Stephen Asma Green Guilt Summary

Have you ever considered environmentalism as a huge guilt trip? Or on a more extreme spectrum, a possible replacement for religion? Majority of people utilize environmentalism as a means of trying to protect the earth, while subconsciously having motives and values instilled within themselves that they employ through their behaviors. This is depicted in the article “Green Guilt”, where the author Stephen Asma, makes readers question whether environmentalism is emerging as a new religion.

Stephen Asma successfully compared environmentalism to religion, which concluded they’re both fueled by human guilt and indignation. Asma discovered the only real difference was that environmentalism offered more transgressive rules than religion.

While religion looms the pitfalls of going to hell over your head, environmentalism threatens you with the idea that you could ruin the ozone layer. Throughout the article, Asma scolded the thought of prowling on human guilt and indignation, but he also supported the idea. Asma believed that human guilt was a good way to keep society civilized, but often felt that these ideologies were too heavily intensified with the emotion of guilt. Asma began to express a love hate relationship towards the idea of prowling on human guilt for the betterment of society. Asma believed imposing guilt and indignation would start inner conflicts that lead to rational decisions. In comparison, I too believe that environmentalism is another useful tool we utilize within society to discipline ourselves.
Environmentalism has emerged as another way to critique society without the radical ideals of religion.

As Stephen Asma stated “Instead of religious sins plaguing our conscience, we now have the transgressions of leaving the water running, leaving lights on, failing to recycle, and using plastic grocery bags instead of paper” (Asma 25). Asma was trying to portray the trivial ‘sins’ of environmentalism, meanwhile notably signifying they’re lesser than religion. Even though most of environmentalism’s rules are trivial, they are attempting to shape people into better beings. The most fascinating part about environmentalism is the absence of a higher being. Considering that many of environmentalists are secularized beings, they choose not to have a higher being because of the resemblance of religion. Often, religion scares secularized individuals away because they begin to feel the pressures of being ‘perfect’. Secularized individuals strive to become better beings but cannot deal with the stresses that come with a heaven or hell. Therefore, environmentalism offers a belief to those who may subconsciously want to be ‘religious’ but are afraid of the commitment with God. Either side you stand on, whether you’re for the religious or environmentalist, your main achievement is striving to become a better human being

overall.
Society needs discipline to remain stable, and guilt evokes discipline. Asma proclaimed “All this internalized self-loathing is what we pay for being civilized” (Asma 25). Self-loathing, can be accompanied by shameful feelings towards oneself which means the individual is striving to be something better. A world without self-discipline would be a very dangerous place. In addition, discipline is the only factor between civilized individuals and being mentally insane. Another great point made by Asma was when he stated: “When aggression can’t go out, then it has to go inward. My aggression doesn’t disappear it just gets beat down by my own discipline” (Asma 25). Asma clearly shows that self-control is key. We all have bound up issues that we attempt to mask and this is what promotes humanity. Without self-conflicting battles within ourselves we would all act upon impulses which could prove disastrous for society. Whether guilt is felt from oneself, society, religion, or environmentalism it helps keep us grounded as human beings.