"Checking the oil in the Omni," he finishes, "is another kind of environmentalism."
That phrase has stuck with me for years, and come in handy in many a situation. Because what's environmentalism all about, really? Protecting the commons. It's misunderstood by some as being about the hugging of trees and the cuddling of fuzzy baby owls, but what it's about is making sure that in the future, you won't have to be rich to breathe fresh air and drink clean water and eat nontoxic food and look at a pretty landscape now and then. Those things are our common heritage... and the people who want to take them away, destroy them, and then sell inferior substitutes back to us for a profit, must be fought.
And, of course, it's not the only kind of commons.
Why is it wrong to shoplift? I'll pick a favorite example: You know those stupid little plastic packets of condiments and envelopes of salt and sugar that you get at cheap restaurants? Those sure do suck, don't they? You know why we have to put up with those? Because the salt and pepper shakers kept getting stolen. Oftentimes--probably more often than not--by people who could easily have afforded to buy salt and pepper shakers, who thought the the item was so cheap that no one could possibly miss it. This is just the tiniest, most trivial way our shared world has gotten uglier, more annoying, and less congenial--especially in places frequented by those who aren't rich--because our trust in each other has been eroded away by petty theft. Not stealing is another kind of environmentalism.
Letters From Limbo{or the trust went first. and not from petty theft. it's hard to track those things back to their source/cause. there was a time you could be sure your salt and pepper shakers would stay on the table, but then just outside the window there were ragged remnants of the First Nations people, and the weaving tracks of 'Negroes' as they stepped off the sidewalk in deference to their betters. the world of nostalgia is a re-construct. it was like that, it wasn't like that, it was like this, it wasn't. it's worse, it's so much better. but good almost always gets taken for granted, ask anyone who's come into serious wealth. of course I deserve it. it's the way it should be. nice. but it wasn't ever nice, not really. just here and there a little, sometimes. like now, only different.}
link from Doc Searls
