When you extol the virtues of owning an electric vehicle over a gas vehicle to your friend in a rant that is steeped in self-righteousness, you’ve lost the plot. You’ve forgotten the harsh reality that exploited workers extracting lithium, cobalt and nickel from South American hillsides for a company whose owner uses his fortunes to quash organized labor and support far-right political interests is not ethical consumption. Under capitalism, there is no ethical consumption.
We were all birthed into this empire of capital and its inevitably unethical consumerism. We were not given a choice. Under that weight, the urge to reclaim choice by seeking more ethical routes to consumption is understandable. It seems like a path towards living a good life. I happen to hold the opinion that striving for more ethical consumption is indeed an important practice. But we need to understand the answer to a very important question – at what cost?
Seeking more ethical consumption cannot come at the expense of losing the plot. You and the person with whom you are arguing about their gas-guzzling vehicle are both oppressed by the same system. You are both victims of capitalism. You are victims of titans of industry and corrupt politicians who would love nothing better than for you two to continue fighting over one of numerous scapegoats they’ve planted to distract you from your common interests and to deter you from building a coalition against them. There are so many of these scapegoats.
The issues that we are taught to fight over – political leanings, decisions about consumption, opinions on cultural issues – are planted distractions.
When we take a step back and look at our country and our world from a bird’s-eye view—when we pay attention to the plot, however hard it is to stomach—the reality is this: the immigrant mother living in Brooklyn with her three children, who buys McDonald’s a few times a week for her family, doesn’t recycle, and didn’t vote; the white lower-income mechanic living out of his trailer down the street, who has a yard full of junk and voted for Donald Trump; and YOU, who grows your own food, owns a business, shops locally, dines out occasionally, and voted for Kamala Harris, are all victims of the same system.
The issues that the Powers That Be would have you fight over – political leanings, decisions about consumption, opinions on cultural issues – are planted distractions. They are low-hanging fruit, tempting us toward the easy path of fighting among ourselves instead of the harder, more meaningful work of recognizing our commonalities and building genuine coalitions for lasting change. In the worst-case scenario, these scapegoated issues actually succeed in isolating us, siphoning off the valves that pump love and connection into our lives, and debilitating us from taking action at the community level — action that can truly make a difference for ourselves, our earth, and the people around us.
So don’t lose the plot. When you feel that anger bubble up – an anger about the direction that our world, our earth is headed in – direct that rage toward its logical recipients. Your sister using a plastic cup at the coffee shop instead of a reusable one is not the problem, when corporations continue to produce incalculable amounts of waste, undeterred by any disincentives. Your coworker choosing not to recycle is not the problem, when most “recycling” gets dumped into the ocean off the coast of foreign countries. Your neighbor voting for Donald Trump instead of Kamala Harris is not the problem, when neither candidate was interested in dismantling capitalism, divesting from genocide, or holding the powerful to account.
The problem is how to live a good life — one full of meaning and happiness — under the system into which we were all involuntarily thrust. I believe that working toward positive change for ourselves and for our communities is important. I also believe that our ability to create that change is directly related to our capacity to stay sober – to follow the plot – and see in full focus who are the real enemies, and who are the people who are, or could be, in our coalitions working to create that change.
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