Guilt

Guilt is a powerful and mysterious feeling. It can manifest in many ways. It can make simply functioning as a normal human being difficult. In some, if not many, cases guilt can create a pretty strong denial experience. This being when one isn’t able to confront the cause of their guilt so they ignore the feeling and wall off whatever is causing it.

Doing this can also create a sense of helplessness. Both the guilt and the subsequent helplessness will live just below the awareness of the individual. By occupying that space these two feelings will be able to influence the way the individual operates in life.

The denial of culpability when one didn’t know any better at the time of infraction is a pretty strong one in today’s society. When it comes to climate change or the pandemic response we are dealing with a lot of people that defer to their denial response. It is easier to deny that anything of consequence is going on than to confront ones own responsibility for the issue or responsibility in helping to correct it.

I see this largely in the older generations when it comes to climate change. There is an old adage that goes something like this, ‘new ideas do not change people’s minds, but old ideas die off’. So this may be the reality of climate change denialism. At a certain point those that dug their heals in so strongly against the scientific evidence of climate change will die and their denialist sentiments will die off with them.

I largely see this denialism as a result of guilt that isn’t being confronted. Our older generations spent the majority of their lives consuming fossil fuels without restriction. But in reality why would they have questioned their consumption habits? The general public wasn’t aware of the damage being caused by our consumption habits until relatively recently.

The fossil fuel companies knew about 50 years ago that what they were extracting and selling was having a negative impact on the environment. They suppressed that information so the common person was only floating with the current of the times. The general citizen/consumer wasn’t even aware that their actions were having any impact.

This is where the cognitive mending needs to occur. If there was no way of knowing about the negative externalities of fossil fuel use then one should harbor no guilt. When accepting that one didn’t know any better then they can absolve themselves of guilt. They can put it on the shelf right next to the other things they did when they were younger that they now look back on and cringe because of their naivety at the time.

Most people are just doing the best that they can. I’ve said that before, and perhaps it is the most controversial thing that I frequently say. We are so accustomed to being riled-up by the ‘other side’ – it is the most useful tool of those attention hungry algorithms and talking heads. Demonize the ‘other side’ as having nefarious motives with the goal of intentionally destroying your way of life. That just isn’t true. Most of us regular people are doing our best and trying to make choices based upon what we think is best for ourselves, our families, and our community.

Those that are holding strong to the ways of the past are doing so because that is the life that they know and enjoy. They want to ensure that their kin can be afforded the same type of opportunities that led to a life that they enjoyed. Those that are racing towards change are doing so because they see the faults of the past and want to ensure that future generations have a place to flourish that is free of those faults.

The average person isn’t trying to deprive anyone of anything for the simple sake of deprivation. There is no punishment involved. And those that are trying to ‘punish’ the other side are just wrong – and kinda shitty people. Some people are just always going to suck, but let’s not allow them to drag the rest of us down. The majority of us are just trying to reach the next phase of our societal development.

In order to do so we must address some of the things that were useful to get us here but have since been exposed as impractical or unsustainable moving forward. Ignoring inconvenient scientific evidence and continuing to operate in a way that runs counter to potential solutions is a reason for guilt, but that guilt is avoidable. I’m not saying that everyone that currently denies climate change should go get an electric vehicle. Or that the vaccine-averse should go get poked.

I know that guilt is a powerful emotion. It can disrupt the entire way that one functions. I’m certainly not a doctor or psychologist, but I’ve been around enough people that are consumed by their guilt to see the rot that it can cause. It can blind one of their destructive actions. It can make them feel helpless and scared. However they remain in that space of guilty-angst not because it is pleasant but because it has become familiar, which to some is preferable to the unknown or confronting that they were wrong.

Take inventory of your stored away emotions and see if guilt is just cluttering up some of your mental space. If so it is likely taking up more bandwidth than you think and probably negatively affecting your life. Dealing with guilt can be tough and painful. Just like a physical wound, an emotional wound needs to be properly cleaned and addressed before it can heal. Life is very short and I’m quite sure that it is easier and better when not carrying the weight of guilt with you everywhere you go.

I appreciate your time and hope you’ve found value in this.
Thanks for reading and take care of each other.