The Issue
Few things are as off-putting and othering as a smug holier-than-thou attitude. If your vibe is one of arrogant righteousness it is unlikely you will directly or indirectly positively influence other people or garner support. Additionally, since it is borderline impossible (and a fool’s errand) to make your lifestyle a) completely harmless and/or b) totally regenerative at this stage of human civilization, the more of a purity mindset you hold the more likely you are to experience harsh negative self perception.
Not only does purity culture make it difficult for outsiders to join, it makes it much more likely that insiders will fight each other. Purity culture is call-out culture and leads to movement disintegration.
The purity mindset is toxic, self-defeating, and othering.
Action
Stay humble. Adopt an attitude of experimentalism and play. When people ask about your lifestyle say things like “well I’m trying this and that, so far I like how it is going so I will continue.” Or perhaps “I’m working on a certain positive vision for the future and am trying to take steps to make it happen. Even if my full vision doesn’t come true, working towards it I think is a worthwhile endeavor.”
Avoid statements like “I’m doing X and Y because it’s the right thing to do/otherwise I’m participating in The Horror.” This implies that the asker is by default participating in The Horror and doing “bad” things, which triggers normal human cognitive defenses, which makes it more difficult to attract allies.
It can help to own your own eccentricities with statements like “I’ve never really felt like I enjoyed what I was doing, so I’ve decided to make some changes and so far I really like it even though I know it’s not very normal.”
The goal isn’t to be nice for the sake of being nice, nor to downplay the severity of the crises we’re facing. It’s to avoid strategies that have evidently failed to work so far, avoid the cultivation of toxicity in groups and within our own minds, and to foster a culture of play, experimentation, innovation, and joy.
Further Reading
- What We Think About When We Try Not To Think About Climate Change, Per Espen Stoknes.
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