From the Archives: The Art of Communicating to Christian Conservatives About the Environment
Another article from the ancient world of 2018
This is an experimental bit of thinking I've been doing to try and work out how to get the right wing to engage with the left wing and solve the problems in the world constructively. Since an idea like sustainability fits directly into a conservative mindset it seems like an obvious place to engage discussion.
Care for the environment is in everyone best interest, understanding the basic principals is easy and intuitive, it shouldn't be a challenging point to get across and form agreement on through discussion. So why is it such a controversial and contentious topic on the right? Speculation about corporate propaganda and related explanations aside, I've got some hard and practical insights that should be useful. My origins were on the right, and while I've spent a lot of time thinking introspectively about my beliefs (to the point I've started calling myself a something like a Rightwing Progressive or leftwing traditionalist) I still have at least part of my brain steeped in rightwing thinking.
Most examinations of the problem start at "dominion over the earth." and while this is a clear avenue of analysis it hasn't yielded the kinds of results necessary. So I'm going to ignore the bible and focus on a wholly different way of looking at the problem of bridging communication.
From my experience talking myself out of an entrenched Christian Conservative mindset and then looking back and examining the process at length I've come to some definitive conclusions. First and foremost is an understanding absolutely essential to resolving the communication block. The keystone to the whole wall that prevents communication is fundamentally about narrative and identity, one's place in the world and karma.
It's not something easily expressed and concisely described so I'll try my best to illustrate what I mean by this. The American Right has a basic grand narrative it ascribes to, a low resolution view of the world. This is not an exactly specific thing, but a jumbled amalgamation of the American Dream, White Picket Fence, Economic growth will Save the World, Good Values Make Good People, and Western Civilization is the Pinnacle of Human Achievement. There are more than just these and details aren't particularly important, this is really a realm of jists and rough understanding.
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