People who know me, particularly those who knew me in Grand Rapids between the years of 2004 and 2006 remember me at my peak hippie days. I was doing my best to lead a healthy, environmentally friendly lifestyle. At the time I was eating organic vegetarian foods, walking or riding my bike to where I needed to be, buying all natural or recycled products, buying locally, treating sickness holistically, protesting the war and Bush when he visited GR, going to the occasional drum circle, promoting Marxist ideology and I was even seen giving panhandlers whatever food I happened to have in my knapsack (even though they asked for spare change). I wore colorful, full-length skirts and engaged in existential discussions with my friends as we passed the peace pipe. If given the opportunity, I gave my two cents and then some on how I thought animals and the environment ought to be treated (I'm pretty sure people stopped listening to me at that point). The only thing missing was patchouli... that came long after those formative years.
Today, as I sat in my Gender, Environment and Development course, I caught myself glaring at a girl (from behind someone else) as she commented on something the professor had said. As she spoke, "If we go and bulldoze an old tree to build a house, we need to go and plant another... that's not too much to ask. We have a responsibility to protect and conserve the environment...," I thought to myself (and this is what really shocked me), "Shut up you crazy hippie."
Part of me was angry because the discussion had derailed onto a tangent, it was getting late and I was tired. The other part of me presented arguments in my mind to many of her naive proclamations. Much of what she said (and I did not capture any real detail, obviously, she went on for days with that propaganda...) was similar to the beliefs I once upheld. After years of reading academic journals, traveling and witnessing the sociopolitical-ecological-economic efforts/injustices that occur in the world however, I can no longer buy into it.
It would take me far too long to explain myself fully in this text but I will give a few examples of what I mean.
Conservationists have stressed the importance of setting aside land to preserve habitats for endangered species (plants, animals, etc.).
While I do feel this is a worthy cause (we should be concerned with the preservation of nature); who does this benefit? Oftentimes these preserved lands become parks or nature reserves which are open to the "public". This population being privileged upper class people who have disposable time and the financial means of traveling to these places. Concomitantly, as these lands are being "set aside" for protection, indigenous people become displaced. They are forced from their lands, left with little to no access to the natural resources that have served their survival for generations. In some cases these displaced people no longer have access to these preservation sites and cannot enjoy the aesthetics of "natural beauty" as tourists can (i.e. admission fees as exclusionary). Also, as this bit of land is chosen, perhaps to be preserved on the basis of biodiversity and as suitable habitat for certain species, other species are left unprotected and vulnerable to resource extraction/exploitation.
You want to save the elephants because you would like to go on a safari and see them in their natural habitat? What if those elephants are destroying a subsistence farmer's valuable crops or kills their family members? An elephant who has killed a human is likely to kill again. Would you rather a village go hungry or lose community members just so you can have the privilege of seeing an elephant?
Look. I'm not saying that I hate elephants or the environment, that isn't the point of this essay. Those were merely examples. I am trying to note, however, the importance of thinking analytically, critically and contextually when looking at how the world works. That's something that my time in academe has taught me and it's been pretty helpful. By the same token, I've learned not to draw conclusions and to keep an open mind to the views of others because there's always room to learn more.
For the record, I still am a hippie to a certain extent (for many of the same reasons listed in the intro, just under different contexts, perhaps to be explored later). The environment is still important to me, so is local business and organic stuff when I can afford it but my world view has changed and will likely continue to change as I experience more of life. One can only hope.
