[lbo-talk] Environmentalism: Foiled by Vanity

[Peter Hart Ward]

I got a sobering lesson vis-a-vis  the seriousness the issue of  
environmental damage by humans is given following a post I made on  
AlterNet several months ago. In the post, I published my email (and  
real name, normally I post anonymously there) soliciting people  
'actually serious' about doing something to affect change to send me  
a message. One (of five) email symbolized the state of the left  
perfectly: the corresponded, a woman, admonished me for bad spelling  
(and various other typos) in my blog post and then went on to quiz me  
to see if I'd read the 'right books' on climate change (I had not, of  
course). I replied, in effect saying I didn't see what my bad  
spelling and other verbal atrocities had to do with global warming,  
apologizing for what, I believe, is a genuine, if minor, "cognitive  
deficit" that I have vis-a-vis writing, and, finally, in effect  
accusing her of persecuting me. She did not reply.

Whatever we tell ourselves, its apparent that, for now at any rate,  
stopping the destruction we are doing ranks vastly lower (in  
practice) in the Grand Hierarchy than, as it were, looking good in  
the sight of God.

Peter