Labels exist for many reasons. Many good reasons. Like labeling one container as salt and another as sugar when the containers look exactly the same. Or perhaps you might label a box Do Not Open if you don’t want anyone to see that you collect human ears as a hobby…or you could just label it Human Ears and be a little more honest. In fact, honesty is probably the most important part of labeling. Without honesty the who labeling system falls apart.
Recently I have seen an influx of people labeling themselves as Green or Eco-Friendly. Companies, groups, associations and individuals have all hopped on the Al Gore bandwagon. No, I’m not talking about that internet thing he invented but rather the global warming bandwagon. Whether it’s a good bandwagon to hitch yourself up to or not is another issue and I will leave that for another stupid post later on. But it makes me wonder, why would one feel the need to label themselves as GREEN? Is peer pressure really that prevalent in our everyday society? Do you we need pats on the back for everything we do?
If you want to separate all your trash, reduce your carbon output, cleanup your local park or whatever other eco-friendly activity you can think of then do it. But don’t go around telling people you are green or that I need to catch ‘Green Fever’. For Christ’s sake that sounds like some form of plague.
I really think that most people who actively participate in the labeling of themselves as ‘Green’ probably do not do shit for the environment. They walk around with ‘go green’ t -shirts pontificating to everybody but really they don’t do shit else. These are the same people that feel the need to tell you that they gave a dollar to a homeless person or that they donated to a charity.
Good deeds do not count for anything when they are done for your own self promotion. So do me a favor, be humble, have dignity and wear your ‘Mean Joe Green’ shirts on Earth Day…….. but leave them in your drawer for the rest of the year.
