Summer Green Action News

Do you think people are basically good or bad? Is humanity intrinsically evil or fundamentally benign? Or, if we are a mixture of both, what is the balance? And, if you are a person of faith, you may ask what does your church or tradition say about this ancient and ongoing enigma?

One view is what history calls ‘dualism’. There are forces of good in life and they oppose forces of evil, and the world is the arena in which this struggle takes place. But if this is so, why do good people do bad things and bad people do good things?

Big questions and not immediately relevant or applicable to green action, one might think.

In 1933 the German psychologist Wilhelm Reich wrote a book called ‘The Mass Psychology of Fascism’, in which he postulates that our human relationships can function at three levels.

The first is that we are all nice and pleasant to one another. We superficially get on with others, operating at a basic level of politeness and conformity. This is the level of social amicability.

But underneath this is another tier - a deep insecurity which prompts us to really distrust one another and be driven by fear. We are competitive and aggressive, resorting to devious means and even violence to achieve our desires. We are drawn to be hierarchical and oppressive. This is human‘nature red in tooth and claw’.

Yet below this is a third and deeper plane at which we are open, trusting and vulnerable. We rely on cooperation and sharing. We seek loving and caring relationships which bring out the best in us. At this depth we are empathic, generous, kind and respectful. Our lives are formed by similarity and solidarity, rather than difference and division. This leads to considerate and caring communities – humanity together and in connection with itself and the Earth.

What Reich implies is that society can also function at these three levels – we can live superficially, antagonistically or compassionately. And how we view life will be shaped by which level influences us more. For example, the first will tend to ignore and deny challenges such as global warming; the second will seek to apportion blame and culpability; the third will wish to embrace, heal and prevent the brokenness it causes.

Personally, I think radical Christianity pushes us always to this third level, and traditionally uses words like ‘sin’ or ‘transgression’ to describe the superficial or abusive behaviour more apparent in the other two. We are called to be merciful and humble, and to seek justice not security.

It is very pertinent to environmental action because if we wish to encourage others to become green(er), we need to bear in mind which of these three levels we want to influence. What motivates people to change – shallowness, fearfulness or togetherness?

On the surface we can all do our bit and recycle and re-use (some would see this as greenwash or light green activities). Or we can frighten people into action – making plans to adapt to climate change or using technology to address problems (techno-fixes and industrial solutions). Or we can develop visions for different ways and different communities of living with one another and the planet, based on trust and sharing resources more fairly and more wisely (what some would call re-connectedness, green spirituality or deep ecology).

In reality we need all three, but let us be clear what we are aiming at. Do we really seek to be outwardly happy or inwardly fulfilled? I would suggest there is a distinction between wanting humans to be simply nice to one another and creating a more profound society built on deeper values of hope and love.