Thomas Jefferson Speaks
Distracted, entertainment-addicted America needs to listen closely to Thomas Jefferson:
No Impact Man follows up
A few days ago, Colin Beavan ("No Impact Man") came to St. Louis to discuss his book (at one of the branches of the St. Louis Public Library). I have previously posted on his fine book. I did so because I was impressed that Beavan was actually doing something to dramatically decrease his impact on the planet rather than simply talking about doing something.
Beavan offered much good advice at his recent talk. In his book, he offered lots of nuts and bolts about lessening one's impact on the planet. At last week's talk, he focused quite a bit on motivating us to change ourselves. Here are some of his points:
- "I'm the only person I can change."
- There are 14,000 dead lakes in the United States and Canada, lakes that used to have water.
- In the UK, the political parties strive to show who can do more to save the environment, which is dramatically different than it is in the United States.
- "Just look around this room . . . How cool are libraries! What a great model, sharing things--passing them from person to person."
-"What I did was always intended to have an element of stunt."
- The best thing about my year-long experiment was getting rid of television.
- The average American throws away 40 items of clothing per year.
- The hardest part about getting anything done to lessen the impact of people on our environment is "changing habits."
- Americans are overworked so much that they don't have the time to spend with their loved ones. "We are out of balance."
- "Where do I find the time to make bread?"
- Progress "might not mean more technology."
- The average American watches 4.5 hours of television per day.
- "We've got to stop thinking that environmentalism is about deprivation."
- Car-based urban planning leads to obesity and loneliness.
- The interests of the people must be aligned with the interests of the planet. We need to make personal and business decisions that are in line with our values. When we do this, our institutions will become more functional.
- If someone who resists says that he is concerned about national security, ask him why he would want to rely upon unstable regimes for energy.
- The wastebasket was not invented until 1900.
- The problem about our environment is not about good and evil. It's about systems that are not working.
- We all have the capacity to do good. Use your talents to make a difference.
- when someone comes up to me and says "you should talk about X," I tell them "no, YOU should talk about X."
-To are the straws that broke the camel's back. Anyone can be a hero.
- We have a choice. You can be the victim of your culture or you can be the master of your culture.
- There is no profit in local farming. Please support them, and you'll be proud.
- "No-impact is not a religion."
- Beware of talk about carbon offsets. It doesn't undo the damage. I call it "carbon penitence." It's not a bad thing, but we should instead find renewable energy and invest in it.
- How can we change other people? "Listen and love instead of telling and anger."
Water
I'm in the process of reading an extraordinary issue of National Geographic. It's a special issue titled "Water: Our Thirsty World." This is not a happy topic, given the increasing desperation of increasingly thirsty human populations. Many of them haul their water long distances on their backs. But most of the victims of dwindling supplies of fresh water are not human beings. National Geographic has offered a series of video overviews of this special issue. This is a critically important issue that is well worth your attention.
What is cool?
Back in 1973, the Mid-America Music Association sponsored its Seventeenth Annual Music Festival at the Omaha Hilton Hotel on August 3-5 (MAMA still exists). I was a 17-year old guitar teacher back then, and I participated in the contest as a "Virtuoso" (I was not really any sort of virtuoso, but there's nothing like a label to appeal to one's ego). About six of my students also participated. It all seems so long ago and hazy to me now, but it seemed like a big deal back then.
I do know, however, that in addition to the guitarists, many accordion players participated in their own accordion contests. Hence, in the program that was handed out, one could spot many advertisements geared to accordion players, making it clear that it was "cool" to play the accordion. I didn't think so--I always thought that kids from the Midwest who liked the accordion were a bit odd. But the ads pushed the opposite message. Here's a sample (click for enlargement).
I'm in no way impugning the talents of these players. Many accordion players were extraordinarily talented. I find this ad interesting in that it made it clear that accordion playing was cool, yet here we are, 35 years later, and I would think that it would be extremely difficult to find music studios that even offer accordion lessons.
Which brings me to this question. What is obviously an in-thing to do today--what is "cool"--that will be chuckled at 35 years from now? Will it be that we walk around with iPods plugged into our ears? Will it be that so many of us were obese? Will it be that people thought they could consider their online network members to be "friends"? Will it be that we dress up with corporate logos on our clothing? Will it be that we worked so hard to get jobs for the money rather than because the work was meaningful? Will it be the type of music was thought was impressive? Will it be that the average American watched more than four hours of television? Will it be that the citizens walked around, apathetic to the rampant corruption in their national government?
In what ways will people 35 years from now shake their heads and chuckle at us?
Talking monkeys
Robert Seyfarth describes how monkey calls used by Vervet Monkeys might be precursors to language. Vervets give different types of calls in reaction to different kinds of approaching predators. These calls are simple. They are not language, though Seyfarth suggests that these types of calls are precursors to language.