The following article is from the January issue for Townhall Magazine.  To subscribe to twelve issues of Townhall Magazine and receive a free copy of Andrew McCarthy’s Willful Blindness:  A Memoir of a Jihad, click here. 

“The highest high would be growing our food that I then make, and then composting and growing more—that kind of circle,” Julia Roberts told Vanity Fair last month.

So, it turns out opossums aren’t the only pointy-nosed mammals with prominent chompers who find fulfillment in backyard refuse.

This is conspicuous environmentalism. Like conspicuous consumption—a term coined by economist and sociologist Thorstein Veblen in the 19th century to describe the buying behaviors of the nouveau riche—conspicuous environmentalism is rooted in the need to establish social status for the nouveau vert.

Instead of being sociologically buoyed by a new Caddy, however, conspicuous environmentalists prefer the moral superiority offered by anything considered “green,” and the ostentatious flaunting thereof.

As “greenness” becomes evermore trendy and people seek to bask in the white, fluorescent light of its ecosainthood, the definition of “green” inevitably broadens.

Though environmentalists are often known for their more wacky exploits, like aborting babies because kids aren’t eco-friendly or blowing up perfectly good SUVs in the name of conservation, the mainstreaming of “greenness” means they’re also appropriating normal behaviors, elevating them to sacred “greenness,” and then loudly congratulating themselves for things most would consider unremarkable. Thus, compost becomes spiritual for Julia Roberts.

A recent conversation between Rosie O’Donnell and Martha Stewart on Stewart’s show found them attempting to “green” themselves into our good graces by defining “greenness” down considerably.

After Martha declared herself a “maniacal electricity saver,” Rosie asked her how she saves electricity in her many homes:

Rosie: “If you stay in three of them, the rest of them…are dark?’

Martha: “They’re dark.”

Rosie: “You’re green! Martha’s gone green!”

So, for your personal “green” scorecard, turning off the lights in a house you’re not even living in is now considered “green,” which means the fact that most of you likely turn off the lights when you leave a room makes you veritable Nobel Peace Prize winners. Congrats!

***

This article is from the January issue for Townhall Magazine.  To subscribe to twelve issues of Townhall Magazine and receive a free copy of Andrew McCarthy’s Willful Blindness:  A Memoir of a Jihad, click here.

***

A recent World Wildlife Fund press release set the bar very low indeed by entreating families gathering for holidays to indulge in the newly “green” practice of…eating leftovers. If you’ve ever had to loosen your top button in your valiant attempts not to waste that pound of leftover stuffing, I salute you, eco-warrior. Continued...