Are Our Environmental Issues a Result of our Psychic Clutter?
As we all recall, during the energy crisis of 1972, the entire country participated in the search for alternate fuel sources. Home owners in states with abundant sunshine got tax rebates for installing solar panels. Wind mills flourished in the deserts. We were all conscious of conserving fossil fuels. Then the crisis ended, and most of us went back to business as usual, some with a vengeance. One consequence of giving up an ideal is that the abandoned ideal is added to our psychic clutter, the unexamined and/or unconscious material that often runs our lives outside of our awareness.
While we have created supposedly nonpartisan agencies to protect the environment, environmental protection has become associated with the Democratic party. During recent Republican administrations, regulations have been changed to favor business interests over environmental ones. Big business and environmentalists seem to be in conflict. On one hand, environmentalists are labeled tree huggers, conjuring up images of pot-smoking hippies. On the other hand, business interests are characterized as ravenous wolves. Business, however, provides the jobs that keep our economy rolling. And most of the environment-offending companies are publicly owned corporations and therefore their stockholders or their elected representatives guide the company. Are you a stockholder or do you know any? What are your priorities? Are you in a situation to make a difference?
When the bottom line is most important, we human beings can easily lose sight of where we are dumping our effluent or how much our smokestacks are contaminating the air. We can perceive ourselves as victims of environmental interests, perceiving them as