Experts at practicing virtue at a distance

The Earth will not be a better place through acts of MERE symbolism

Living in a faraway land where smooth and uninterrupted electricity supply is a luxury, the one hour switching off for yesterday's Earth Hour really bugs me off. What can we really achieve by merely switching off the lights while we continue to use other electrical appliances non stop? There are those in favour of such token gesture but there are also thosewhom I share the pessimism like here and here.

Having an intermittent electricity supply really makes such deliberate interruption a nuisance. We have to stop everything and hover in the dark just to give the satisfaction to those tree huggers immense satisfaction but with limited or no effect at all. Merely doing something as a symbolic gesture will not do. Instead it really shows our hypocrisy. Switching off the light for merely an hour while continuously using other electrical appliances defeats the purpose of switching off the lights. By the way, what is the purpose anyway? It is just like doing lip service to the poor that help is on the way but it never come or if it really comes it fails miserably to elevate their problem- they are still poor!

The sole electricity supplier of this faraway land announces days before the supposed switching off hour that they will not switch off the main switch.Why? Not because of the inconvenience but merely for the fear that many business entities will have to incur loss. Thanks to the electricity supplier in a state constituent of the faraway land, the residents have been practising Earth Hour almost every day with those intermittent and irritating electricity supply. In as far as memory serves, only loss and wrath are the end product of such deliberate 'Earth Hour'.

To save the earth is indeed a very commendable gesture but while doing something to save it we are sabotaging the same immediately at the same time just like what happened last night. People are still using other appliances which are far more dangerous than the lights! People still smoke, cars are still moving on the road, smoke and smog are still released into the air by factories and many more 'hypocratical' behaviour.

The government in that faraway land announces the 3R campaign not so long ago but till this day no concrete evidences are visible as living proofs that such efforts are effective. In remote places of that faraway land, many have yet to practise and even heard of such campaign! They may want to participate but it is a onerous road to travel on since no facilities are provided. The three coloured dustbins for plastics, papers and bottles are no where to be seen while those who have such facility are no longer using them. Initiation is important but consistency is far more significant to save this dying earth of ours.

Symbolic gestures are not something that the blogger is fond of. It is totally an act of hypocrisy, trying to deceive others including the Almighty as if they are doing something right. Well, right it may but effective certainly it is not. We live not in a land of ideals but effective and affirmative actions serve the day. Consistency is the key to save the earth not act of symbolism laced with hypocrisy!

The most melancholy thing about human nature, is, that a man may guide others into the path of salvation, without walking in it himself; that he may be a pilot, and yet a castaway.
Augustus William Hare and Julius Charles Hare