tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7880558552723983239.post8866843151343796665..comments2023-07-14T11:20:50.010-04:00Comments on Bell's Yells: Afterthoughts on the People's SummitJ. David Bellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00499792076455078070noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7880558552723983239.post-8425387271317791662010-11-22T12:12:47.833-05:002010-11-22T12:12:47.833-05:00I was listening to a segment on a local radio stat...I was listening to a segment on a local radio station where the DJ framed the issue this way: "Should we sell our lands to gas companies and get LOTS AND LOTS OF MONEY or should we, maybe, kind of, as an afterthought, worry about the health and environmental impacts?" Not surprisingly, the way the question was phrased, most callers said, "Go for the money!" Admittedly, this was neither a scientific poll nor a good source of information, but it does support RC's point about the need to challenge the NIMBY paradigm and to raise awareness of the ways in which this issue affects us all.J. David Bellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00499792076455078070noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7880558552723983239.post-13604060136880028812010-11-22T11:12:23.625-05:002010-11-22T11:12:23.625-05:00Thanks for those observations.
It seems to me tha...Thanks for those observations.<br /><br />It seems to me that "rugged American individualism" has always contained a large portion of NIMBY----that one of the so-called strengths of the American culture has been a reluctance to join in to the idea of collective conscience. (War, and its opposite, humane rescue operations, being the exceptions).<br /><br />It's a paradigm that lost authenticity a long time ago.....but like all things vestigial it continues to shadowly reverberate.<br />Effective action requires challenging that paradigm. Here in PA those people who are most immediately being affected are being given short shrift by the those in areas (southcentral PA,eg--including Harrisburg) not connected to the traffic, land disruption, water theft, air quality, etc caused by the industrialization/degradation, and I find it difficult to rally the cause or create awareness---they just don't care as much. Cheap gas is good they think--doesn't matter where it comes from. <br />One of the primary challenges facing us is an extremely provincial consciousness----and I write this even as I just inhaled a molecule that came out of an asshole in China.RChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14073554997410705112noreply@blogger.com