andrew cohen's quote

[Edward Schreiber]

I love this last line from you Adam, "Fear-based thinking, as I have  
said, and others, also, can overload the circuits and while some are  
driven into avoidance, denial, distraction, others are driven into  
fanaticism, the sense that drastic steps must be taken---and fall  
prey to any passing demagogue.
>
> And that's my point!  We are living with fear based thinking, being  
> introduced for who knows what reasons (control of resources  
> perhaps) and we are
living in a culture of denial, distraction and fanaticsm, the sense  
for drastic steps must be taken..."

Well Adam, no drastic steps have to be taken for you maybe.
But what about the rest of the world?

Have you read "any" reports of late about the state of the  
environment?  Is that "drastic" to you?  Do you feel "drastic steps"  
are needed,
or shall we let it all slide away?   Is your status as a white, MD,  
American in any way related to your sense of the issues at hand, related
in particular to the (assumed) non-drastic steps we can take our  
leisure?   I would be the 140 species per day going extinct would  
possibly
consider this drastic, if they had a voice, or if we could hear  
them.  Or how about the sliding ice caps in the arctic Adam?  Is that  
okay?  Well,
it might impact the poor black and brown people living in coastal  
communities, but well, is that drastic?

I agree:  it is fear based, fanatic, denial, distraction that I am  
suggesting we face - not suggesting anything other than we honestly  
face the
urgency. Oh, probably Al Gore is wrong, probably the 2089 scientists  
calling this an emergency are wrong, perhaps our food shelves will for
awhile stay full as long as we can secure the oil we need to keep  
this insanity going.  But it's not an emergency, it sounds, to you,  
given the
fact that as you once told me, you may be long gone before the next  
generation must deal with this.  What does that imply?

Ed
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