eco-optimism

[Ian Murray]

> CB: But don't you think most of the "boomers" are not concerned
about the environment, and have ended up pro-racist, pro-sexist,
pro-violence, pro-war, pro-business or at least capitulating to these
?  There is a dearth of social concern and activism.  The U.S. ,anway
,has reversed and gone the opposite way of the 60's political
rebellion.  Clinton is the to right of Nixon , and all that. Reaganism
is triumphant. The 90's was like a return to the 50's.
>
> "Dog-eat-dog" and "rat race" are figures of speech for the war of
all against all, the reign of ruthless and narrow self-interestedness,
the dominance of anti-communist values, money grubbing and
moneymadness
=====
Well it's tough to make generalizations about such a huge age group,
but yeah this is precisely the 'complaint' of younger people;
'Boomers' sold out. Every youth culture is idealistic about reducing
the level of social suffering, but it seems that the individualist
ethos displaced the need of doing the hard work of confronting the
institutional dynamics of racism,sexism, classism and everything you
mention. My personal, tiny, hope is that what happened in Seattle,
which was organized by boomers and younger people working together has
the seeds for  getting over the cynicism and passivity and the way
that plays into the exploitation of the rest of the planet. The
question is whether 'they' can regain some of that idealism. The level
of totally unnecessary suffering in the world make the following
non-boomer ethic[s] a total imperative:

"Our loyalties must transcend our race, our tribe, our class and our
nation; and this means we must develop a world perspective." [MLK]

"A human being is part of the whole called by 'universe', a part
limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and
feelings as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical
delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us,
restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few
persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this
prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living
creatures and the whole of nature in it's beauty." [that pesky
socialist Einstein]

My 'point' about the animal metaphors for our own proclivities to
dehumanize one another is that other animals don't do that to their
own [with the exception of chimps, our cousins]

Workers of all countries unite,

Pogo