The number one resistance I hear to flying is that people have family flying-distance away. For most people who fly a lot, the following is checkmate: “What do you expect, never to see their mother again?” Implication: the environment is important but family is more important, so for whatever its problems, flying is net worth it.
Similar with plastic, big cars, etc.
Context
Before getting to the heart of this view, first let’s note that it is specious, deceptive, and self-serving. Flying made them flying-distance away in the first place. They don’t hesitate to fly away from their family. People who fly spend less time with family, not more. Then they start talking about how they need to live where they do for work, or how they’re helping poor people or the global south, and other specious, deceptive, self-serving bunk.
They want to fly and don’t want to face the people they necessarily hurt by their actions and choices. They dream that someone will invent something that will undo their damage, but no such magic exists. If it ever does in the future, it doesn’t now.
Let’s Get Serious
Let’s say we grant all the checkmates and say that flying, plastic, and all other polluting things are worth the choices each time to do it. For those who also believe that pollution and depletion risk creating major social upheaval, at least a high chance at very large numbers of refugees crossing borders. A lot of people will die. I realize many people don’t believe in such outcomes. I’ll get to them in another post.
If you keep
- Flying because your family is dispersed
- Ordering takeout and buying packaged food because there aren’t many farmers markets
- Driving a lot because everything is driving distance away
- Buying things online instead of from local stores because it costs you less
and generally do what your culture makes easy, then you’re funding the growth of these patterns. You’ll lead your kids to live flying-distance from you, cause more farmers markets to close, make local economies less viable, and so on.
Personal Responsibility?
Do you believe that you share any personal responsibility for
- The results of your actions on others
- Restoring systems that don’t require hurting people just to eat breakfast?
You and everyone in our culture made choices that make us think that we need to violate others’ consent; deprive them of life, liberty, and property; and violate property values—that is, we violated three of the founding principles of this nation. These principles were included because they are necessary for liberty, freedom, equality, democracy, and national security.
Even if we feel justified in each choice to fly, order takeout, and so on, our actions still undermine society, violate our values, and corrupt us.
Do we just give up and give it?
I’m acting because I see that these problems, however difficult, are possible to solve. I don’t think giving up, giving in, and capitulating works in the long run.
Look at my post two days ago, How to Win: OG Anunoby, Game 4 Knicks, about clawing back and winning despite being the farthest from the goal. Wouldn’t you rather win?
