After well over a year working on my new book, finding deeper parts, I find myself getting closer to the core. I don’t know if there is one thing driving it, but I keep finding that things I thought were the core led to deeper things.

I’ve shared before that I learned the core isn’t environmentalism. It’s not sharing science, education, or tips on what to do. Lately, people’s reactions to some new concepts suggest that I’m onto something near a core.

I see people learn many concepts that seemed important, yet not change behavior or their views that they were one of the good guys even as they spent more money that funded future extraction, lobbying, advertising, and politicians supporting these activities.

Several people I’ve worked with have faced two contradictory things about themselves: that they are as much a part of the problem as anyone they blame (the 50-odd companies responsible for 80 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, the top 1 percent of wealthy people, etc), and they’ve filled their heads with stories about how they are different that are patently false yet they tell themselves they believe them with all their hearts.

People on the Left say about others: “They don’t care about others. They only care about profit. They just want power. They don’t care who gets hurt.”

They acknowledge that if they were born in 1910 Germany as a German, that generations of psychological research show that they almost certainly would have been swept up and acted as nearly all Germans did, following Hitler. If they were born in 1800 Mississippi to parents who owned a slave plantation, that psychological research shows that they would have grown up to run that plantation.

But when faced with the here and now, they utterly refuse to acknowledge that they are part of an oppressive culture. They insist about people on the Right or who are privileged: “They don’t care!” To me they say, “You don’t understand. They really don’t care about other people.” They want to act effectively, but it’s too hard so they blame others like heads of corporations and politicians, knowing but denying that ultimately they are paying their salaries by buying their product.

I ask them: “Say I fly but I care and they fly but they don’t care. What’s the difference?” and they can’t answer. They throw up smokescreens like, “But they’re heads of corporations. I’m just one person” and the usual litany of legitimizing myths that wither under the slightest scrutiny.

People on the Right say different words but those words come from the same mental processes. They say about others: “They had America. They want it to end. They just want power. They don’t care who gets hurt.”

People on all sides will resort to ever more threadbare, self-serving nonsense to avoid acknowledging that they themselves are violating their own values, they know it, and as much as they want to deny it, they are trying to convince themselves and everyone that they don’t know it. Who wants to acknowledge that they themselves are following the legacy of all those Germans who may not have wanted to become Nazis but were swept up by their culture or of all those Americans who may not have wanted to own slaves but were swept up by their culture.

I’m starting to think that all inaction stems from this unwillingness of people to face their own inadequacies and lies.

Some people overcome these self-protecting pretensions. It’s hard but they don’t want to go back afterward.

I’ve seen people experience gratitude, catharsis, and deeper-than-usual self-awareness at experiencing the epiphany of their role. I’ve seen them cry at the intensity of this acknowledgment. I’ve heard them thank me for helping them overcome their internal defenses.

They thank me because they feel liberated. Guilt and shame give way to resolve and confidence to act.

I’m finding ways to help people consistently reach that catharsis and gratitude. They become open to taking personal responsibility and buy in to a future they couldn’t before. Not all. Some give up, unwilling to face their role.

Anyway, this post is a quick update and sort of a practice rep, not a comprehensive overview of the concept as I home in on it, if it isn’t a chimera.