Brad McCormick says, in a small part:
>Human creativity and intelligence, as Sophocles
>said in The Ode to Man in Antigone, is indifferently applicable to
>any problem. If our culture bestowed the highest honors
>on people who solved problems of preventive medicine, minimizing
>resources needed for production, etc., then that's what the
>brightest minds would eagerly
>work on, rather than searching for ever more
>elementary particles in physics, devising ever more complex organ
>transplant procedures, planning ever bigger corporate mergers, etc.
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A savvy MD once said that he was frustrated because in the popular
magazines the American Cancer Society had a postage stamp sized black
and white public servide advert while the Marlboro Man rode tall in
color on the inside of the front and back covers. An issue raised time
and again by jerry Manders in his writings and actions and also by the
Adbusters group out of Canada.
Walt Disney sells in his world of hyper reality while the greens get
banal chatter from Socratic Apes. Aveda and the body Shop make me feel
good about consuming while a real "earth friendly life style makes one
think that the couple in grant Wood's American Gothic are attending a
Bacchanalia
It is far easier for me to see a world where nanobots can salvage oceans
as in Stephenson's Diamond Age than it is for me to see a world where
people, have the image of prosperity tied before them like the carrot
in front of the donkey pulling the cart, giving up the hope of catching
the carrot.
One can't argue the facts as they exist today- well maybe, but...-what
one has difficulty is building a vision which is equally atractive and a
path to reaching this which does not have visions of people wearing
economic and consumptive hir shirts to arrive at a point which they can
not accept is the desirable life for their future and that of their
future generations.
Logic has never conversted a person- logic provides the rationalization
for the decision.
the "green utopia" doesn't seem to be worth the price to get their- it
is not a resort destination but a destination of last resort- we get
there if we conserve and we get there if we don't- it may be somewhat
more pleasant if we go their volunatrily, but is it worth the price?
that is what the Greens have not addressed- Gucchi's yes, Birkenstocks
No
Other than an apocolypse or a serendpitous epiphany strking the world,
what is the alternative?
thoughts?
tom abeles
