Why Do We Do Good Things? Environmental Studies & Disaster Utopias

Over the past week, we were assigned to read the prelude and chapter one from Rebecca Solnit’s Paradise Built in Hell, her article on “Acts of Hope,” and selections from Paul Rogat Loeb’s The Impossible Will Take a Little While. In this post, I will be directly discussing Solnit’s book.  Let me first start off by saying that many Environmental Studies students struggle in this program. Not necessarily because we spend hours reading text books and preparing for exams (which we do), but we struggle because of the uncomfortable, daunting, and exhausting truths we learn about the world. Students in this program go through personal struggles – whether we are realizing our own privilege or acknowledging all the “wrong” things that we have done in the past…We admit, it’s hard. It’s hard because each injustice is impossible to dissect, as each injustice unveils layer after layer of problems, and it’s hard because we have to critically analyze what it is to “do good.” I mean com’on– how hard would you take it if you found out your activism has been doing more harm than good these past five years? It’s pretty dark stuff.

As environmental studies students, we go through times where we feel powerless, weak, and often misguided by all the bad things surrounding us. Many students in this major often say “we need a therapy session” just to deal with all this gloom and doom talk. We admit, it's a roller coaster to say the least. But then, a glimmer of light shines through – and that is where our capstone course comes in. Ah, Hope. Something that seems so foreign to us in this major. Yet many environmental studies students preparing to graduate (including myself) are still left with lingering questions. One particular question that arose this past week was: why do people do good things without the need to be recognized? Let me try to answer this. 

I loved Solnit’s concept of disaster utopias. Many people believe that during a catastrophe or a time of crisis, we become something horrible. We steal, we are selfish, hysterical, and vicious human beings. The media feeds this type of delusional view of society to us. In reality, that is far from what happens. In a disaster, Solnit describes how people step up and perform beautiful acts. There is kindness, compassion, and ordinary people embracing their neighbors and community, doing everything in their power to do good things. These acts can be something so small to something grand – the point is, a utopia appears in a time of crisis. Many people would appreciate and embrace this type of response, maybe even hoping one day to be a part of something as beautiful as a disaster utopia. But maybe we (as environmental studies students) are already a part of this. Many people will find my idea radical, but I believe our major is a disaster utopia. Think about it – we are taught for three years that we are in a ‘time of crisis.’ We are faced with the gloom and doom as we witness the globe panicking over climate change. We see many forms of injustice: racism, sexism, classism, and the list continues. So maybe our program is a long, slow version of Solnit’s disaster utopia. But where is the utopia part? The utopia is all around us, even in our classroom. We do great things to help others. We do good - just because! Yes, our major is overwhelming and dark, yet my classmates are the kindest and most compassionate people I know. They do not look to be crowned or glorified – instead, they are humble. Is it because we realize we are in this global crisis? Could this be our very own disaster utopia? Possibly. It’s a radical idea, but one worth thinking about.