Hope.
If you haven't already heard that word expressed a thousand times since November, you're about to experience an unprecedented use of the word.
Yes we can.
A catchy little phrase coined by the first minority elected to the highest office of our nation; ironically also a phrase used by advertisers during one of the NFL Championship games on January 18th (and regardless of which hyper-capitalist entity used this phrase, it's disturbing just the same).
This week will certainly become one of the definitive milestones of America's cultural and social history, but there is a deep seeded problem that can derail progress. Americans expect too much and are unwilling to change their fundamental beliefs in order to facilitate progress and change. All the hope in the world will not change the decisions which are made that are based upon Hyper-Capitalist ideals.
In the Mississippi Delta region, such blindsided hope is preventing our nation from actually correcting many of the planning and development choices made prior to Katrina. President-elect Obama provides hope, but he can not fix everything on his own.
Along the same lines, a riverfront re-development project is beginning to take shape in New Orleans; but as we mentioned previously, the city has no comprehensive plan to adequately address the issues that led to the social, cultural, environmental and economic destruction left in the wake of Katrina.
"Stop raining on the parade!"
"Stop being such a Pollyanna!"
These may be the cries coming from the back of the auditorium, but if we are to hope I ask this question; why not hope for a leader who motivates people to develop equitable and sustainable goals and then implement those goals?
Now, this is not to say that there are not people and groups out there contributing to our equitable and sustainable future (fighting the "good fight", so to speak), but as we have mentioned, our future as a society, culture and community requires a systematic paradigm shift. And the only way to facilitate that shift is to include our national community's consumption habits in that shift.
Hope.
Yes we can.
As the title of this post suggests, I was originally going to simply discuss greenwashing and its lasting effect on our culture and society. However, we will begin that discussion another day and we will see how yet again, everything is connected to everything else.
"It is not despair, for despair is only for those who see the end beyond all doubt. We do not. It is wisdom to recognize necessity, when all other courses have been weighed, though as folly it may appear to those who cling to false hope. Well, let our folly be our cloak, a veil before the eyes of the Enemy!" -The Fellowship of the Ring, J.R.R. Tolkien
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