You covered all that beautifully. Every time I was thinking I could add something, you covered it in the next sentence. :D
Sometimes I think that we can be made to feel so guilty about the bits that we do waste which are beyond our control, when the biggest volumes of pollution and waste comes from big companies. Short of living like a caveman, we can't really avoid contributing via support of these companies. So I like your last message, don't give in to the guilt, just do what you can until you return to the earth yourself.
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A lot of people, in this and many things, get very all-or-nothing about it. Like if you can't 100% escape it and live like a caveman, then you're a hypocrite for trying to make things better. I literally saw a guy harassing those of us who went to a climate protest that if we drove or rode a bus there, then we used gas and are hypocrites.
Like, dude, when cars took over, people weren't hypocrites for dreaming of a car while they still rode a horse. You can't exit the system you are trying to change just because you want to change it. Progress and change happen, it's just a matter of choosing which progress or how it happens. And if you did somehow manage to exit the system first, you'd get, "Oh what do you know, you live in a cave! You aren't part of this system! Your opinion doesn't count!"
Some people just fear change, and so try to invalidate anyone who wants change, any way they can.
So yeah, some days I am contacting companies and telling them to change, or politicians. Some days I am going to a protest. Some days I am cutting up cardboard. And some days I do nothing much of anything, because we all need rest. I'm very low waste, but not zero waste. I cook from scratch, but am no longer a vegan because that's impossible with all my allergies. I do what I can, but I realize that perfection is the enemy of the good - and as you say, even if I lived like a caveman, the oil companies and coal companies and whoever would go on polluting without me doing a lot more damage than my small contribution ever would have.
So yeah - don't feel guilt for the system we were born into or for not being "perfect." Just do what you can until you return to the Earth yourself, exactly. :)
When people travelled in to help protect the river from the pipeline some tried to use the hypocrite play, "If you've travelled in by any vehicle not powered by yourself then you've proven the need for a pipeline." My reply was that if they hadn't been able to get so many people from far afield, then they wouldn't have stood a chance anyway. It was only the fact that they got so many protestors and world wide attention that they actually managed to stop them undermining that part of the river. You're not going to get enough people together in one place without having them travel in, but the chances are they'll use as few vehicles as possible.
Isn't that the truth! Aim for improvement, by all means, but don't get caught up trying to do the impossible.
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