The impotence of individual action
In the past several years I have made some drastic changes to reduce my personal carbon footprint. I like to imagine that RBC was saddened by the loss of my business, or that the CEO actually read the email I sent him as to why that was. I like to imagine that my choice to not eat meat has had a positive impact on the climate. Or that this year of not buying anything new has hurt companies sufficiently to change their policies... But I know that they weren't, he didn't, it hasn't, it didn't... So why do it at all?
Part 1: The Myth of Individual Action
In the 1970s there was a famous ad campaign called "The Crying Indian".
It featured an "American Indian" (actor was actually Italian) paddling up a river of increasing amounts of trash before being confronted, he cries at the disregard for the natural world that he sees as cars race by and a passenger tosses out what appears to be a week's worth of garbage at his feet. The narrator says "people start pollution, people can stop it!"
This ad created a sea change in the United States and the conversation began to change. People became aware of the planet in a way that hadn't been quite as mainstream prior to the ads. Things did change, people started littering less, towns put more trash cans in parks, this all coincided with the rise of recycling. These were small, individual actions, that everyone could feel good about.
Part 2: The Greatest Trick the Devil Ever Pulled
The Crying Indian as it became known was one of the most famous ads of the modern environmental era, it was also one of the most diabolical. The ad was a brilliantly engineered wolf in sheep's clothing. The ad was the product of KAB, Keep America Beautiful which was launched by a coalition drink makers; American Can Company, Owens-Illinois Glass Company, Coca Cola and Dixie Cup, among others. As the modern environmental movement gained traction, there was then, just as there is today, increased pressure to ban single use packaging which was appearing in more and more forms. The drink manufacturers saw this as a huge threat to profitability since single use packaging was far cheeper then having to figure out what to do with the bottles after the consumer was finished with them.
The solution, for the manufacturers, was not in multi-use packaging or creating some compostable bottle, but in shifting the blame for this mounting pile of trash away from themselves and unto the consumers. The crying Italian, sorry Indian, did that very well, and in the process duped a generation. This is the reason we are fighting single use packaging now and not some far more important issue, because it we couldn't get this resolved 50 years ago!
Part 3: Today
The Crying Indian created a playbook still used by corporations today: shift responsibility onto individuals. When you think about it it's pretty silly, you as an individual have more power over the fate of the planet then a multi-national billion dollar corporation? Yeah right. Silly as it is, it's powerful because it's intoxicating. We all want to make the world a better place, and we are all afraid by what will happen if we don't change course, so if any one of us could do anything about it of course we would! Recycling bottles will solve pollution? I'll recycle all my bottles! Shutting off the light will stop climate change? I'll put my lights on timers and turn my heating down 2 degrees!
Open Instagram, step off the bus, flip through a magazine and you'll be bombarded with these sorts of messages. It can be very convincing but you have to repeat this mantra: "this is not about me, this is about them". Once you realize that it's a lot easier to cut through all this greenwashing and realize that your power company doesn't care about the environment they just care about looking like they are on the right side of history. Food companies don't actually want you to switch to a plant based diet, they just want to instill goodwill as a facade.
Part 4: The Myth
If individual action is largely useless and perpetuated by corporations looking to continue business as usual then why do anything at all?
Personally, I have many reasons for not wanting to contribute: to remove myself from the equation entirely. I want clean hands. I want to be proactive rather than stationary, but this is more about me feeling good rather than making change. The real reason to do something is far more impactful.
There is a scene in the film Gandhi portraying the Dharasana Satyagraha protest in May of 1930. In protest of a British Salt Tax the Indian people, Hindu and Muslim together, walk in an unbroken line toward the militarized salt works. They are unarmed, they walk slowly and purposefully. The first man walks forward and is hit in the face by a guard. He falls back. There is a pause.
In this pause there is a very important moment, where the movement shifts from individual action, to collective action. A line of hundreds, if not thousands of people have gathered for the same reason the first man did but they have now seen how it worked out for him. They have a choice, continue on or sheepishly turn around and go home. Collectively they march forward, thousands of them, for hours. Each one being it in the face by a guard, falling back with one more taking his place. The protesters are peaceful, ordered, and powerful. The power comes from the sheer number (collective) of individuals willing to be hit in the face, to give their blood, their health, maybe even their lives in protest.
This is the great paradox of individual action, as an individual we are powerless, but when we join with other individuals we become exceptionally powerful.
I have a lot of respect for individuals where were able to build shape the modern environmental movement ex nihilo, but the real power comes not from these individuals who were crazy enough to ask the question, sound the alarm, and make demands, the power comes from us as we individually choose to join with them.
We can bring corporations and governments to their knees when we each, individually, choose to join together and build movements. We can use our individual purchasing power to join existing movements such as switching away from banks that are funding the climate crisis, eating vegan or supporting ethical businesses. We can use our individual bodies to swell protest numbers, to march and fight. We can use our individual time to write government officials, to jam up their phone lines, to get out the vote and get them out of office.
We are facing an existential crisis, no individual can solve it, or even put a dent in it. Together, I still have hope we can reverse course.
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