Are you part of the silent majority?

“But other people don’t think this way.” This is a comment I hear a lot from students. They want to change the world. They want social equity and cultural vitality. They want to earn enough to be comfortable but don’t want to feel the pull of every trend they see online. They want a healthy planet and a healthy economy. But then they check their dreams with the assumption that “humans are inherently greedy” and that most people just want to earn more and more money.

I do challenge the conclusion that humans are inherently greedy by pointing out that other cultures do not necessarily foster this trait and therefore there are signs that it is not human nature but a cultural belief that is so ingrained that it seems like nature. But my role generally as an educator is to create spaces for students to explore their own beliefs within the context of information and knowledge. Sometimes this does mean that I have to take a deep breath before responding to a student whose views are very different from my own. I’m okay with that. I truly believe that diversity of thought is one of the greatest strengths a community can have.

However, I do question sometimes how so many students can feel like they are the only ones who feel a certain way. I’m sure that I have a skewed sample: it’s a sustainability course in a post-secondary institution. But surely, they aren’t the only ones?

I’m going to point to an article in The Guardian here: ‘Spiral of silence’: Climate action is very popular, so why don’t people realise it? They have done the research, and had resources to actually talk to the researchers involved. The article shows that, similar to some research I looked into about support for cycling infrastructure a few posts ago, a majority of people around the world want to see increases in climate action, but believe that they are in the minority. If you think you are in the minority, it is harder to speak up, and harder to have hope. This is what I see from students. It also creates space for the minority who are against climate action to feel self assured in sharing their views because they think they are the majority.

All I will add is that this is why having conversations matters. The more we can talk with each other, the more we can realize the complexity but also the community. And communities can do phenomenal things.