it all started at 8th and brannan in SAN FRANCISCO. i had accepted a job to hand flyers out at a conference held there. The conference was called "GreenFest" and the company i was flyering for was called "GreenHome" (http://www.greenhome.com). don't get me wrong, i was willing to swallow the initial irony of handing out disposable paper flyers advertising sustainability, but what i was not ready for, not in the slightest, was the approaching tidal wave of the word 'green.'
i mean, the term had become a bit hollow at that point anyway. it wasn't really that bad.... until Wal-Mart opened a 'green' superstore. so i entered the conference expecting to hear my fair share of 'green' rhetoric. it just turned out that GreenFest fed me more 'greens' than a cow could stomach.
never before have i heard any word so many times over and over. each side of the papers i grasped said the g word several times, and it was my ear-hook to passers-by as well: "tips on greening your home? green products for sale!"
after a few hours, I really began to feel like i was in the 'malkovich' hallucination scene in 'BEING JOHN MALKOVICH.' (If you haven't seen it, you should. Its the only accurate analogy for the situation.) it was a 'green' overload. i nearly fell over, and completely lost my ability to communicate with passers-by, just muttering the g word over and over again.
i had to leave the conference, and as i walked towards BART, i realized what the issue was: we've got to get over that 'g' word!
and it really is about the word. there is no place for superficial descriptors in the enumeration of important world issues. just like it's not gonna all be black and white, its not all 'green' either! if there is one thing we do not need to be right now, it's exclusive!
by commodifying green and economically and socially separating it from other systems of thinking, green becomes a 'niche' market - profitable, yes. but far reaching? NO WAY. sustainability, responsibility: these are lenses through which to view every aspect of our world and our society, not closed off 'profit sectors' with target markets who love olive-colored block prints!
Maybe its just me, but I'm tired of 'Green'.
1 comment:
Yeah, there's a lot of overuse of the 'green' term - but the average american, you know all those people in the middle of the country who voted for Bush? Twice? They need to hear the term repeated over and over and over to get it. So yeah, you were in a place where there was a lot of preaching to the choir - but we need to bring those religious conservatives into the green choir!
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