I just edited my blog entry on Wood-air bathing because I thought the end of the quote could be received as shaming/blaming or induce environmental guilt. I like it better the way it is now. As I’ve said before in this blog- I feel it is very important when dealing with environmental matters to avoid the shame/blame game.
Now, a person might ask- if we just focus on the positive, how will we get people to change their behaviour when it comes to environmental concerns? Well- that’s a good question! All I know is that shaming people, blaming people and judging people could easily cause them to run in the other direction, as this article about guilt and shame suggests.
Interestingly, the article does
note that feelings of guilt, when appropriate, can lead to people trying
to make amends- to mend the perceived damage- in order to alleviate the
guilt. However, that would also mean that, to alleviate that guilt, people
need to feel like it is in their power to make amends, and understand what
is required to make amends, which is a real challenge in the case of
environmental guilt, I believe. Some useful stuff to think about.
posted at 14:34 on Fri, 09 Sep, 2005 |
path: /living
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