Corporate Social Responsibility - Optimist CSR Blog by Jo Matthews
Last updated 8/10/2009 11:59:05 AM
Jo Matthews - Optimist Blog on Corporate Social Responsibility
Positive Perceptions (10 August 2009)
In the quest to be green and ethical and responsible and all that jazz, sometimes it's too easy to be negative. In other words, we end up being against just about everything, systematically binding ourselves into hemp infused straight-jackets with restrictions about what we can't do and mustn't buy.
Against using plastic bags, against disposable fashion, against animal testing. Anti-corporation, anti-war, anti-fur, anti-Big Mac. Anti-Bush, Anti-Brown, Anti-Kerry Katona. Where does it all end?
Life just turns into one big rant about what we don't like and who we disagree with. And if you ask me, all this moral high-ground griping is getting a tad tedious. It's all very well sitting on our ethically manufactured pedestals eating fairly traded cocoa nibs whilst sermonizing about the state of the world. But until we actually sit up and decide a few things that we are willing to change for the better in our own lives, however small and insignificant they might seem, the stream of negativity isn't going to do anyone any good.
There's a lot of talk about positive affirmation around at the moment, about how to manifest your desires and wildest dreams; how to ‘Think and Grow Rich' how to use the law of attraction to bring peace and prosperity into you life. And the key is not to think about what you don't want (BIG mistake) but to focus constantly and consistently on all the things you DO want. Thinking positively is just about the only way to go about it, so they say.
Ok, so I admit there's a lot of hot air out there, and some of these life-changing techniques are great to read about but almost impossible to do (speaking from personal experience). But there is definitely something to be said for focusing your attention toward creating positive change as opposed to leaching all of your attention on the negative in a kind of brick-wall versus head scenario, incessantly battling against the tides.
And for me it also seems to resonate with my thoughts about the sustainability and environmental change movement. What got me thinking about all this was ‘The End of the Line', a film about responsible fishing that a friend of mine worked on. And what is said is that ‘The End of the Line' is not against fishing. It is not against eating fish. But it is for a responsible attitude towards the oceans.' You can't say fairer than that.
There's a bright way of looking at just about everything, actually. (Oh I just love it when I get to be blatantly Optimistic on this blog).
So if I flip my grumblings and think about the things that I'm for as opposed to against. I'm for taking cotton bags to the supermarket, I'm for Fairtrade and ethical fashion, I'm an advocate of the slow-food movement, I like to know how my clothes are made and where they have come from. I am a big fan of friends and cake and nice pubs and long baths too come to think of it. And I'd like to think it is possible to achieve a balance in the world, that climate change might be halted, that peace might be possible, that a fairer and more just society could emerge across the board.
Naïve, maybe. But I'm happier, and a little bit more determined, as a result.
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