From The Liberty Wall – English Green Debate (4) – How Do We Persuade People To Live In Harmony With The Environment? » National Liberal Party | LIBERTY: INDEPENDENCE: DEMOCRACY: ECOLOGY

From The Liberty Wall – English Green Debate (4) – How Do We Persuade People To Live In Harmony With The Environment?

THE END of November saw another interesting and thought-provoking English Green debate. The introduction to the debate briefly outlined the dominance of “extreme materialism and rampant consumerism” (with special emphasis on Black Friday) and asked how it was possible to persuade people to live in harmony with nature.

This debate is being conducted via English Green’s Facebook page –
https://www.facebook.com/groups/167522623276444/?ref=br_tf – and is proving to be of the usual high standard.

National Liberals will be interested to note that the debate has noted that Switzerland is very pro-active when it comes to environmental measures. For instance, whilst motorways exist, the Swiss “prefer freight to be sent by piggy back train through base tunnels under the Alps between countries to the North and South of Switzerland.”

As well as the current debate, readers can also check out previous English Green debates here:

From The Liberty Wall – English Green Debate (1) – How Do We Square The Circle? (13/08/2013) http://nationalliberal.org/from-the-liberty-wall-%e2%80%93-english-green-debate-1-%e2%80%93-how-do-we-square-the-circle

From The Liberty Wall – English Green Debate (2) – Are We Truly Against The Modern World? (05/11/2014) http://nationalliberal.org/from-the-liberty-wall-%e2%80%93-english-green-debate-2-%e2%80%93-are-we-truly-against-the-modern-world

From The Liberty Wall – English Green Debate (3) – What Would Our Strategy & Policies Be? (19/04/2015) http://nationalliberal.org/from-the-liberty-wall-%e2%80%93-english-green-debate-3-%e2%80%93-what-would-our-strategy-policies-be

English Green Debate (4) – How Do We Persuade People To Live In Harmony With The Environment?

Scenes from Black Friday 2014 in Britain. This year wasn’t as manic as many shoppers ordered online and stores introduced ‘ticketing’ systems and extra security. But how do we convince shoppers to turn their backs on materialism and consumerism and live in harmony with the environment instead?

IT’S PROBABLY FAIR to say that supporters of English Green are not the greatest fans of gigantic cities and towns. We feel that they simply generate more and more noise and pollution. We also feel that much urban sprawl is downright ugly! Instead we prefer a more natural rural way of life.

English Green is appalled at the way the ugly nature of city life is reflected in so many people. Today, many folks just seem to be interested in themselves and have next to no time for their family, community or their environment.

They also seem to be wedded to extreme materialism and rampant consumerism. A case in point is the scenes at the Black Friday sales held mainly in the United States – but now seemingly exported everywhere.

For those who don’t know, Black Friday is the day following Thanksgiving Day in the US on the fourth Thursday of November. Since at least the 1930s, it has been regarded as the beginning of the Christmas shopping season in the US, and most major retailers open very early (and more recently during overnight hours) and offer promotional sales.

For English Green it’s possibly the most crass expression of consumerism and materialism that exists. We’re not opposed to shoppers enjoying bargains, but Black Friday is much, much more. It seems to exert an almost religious fervour on people – whereby they completely loose all sense of self-control. Indeed, last year we were treated to the sight of riots at some shops in England where shoppers traded punches to get hold of some pre-Christmas bargains.

This year the scenes weren’t so bad. Some shops didn’t bother with the event – due to trouble last year. Others employed a ‘ticketing’ system and extra security. Many folks also did their Black Friday shopping online. (English Green has also noticed that far from being a one-day event, Black Friday now includes Saturday and Sunday as well!)

Faced with such a background – narcissism combined with rampant and powerful materialism and consumerism – how do we ever persuade our folk that we need to largely reject urban living? Indeed, how do we persuade them of the need to return to a more sustainable and organic way of life? A way of life that honours all of England’s flora and fauna not just we humans!

We’re not too sure if anyone really wants to destroy the environment – so how do we persuade people that we must live in harmony with it?