First as tragedy, then as farce

I want to point you to a video that Dan (thanks!) found, in which Slavoj Zizek, a fascinating thinker and philosopher, talks about how sometimes the things we do out out of good intentions, like give charity to a homeless person, only perpetuate the reason why we need to give charity in the first place. There is a kind of reinforcement of a system--if we don't address problems at their root, then anything we do is just applying bandages, slowing the hemorrhaging. This is the same with issues like "greening" consumerism, or just plain-old greenwashing. Even though recycling is a lesser evil than maybe throwing something away, it makes us think that recycling is enough; it makes us think that we are "doing our part." This is a super interesting video, even though you may not agree with parts of what he says. But there is some awesome animation to go along with it. Let me know what you think!