I was thinking about this environmentalist business. what's it all about anyway? Here i am in the national parks with all these tooty fruity environmentalists and like all political causes or dominant theories that everyone accepts on cue I smell a rat. We drive around in our cars and sleep in nice warm shelters but for god's sakes dont step off the trail. we are seeing smog from those darn cities (the ones we chose to live in), they have to cut that smoke down, "for the health of the planet". the planet? When you think about what the planet has seen, the extinctions, the hundred million years of dinosaurs, the meteors, the climate change... we are supposed to worry about a little plastic? Go green says my bank statement. They mean more green in their wallets. seems to be a lot of hypocrisy and subterfuge lurking here. 
Im glad the environmentalists are trying to grapple with our excesses because our excesses are ruining our lives but this business about the planet gets slippery. maybe the landfill will be a little smaller when the meteor hits. Why should i care? For my kids? are we concerned about the planet or our kids? We get sidetracked talking about the planet and the cute little animals. Environmentalism is really about us.Of all the objects in nature, we care mostly about ourselves. The best thing about the planet is that we are adapted to it. If i see a stranger being attacked by a bear i'm firing on the bear. Eco-friendly people don't just want raw nature untouched by man. Place them in the middle of a million untouched acres in the amazon. It isn't about the planet's survival or about an ecosystem without man, it's about the planet's ability to provide for our quality of life. The clean air, water, food we need. The clothing and shelter. What about vehicles and computers? What is environmentally sound and what isn't? What about a factory that pollutes a river but produces a drug that cures cancer? Wouldn't you have to call it a green factory to be consistent? Plastic may contaminate some of the planet but on balance it seals out contaminants and germs and serves our needs in many ways. Green, right?
i agree with these guys: let's try not to shoot ourselves in the foot by our excessive consumption. Let's not go too far against the natural balance that has been established through evolution. I am all for trying to not produce too many contaminants and wipe out too many species and to leave some untouched places to look at or to fish or hunt. Always for quality of human life. Now how about we expand the same discussion out from just the national forests and oil drilling, let's talk about how over consumption destroys our lives socially, even if it is sustainable environmentally. Apply the same standard beyond just the material resources to the social and emotional effects. Let's not just talk about having a sustainable supply of clean resources let's talk about what consumption does to towns, education, families, sexual relations, brains, to everything in our human nature. Let's talk about alienation and addiction to shopping. We need to see that, just like cutting down all the trees, we are only screwing ourselves here. If a suburban household produces three hundred gallons of garbage per week i don't think we should limit the discussion to recycling. There is a bigger quality of life problem going on right now. What do you think the human environment is like in that house? The communication? Are the kids taught to be good people or are they taught to get a lot of money? What kind of jobs and hours do the parents have to work to pay for it? To what lows will they stoop? What effect do those jobs have on them as people? Are their needs met or sacrificed? Alright already with the planet, let's talk about the big pink elephant in the room. I suspect the whole green movement is another device created by consumerism to divert our attention, to make us think we are doing good while covering up over consumption. For its own survival the system would have us utilize resources efficiently so it can keep growing. An evil system could perpetuate itself through more environmentally sustainable practices. Don't stop buying, buy green. another marketing tool.
And it opens up a lot of room for hypocrisy. Too many vague words. Kind of like human rights. Does anybody really know what human rights are or seriously believe in them? when push comes to shove? Does every human being no matter who they are no matter when or where they are born have a right which trumps all other rules and considerations, to everything good and holy, to things like health, education, political freedom? university education? an embarassing question. This is one of these terms with a meaning so vague that it becomes available for the purposes of all kinds of different political ends, agendas, witch hunts. Doesn't matter that nobody knows what it means or why it is the highest law. It sounds good. Like taboos. My great professor alasdair macintyre drew attention to this. Taboos were rules enacted at a time and place when there was a reason for them but as time went on the reason for them disappeared and the rule remained. You end up with a rule everyone follows but nobody knows why. he wanted to point out that in the modern world all morality has ended up in this state. Periodically the united states points its finger at castro and says human rights abuses. castro in turn lists all the alarming statistics the united states produces, all sorts of problems that don't exist in cuba, the cost of health and education, and he says who has more human rights? a term available for any political bullshitter, any platform, because it is meaningless. Yet people believe in it somehow, inherently. More bullshit than a rodeo.
The format of this blog is a bunch of sentences and some highlights as "posters," floating in a sea of words
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