Jason wrote:
>"The hijacking of the countryside by the middle class, who used both
>conservationist and environmentalist arguments to defend their
>self-interest, is an untold story of the past century. They have used
>the planning system and, latterly, the housing market to create the
>kind of picture-book zones that cover large areas of Hampshire,
>Sussex, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire. They have become gated
>communities in all but name."
>http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2063199,00.html
>
An excellent article. One of the most depressing experiences of my life was going out to the "country" in California and in England (around Exeter) and not being able to walk anywhere because, as the article suggests, the country has become a gated community for the upper middle class and the very rich. The only place you can walk is on the asphalt road where, likely as not, you will get run over by a car because there are no separate walking paths.
I agree with the author of the article who suggests that this Volvo ecology has nothing to do with the working class -- the vast majority of people -- who can make the biggest dent by changing their consumption patterns, by recycling, by agitating for environmental protection.
I have seen a lot of green activism around the preservation of human-free pristine areas, around the protection of endangered species, and around the development of alternative sources of energy. But I cannot recall a single instance of any of these nature enthusiasts agitating on behalf of a poor neighborhood poisoned by a neighboring factory or helping the poor get clean water or allowing them to walk across their tidy pastures.
Another unsurprising example that yes, generally speaking, class trumps all.
Joanna
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