Richard Jernigan -> RE: Sasquatch (Oct. 2 2013 16:52:34)
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ORIGINAL: guitarbuddha Anyway here are some examples of conspiracies which were, I think, significant but inspired by tribalism and belonging, not alienation. ....selection of a lifestyle which binds one to a car and addiction to fossil fuels... Richard you said 'But in either case, you would then have to find a new conspiracy theory to persecute yourself with' I trust (hope) that you meant 'one' ? You see I believe in choice, and that it is not necessarily binary in nature. Or to paraphrase my inalienable moral hinterland 'first remove the stone from your own eye before you tell your brother to remove the mote in his'. D (which stands for David) While I was in Europe for six weeks last year, one of the things I enjoyed most was total reliance on public transportation. The trains in Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain were clean, punctual and swift. Even musty old England had far more acceptable trains than the U.S. We did grant ourselves the luxury of renting a small Fiat convertible for a few days in Sorrento and the Amalfi coast, where "public transportation" consists of crowded tourist busses on rigid schedules. Of course, all the diesel burned to haul us about on European trains could be seen as immoral and wasteful. Some would say we should have stayed home and tended our own vine and fig tree. At least the gondolas in Venice had a negligible carbon footprint. Oh wait, all the groceries, clothing...all that stuff have to be trucked and boated into Venice so the gondoliers can sleep, dress, eat breakfast and row us about the decaying masterpiece of architectural beauty.... I too rejected much of the tribal culture I was raised with. I once told a U.S. Army colonel, "You see, I am a civilian. If I were one of your soldiers and you told me to take my platoon and assault a position that would get us all killed, I would be out of line even to mention the fatal outcome. But as a civilian, if you tell me to do something that will damage the taxpayers' expensive equipment, my responsibility is to refuse. If you insist on doing it, you can get someone else to carry out your orders. That will probably take a while." As I suspected he would, he saw my point. I also rejected large swathes of other tribal mores I was raised with. It really pained my father to hear of my participation in anti-Vietnam war protests, getting beaten and tear gassed in the process. After his passing, my mother said she had pointed out to him that in a way I had followed my father's example. He was an 11th generation white southerner, and a racist, until he met and worked with African-American officers and enlisted men in the integration of the Air Force. He changed his views, rejecting more than three centuries of the paternalistic attitudess of his slave owning ancestors. It was one of the things I admired him for the most. "Selection" is the operative word in the quote above. I could live in Europe, Asia, just about anywhere. I live in Austin because both of my children live here. At age 75 I can still take care of myself, travel and generally do what I like, but in a few years that will no longer be the case. Austin's public transportation system is better than some U.S. cities, but totally lacking in the area where I choose to live. I seriously considered living downtown in a high rise condominium, where I could have taken the bus to places I needed to go, but after 18 1/2 years of apartment living on Kwajalein I chose to own some dirt. By the way, all motorized transportation on Kwajalein was public. The great majority of personal transportation was by bicycle. My weekend boating and diving was sail powered. But God only knows what the carbon footprint was for barging in the fuel for the trucks, busses and commuter aircraft. My car is four years old this month. It has 29,000 miles on it. The average in the U.S.A is 15,000 miles per year. My car is fairly sporty, but it gets good gas mileage for its age. My brother lives in the country. He is even more dependent on the automobile than I am. Yes, we subscribe to tribal mores. But we are aware of it as a choice. The last time I visited my brother and his family we reminisced a good deal. I observed, "We live now only slightly better than our parents did when we were in high school and college. We were middle class then. Now people see us as rich bastards." He nodded in assent. One thing that distinguishes our lifestyle choices from adherence to a conspiracy theory is that we are aware that there are valid alternatives, and that we chose to live the way we do. Others may consider our choices immoral. We are willing to grant the validity of their position. Both of us will soon be gone, and our carbon footprints with us. Conspiracy theorists, by my understanding of the term, do not grant the validity of alternative views. The chemtrail conspiracy theory seems relatively harmless to me. Other theories like 9/11, moon landing and so on seem relatively benign as well. The two moon landing deniers among my mother's acquaintance annoyed her, because she was proud of my brother's role as Head of the Flight Medicine Department of the the NASA Manned Spaceflight Center throughout the Apollo program. But my brother and I are contributing to global warming. I think you should make your carbon footprint negative, to compensate for rich bastards like my brother and me. [:D] RNJ
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