Mickey Z
Cool Observer
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
"All talk and no walk"
Rewind to, say, 1967...forty years ago.
Now imagine if the average American ("AvAm") were told then that in order to enjoy a even a modicum of decent health in 2007, he or she would have to buy bottles of filtered water, own an air filter, and shop carefully to avoid products laden with pesticides, chemicals, additives, genetically modified organisms, or worse. What if you told her/him that mostly preventable diseases like cancer, heart disease, diabetes, etc. would be epidemic? Then tell him/her that the income gap is widening dramatically, the planet heating up at an alarming rate, the honey bees disappearing...and that this is just a sampling of what passes for reality in 2007.
How would that AvAm have reacted? Would he/she have believed it? If so, would he/she have done a damn thing to help prevent this from happening?
Derrick Jensen sez: “You want to know why we don’t rebel? We still think we have something to lose. That’s what’s stopping us. As soon as we realize we have nothing left to lose, we’ll be dangerous.”
Joe Bageant sez: “American progressives need to wake up to the fact that they are just as big a part of the world’s problems as the Republicans, so long as they insist on living the American lifestyle. As long as they continue to thoughtlessly consume the world as if it were their birthright. All talk and no walk. Buying organic toilet paper and voting for evasive Democratic hacks just isn’t going to cut it, guys ... Here is what I consider the most important philosophical question anyone can ever ask themselves: ‘What is the question to which my life is the answer?’”
Copyright © 2005-2007 Mickey Z.
