Stanley Fish Reaction

I definitely sympathize with Stanley Fish to an extent. Although he complains about the environmental issues that face the devastated planet, he also doesn't want to make any changes that will affect his quality of life. While some may criticize him for his bluntness, I appreciate his courage and his honestly in the matter, more importantly because I am quite guilty of the same, and so are many Americans. 

Think about it: We sit in theaters and cry over Al Gore's message in "An Inconvenient Truth", we commend celebrities who pose in the trendy PETA campaign ads, and we praise ourselves for being vegetarians. While activism does promote small changes, how much are we really giving up? Okay, so we're not eating meat, but we're pulling out of the Vegan diner parking lot in our Cadillac Escalade. So how much are we really helping?

I'm incredibly guilty and definitely suffer from the Stanley Fish syndrome. I rarely drive and am mindful about not wasting electricity, but am a meat eater to the fullest and have a hefty collection of leather handbags. I bring my own bag to the supermarket, but I make sure that I fly home to Rhode Island ever month. Even though I am trying to be environmentally conscious, I'm doing nothing that actually effects the quality of my life. I have maintained my lifestyle, without depriving myself of anything, claiming that I am environmentally conscious-yea right. 

I think Stanley Fish's article shows that is takes so much more to truly be environmentally conscious of the world around us, and yes, that means giving up some of those luxuries we never thought that we could survive without.