So, I watched this video from Sustainable Human, and the optimistic premise is great. However, I am not entirely impressed.
Link from a Sustainable Human post by Charles Eisenstein and Dawn & Chris Agnos:
Yes, I had those same thoughts when this started, especially after news reports on cleaner air in places that hadn’t seen that in decades, of rivers flowing cleaner, of people volunteering, of people helping each other, treating people as the same, instead of as enemies. But, then people protested those ideas, brandishing rifles, objecting to measures to contain the virus and protect us all, because any curtailing of their freedom, by which they meant their freedom to infect themselves and others, to ignore health measures, to turn the whole thing into something they could use so we would continue fighting each other, to stir people up into mindless conspiracy believers. Then there were random shootings. Then there was a resurgence of police brutality. This was followed by a huge public outcry, people marching together in the streets, largely non-violent, except at the very first, and the violence was perpetrated by people not living in the neighborhoods that got trashed and with no connection to the peaceful protesters. The entirely peaceful protests that followed were met with police violence, with riot tactics when there were no riots. People get grabbed off of the street, not for what they had done, but for what they might do. Now, we are re-divided into opposing camps, those who accept health precautions, and those who refuse, on ideological grounds. We are divided into those who want to stay home and vote by mail, and the conspiracy theorists who echo politicians who claim such actions amount to massive voter-fraud potential done at the behest of rabid anti-Trumpers, and/or the fantasy of a hidden, Deep State. And, the Post Office, a treasured U.S. institution, is under attack, after being hamstrung by political meddling. It all degenerated into insanity and bitter division. And the PPE waste is filling landfills, being dropped on the street, washing into rivers in streams. People are buying tons of things online and the boxes and packing materials use tremendous amounts of paper and plastic that are overflowing trash bins everywhere. I am no longer so optimistic.
ENNUI, Personal & Political 