Purpose and Sustainability

I think a lot about what I'm doing with my life. Purpose is something that has the power to make everything you do feel powerful, directed, successful. A lack of purpose plunges you into existential doubt, a fear of death, and questions about self worth and all the other things that come with doubting whether or not you exist and, supposing you do, whether that is such a good thing after all. Certainly the bulk of the human race either feels their lives have purpose or doesn't think about the question deeply enough to have existential angst over it. For many people, purpose is simple, they accept a religion that tells them why they are here (some obscure reference to God's will) and they have their faith reassured on a regular basis by going to church or looking at things that go on around them and attributing them to an unseen plan that directs everything. This view of the world is very comforting, but its also simplistic, easy to manipulate, and for people such as myself, far too incomprehensible to be literal. The universe is, after all, mostly empty space filled with dust and rocks, and when you penetrate further into molecules, you find even more space and gravity, along with tiny bits of matter.

No, I can't view the world as some predetermined play being pushed on by an unseen creator who both knows how everything will end and leaves things up to us (mutually exclusive concepts when the subject is omnipotent), so I think about purpose a lot. Purpose is needed for life to be fulfilling, and people who live a purposeless existence wind up miserable. Part of my problem is that I've always been far too obsessed with the big picture. I want to be a mover, a shaker, someone who can change the world, rather than their neighborhood, and it leads to me getting my priorities mixed up. At the moment, I feel disconnected to a point of discomfort simply because I am watching from the sidelines as the important people make decisions that affect my life. The insane health care debate that is currently going on is a perfect example, but its not limited to that. Everywhere around me I see people obsessed with little, petty things in life. People chasing toys that they will tire of within weeks, people craving stimulation that will leave them wanging within hours, people satiating hungers that will return as soon as their fork touches the table. No one puts the thought into their lives to consider the very real impact their actions have on the world around them. I can be guilty of this same problem, who doesn't occasionally lose sight of the big picture? But the difference is I feel guilty every time I do. Hell, I feel guilty every time I buy something new at a store. I fear and regret the non-renewable things we encounter every day. It worries me that I don't do enough to offset the damage I do simply by living in human civilization.

What I'm getting at is that, while all this green movement stuff has been a nice boost to awareness of specific issues, people haven't had a fundamental shift in their concept of consumption, and until they do we won't fix our biggest problems. Of course, as with anything in life, forming a sustainble social system has its downsides. Imagine what would happen to agribusiness if large sections of existing roof in every major city were turned into greenroofs with edible food being grown on them? Imagine the effect on the jewelry industries if people stopped buying earings and necklaces made with unstainable materials for each other? Our entire social fabric is shaped around the idea of consuming products, not reusing them. The problem with consumerism is inherent, it is the consumption part. Replacing your computer every year places a very intense toll on the planet, even if you recycle the old one. Apply this logic to every element of human civilization and you see our whole economy is built around the very destruction I'm concerned about.

So, it seems, I have identified what our most pressing problem is, ourselves. And it is only through changing people's opinions that I can have a real impact. I have to start addressing the very real issues we face as a civilization at their root, rather than treating the symptoms. But this is the rub, I know what I need to do, I just can't seem to figure out how to make people change. I've been trying my damnedest to reduce my own impact, but if I can barely comply with my own ideals, how can I convince people to go along with my scheme? This is what I'm trying to work out at the moment. I'm also working on a roadmap to sustainability, a few dozen policy changes that could help on a macro level to change how our country uses resources. I'll be writing and posting these over the next several weeks.