• car ownership
• air travel
• “hustle culture”
• moving to some remote acreage to “live off grid”
Regarding car ownership:
In many parts of the USA, most people are basically forced into car ownership. Even fellow environmentalists. Still, I would like to see more of my fellow environmental activists treat car ownership like a necessary evil or a non-ideal situation, lamentable systems design failure, etc. — instead of some cause for rejoicing. Bragging on social media when they get a new car, when their kid gets their first car, etc. It’s always jarring to see fellow eco folk unconsciously reinforcing the consumerist and anti-public-transport social norms.
Regarding moving out to remote acreage to “live off-grid”:
I’ve actually never done this, and don’t aspire to – but it’s grating to constantly hear people rhapsodize about how it’s their dream etc.
Come on, just unplug your TV, turn off the lights, light a candle and fire up the barbecue. And get some rain barrels.
You can do it in your own home, in your own neighborhood, right now! I do it all the time — it’s how I live. And many other people as well. If you Google “off-grid in the city” you’ll find some very interesting content.
For additional off-grid fun you can just sleep in your garage sometimes when you feel like it. THAT, i do enjoy.
And you don’t even have to give up the convenience & connection of living in town. (BTW it’s totally possible to be a hermit and still live in town, ask me how I know <wink>.
We can choose our level of reclusiveness and still live in healthy interdependence with our neighbors; contribute to our communities.
(This post was my response to a prompt from a Facebook page called “God,” which asks interesting and thought-provoking questions. You can navigate to the original post from my post here. The prompt was “Things you wish people would stop romanticizing because you’ve lived the reality of it.”)