Required: Vision, Not a Map

March 18, 2009 by David Eggleton

Again I'm moved to write in response to a Boston Globe article that begins on the front page (3/18/09) and is not news.  The title of this one is En route to greener life? You'll need a map. The item is the typical collection of specialist sound bites supporting the paper's position.  Readers learn that they are likely to choose poorly despite good intentions, that they should doubt themselves.  Because they do not know enough, readers receive encouragement to limit their role, curtail activities and await the guidance now in development.
 
With the tone of a kind, concerned parent,You'll need a map says you cannot find your way to greener life.  Others have told and will tell you the steps to take, the solutions to buy.  Warning:  next steps may contradict earlier recommendations.  We're working hard to make this easy for you. 
 
Why deny us our adventure?
 
The Globe bets that you have no vision of sustainable living, nothing like a view of the mountain summit you are determined to reach.  It may be right about that, but it doesn't offer you such a useful vision.  It sees you only wanting to get through today feeling like you are at least as good as the people around you.  It imagines you'll be willing to count carbon as you now count calories.  It sees you adjusting again and again, in a sincere, but dutiful way.
 
Going green denotes departure.  With each pre-certified step, you've departed again -- but where are you going?  Who is the decider?  Who benefits?  Is it really sustainable?  Vision is what we need for the approach to sustainability.
 
I wonder if newpapers are becoming obsolete because they can only see the public as a mass of consumers.  What comprises journalism for a community of producers?