Last week in class we did a contemplative practice in which we adopted three different perspectives: that things in the world are going to get worse, that things are going to get better, and that things are the way they are. When we did that exercise I felt remarkably peaceful after I accepted the perspective that things are the way they are. Accepting this statement as true brought a new sense of calmness to the many conflicts and debates that go on in my mind with regards to climate change and its associated challenges. I found relief from the hopelessness that I often feel when thinking about the Anthropocene.<\/p>\n
This sense of relief intrigued me because it raised the question in my mind: If taking a passive position has such a dramatic effect on my mental health, is inaction justified?<\/p>\n
First, I think it is necessary to examine what I define \u201caction\u201d as. Is action changing my personal consumptive habits? Or is action driving myself to be a leader in pushing for systematic change? I\u2019m inclined to believe that there is a spectrum of action. If this is the case, I wonder if anything less than being a leader would result in any significant impact. If I were not to be a leader, then I would be following the leadership of somebody else. An example of this would be taking part in an organized protest or volunteering for a campaign. If I were to be a follower in this capacity, I would almost certainly be one of many, and as such, my contribution would probably be inconsequential. I believe systems theory suggests that as a follower, I would be replaceable. So, if the two paths forward are to be a leader or to be a follower, and I don\u2019t want to be a leader, it seems to me that inaction for the preservation of my mental health could be justified.<\/p>\n
While this line of thought seems to make sense to me, I\u2019m still left with a gut feeling that I\u2019m wrong. This roundabout justification for inaction feels toxic. Am I just being lazy? Are the challenges presented to us so significant I have an obligation to be a leader?<\/p>\n
Please let me know what you think.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Last week in class we did a contemplative practice in which we adopted three different perspectives: that things in the world are going to get worse, that things are going to get better, and that things are the way they are. When we did that exercise I felt remarkably peaceful after I accepted the perspective that things are the way… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-week-7-contemplative-practices"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/honr392a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/honr392a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/honr392a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/honr392a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/honr392a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=607"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/honr392a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":608,"href":"http:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/honr392a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607\/revisions\/608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/honr392a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/honr392a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/honr392a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}