Initial responses to 6 & 7

I was going to write my responses to chapters 6 and 7, but ended up writing this. Now the library’s closing and I need to go home and make some tea. I’ll write a real post at a later date. Sigh.

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These chapters were horrifying but, amazingly, not particularly surprising. I’ve started to notice this reaction–lack of surprise–to most of our more incendiary readings lately, and it concerns me. I’ve read a lot on the topic of environmental justice outside of class, but in this case, I’m not sure that ignorance on the topic is attributed to surprise in response. At least, not the kind of surprise I’m talking about–that gut-clenching, ugly, betrayed feeling I used to get. That’s the reaction that I think drives us to action.

So then. Why am I not surprised? Have I been conditioned to remove myself from environmental justice horror stories like those described in this book? I’m obviously not of the opinion that some sacrifices/injustices need to be made for technological advancement, which I think is how situations like Silicon Valley are justified and ultimately ignored. Maybe I’ve come to expect that corporations are always responsible for poisoning the earth and entire populations of underrepresented people.

I suppose this concerns me because my expectation of injustice seems to lend itself to inaction, or at the very least want of personal betrayal, in response to injustice. I feel jaded.

I think that’s how a lot of people in this class react. It certainly makes it difficult to work out an organized response to environmental injustice. It just seems like such a large-scale, daunting job that no small action can satisfy. I can live my life more ethically, but that will hardly make a dent. Obama had this to say in response to a silly question about what he’s done in his personal life to fight climate change: “We can’t solve global warming because I changed some fucking light bulbs in my house. It’s because of something collective.” I think that’s why our collective desensitization to injustice–our understanding of injustice as something that happens to other people in other countries–is such a huge obstacle in our endeavor toward a more just society.