Quote:
Originally Posted by vivaldirules
I think that describes it exceptionally well. Let me suggest a few thoughts to make it clear from the other (world-savers') view, of which I lean more towards. I understand and appreciate the desire to be left alone particularly when others have shown their incompetence at fixing things. No argument. But the people who are agitating to get things changed see those in the leave-me-alone camp as crucial to solving problems - unwilling to make, or even consider making, changes that might be positive for us all. If people aren't willing even to consider change, then we're stuck in the same situation until it all craps out (if it does). Pick your topic of change - it doesn't matter. Want to talk about energy, carbon, and the environment? I see the people who just want to keep their 2000+ square foot homes in the suburbs with their green lawns that they water from precious water from the aquifer and consuming gasoline to commute in their vehicles to town as a large immovable mass that just wants to be left alone. I appreciate that but if doesn't move, we could be in really deep doo-doo if any of this is real. I consider the possibility that they're real to be finite and if the consequences are at all large, we're toast pretty soon unless all of us, including the immovable object, shifts. Hey, it's war time, as far as I'm concerned. We need people to sign up and soon.
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May I counter some misperceptions. We leave-us-alone types are quite capable of embracing change. But we do it on
our terms. Not on somebody else's terms. Show us the advantage of change, and we'll jump on it. But is has to be an advantage.
I personally don't buy the "we'll all be toast soon" theory. Believe me, I have looked at an enormous sheaf of data, and I don't find it matches the hype. Just one example, peak oil. Probably true. But in 10 years I'll be able to get all my energy needs off my suburban rooftop, cheaper than what I'm paying today. Painful to get from here to there? Yes, but it would have been less painful if the "we'll all be toast soon" types had allowed energy exploration in currently politically forbidden areas 6-7 years ago. It'd be coming on line now.
By the by, what would you
do with all the abandoned 2000+ sq ft homes in your doomsday scenario?
Finally, the "positive for all of us" line has been used so much in the last 50 years that most of leave-us-alone types start reaching for our ankles....(Somehow we're never in the
us.....)