It’s just a cover
by James on Dec.07, 2009, under News
A recent Slate article, nicely titled Buy local, act evil, talks about a recent Psychology Science paper that concluded that people who made eco-friendly purchases were less altruistic and more likely to cheat and steal.
It then goes into a bunch of complicated and competing theories that essentially amount to people being good so they can be bad. I find that to be general bullshit. Oddly enough, the author basically hits it on the head in the last paragraph:
A decade or two ago, buying green products and other environmentalist measures might have just seemed idiosyncratic. Now such conduct is widely lauded…
Exactly, it has become the “thing” to do. Even more so, it has become a form of conspicuous consumption. When you start buy a dozen organic, free range brown eggs for $5 you’ve graduated to showing off. Which is not to say that everyone who spends money on such products is an asshole, merely that assholes tend to gravitate toward such trends.
It’s not that doing good makes you feel good about being bad, just that selfish, pretentious people like to put on airs of sainthood but given the chance will rob you blind and leave you dead on the side of the road (think Wall Street).
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