As a culture, we’re having a really hard time facing up to depth of our environmental crises and our climate change problems. That’s not to say we shouldn’t keep trying. We must.
But with all the trade offs between the different issues in Congress, we’re having a hard time getting the change we need.
Why?
In part, it’s because not enough us–the workaday folks that the politicians serve–are letting them know it’s our priority (and you can help let them know through 1Sky or 350, for example). In part, it’s because a lot of us haven’t yet decided that it is our priority.
In other words, to accomplish what we need to accomplish, we need some cultural transformation.
How do we get it?
By working in many different ways. By trying. All shoulders at the door.
But according to one writer I admire, John Marshall Roberts, cultural transformation comes in three ways:
- By forcing people to change (physical realm): You somehow get control, and then you insist–through regulation or otherwise–that people do what you know to be right. The thing is, once you lose control, the people rebel.
- By persuading people to change (mental realm): You appeal to the power of reason and get people to support your agenda because it seems rational. The problem here is that someone else comes along and persuades them otherwise. Plus, what we believe with our thoughts isn’t what guides our lives.
- By inspiring people to change (spiritual realm): You appeal to their higher selves and aspirations so that they decide for themselves that they want the change you’re after. Then, the transformation becomes a moral compass point.
So the question becomes, what can we do to inspire that change rather than trying to hector people into it?