>Quite frankly, I sincerely believe that all blasé pomo intellectuals who
>denounce the horrors of modern industrial society and extol the supposedly
>idyllic lives on non-industrial societies to promote their nihilistic
>relativism are full of shit and do not know what they are talking about.
>Such views, silly as they are, are harmless when confined to the vast
>wasteland of the internet and academic bullshit, but they become dangerous
>if various demagogues try to push them into the policy arena - cf. Liza's
>excellent piece of new-agey moms who refuse to vaccinate their children and
>who I believe should be prosecuted for child neglect and abuse.
>
>
From where I sit -- working at/in my comfortable home, very reasonable hours, very high salary -- modern industrial society looks pretty good.
But I do remember that I am not sitting 12 hours a day or more in a chip factory, or a Nike factory, or a slaughterhouse, or the checkout liine at the local corporate market. You never seeem to remember this.
I don't remember celebrating the Amish. I do know that pre-industrial societies worked fewer hours than we do. And I do know that a lot of the stuff we deaden ourselves to produce in this society is entirely unnecessary.
I do know that we can work a lot less without giving up the comfort some of us have grown used to.
I really hate the way this list is so often black and white when most of us have the intelligence, the experience, and the knowledge to know that the answer is mostly gray. I expect to see the stupid binaries in the media, but not on this list.
Joanna