Intelectual Rivals
So, I was on the bus last night. There's a local freebie paper with a weekly section on sustainability; stuff like urban farming, local strides in ecologically minded businesses, and the like. I think I read the most retarded thing I've seen in a very long time in there.
It was in the opinion section. It was this guest article by an elderly woman who had a proposition on how we can curb consumerism and environmental damages. Her idea was to go back to the natural day and night cycles -- that is to say that we should not use artificial lighting except where it's a necessity (hospitals and such). It wasn't so much the idea, but the magical utopia that would come out of this that I found offensive. Absolutely no thought above the 14-year old 'if everyone would just do what I think is right...' was put into this dreck.
She went on about how we'd abandon consumer culture, work shorter hours, and how things like violent crime would disappear along with how the environment would just spring right back now that we didn't need to dam every river for power and use 'dangerous and unclean' nuclear power. Oh yeah, lots of fear about nuclear power in there. She went on to talk about how people would be more concerned with artistic pursuits like music and dancing. Co-incidentally, she was a retired music teacher.
Stuff like this just annoys me -- not so much for the wanting a perfect world, but not actually thinking about the world in a realistic manner. I seriously doubt this woman had anyone who argued with her on intelligent level whatsoever, but rather had a big group of hippies who went 'yeah, that's great!' and patted her on the back for the crappy half-baked idea.
I don't think she even bothered to think about her age and the natural effect on that. Sorry lady, if nature had it's way, you would have been dead 40 years ago. Science isn't always right, but it gets shit done.
It was in the opinion section. It was this guest article by an elderly woman who had a proposition on how we can curb consumerism and environmental damages. Her idea was to go back to the natural day and night cycles -- that is to say that we should not use artificial lighting except where it's a necessity (hospitals and such). It wasn't so much the idea, but the magical utopia that would come out of this that I found offensive. Absolutely no thought above the 14-year old 'if everyone would just do what I think is right...' was put into this dreck.
She went on about how we'd abandon consumer culture, work shorter hours, and how things like violent crime would disappear along with how the environment would just spring right back now that we didn't need to dam every river for power and use 'dangerous and unclean' nuclear power. Oh yeah, lots of fear about nuclear power in there. She went on to talk about how people would be more concerned with artistic pursuits like music and dancing. Co-incidentally, she was a retired music teacher.
Stuff like this just annoys me -- not so much for the wanting a perfect world, but not actually thinking about the world in a realistic manner. I seriously doubt this woman had anyone who argued with her on intelligent level whatsoever, but rather had a big group of hippies who went 'yeah, that's great!' and patted her on the back for the crappy half-baked idea.
I don't think she even bothered to think about her age and the natural effect on that. Sorry lady, if nature had it's way, you would have been dead 40 years ago. Science isn't always right, but it gets shit done.