You asked me to comment why I unsubscribed.
The answer is manifold.
I support your ideals. I like your local level actions and initiatives. Anything for awareness. Everybody needs to wake up.
You asked me if it was because of the Buddhist gambler. Well, no, not especially. I may have had some mild disdain for the gambling approach but it was more that, at one stage, I subscribed to lots of sites that touched on my view; sites that seemed to provide answers for my frustrations and helplessness in a world gone mad – powered and controlled by a minority over a hapless majority.
Over time I have had to drop most off for the sheer volume of reading. In your case I forgot about you because your communications were so sparse. Then, when you popped up in my intray, I couldn’t see enough relevance for me in the sense that I am no longer in the UK. I am on the other side of the planet in New Zealand and not close enough to interact with your local goings on.
Oddly enough though, when I went to your site to reconsider (because of your question – nobody has ever asked before) I caught this bit about the politics of food.
“The Politics of Food
Back in the day – way back – the major food issue was whether to hunt or gather for the next meal. Now food is much more complex. From fair trade to free trade, supermarkets to farmers markets, fast food to slow food, the choices are all consuming. As the great genetic modification (GM) debate continues to rage, free market forces create absurd scenarios – apples are left rotting on our doorstep while fresh ones flown in from New Zealand place a direct cost on the environment and our local economies. – AntiApathy”
And I just thought – how absurd. Not for the discussion of the complexities of the food chain and good arguments that should ensue – but for the notion that stopping the likes of New Zealand apples arriving on your doorstep solves anything. We (New Zealand) are an agricultural producer and our exports to you supports our survival as critically as it would for a 3rd world nation. I would say to you – use your surplus to make more scrumpy. Send us some, We’d buy it.
The UK is a trading nation with a vastly rich infrastructure courtesy of the historical Empire, and still existing because of its huge wealth emanating from abroad. Why would you stop that?
Stop traveling? Stop sending apples? Stop the ships and planes? Stop imports and exports? You may as well stop the blood that flows in our veins.
How come “they” want to stop many of the good things our civilization has built up?
I know, let’s get the man in the street to start making sacrifices for the environmental mess we are in. Tax him to pay for all the changes that are needed.
It’s a serious absurdity this carbon footprint talk that wants to tax and penalise those least able to afford it. What real role can the man in the street play in this vast game of ecopolitics.
Where is the will to REALLY go green with the cost shared amongst the truly wealthy, the polluters, the greedy?
Where is the talk and political will for encouraging the makers of polluting machines to go for the breakthrough. Where is the encouragement for the giant corporates, transport makers and oil companies to flip back through their archives and trot out some of the inventions we all know have been bought out and squirreled away over the years.
Where is the talk of seriously stopping the pollution and resource consuming activities of the US and UK (amongst others) in their vile warmongering. Is that gargantuan or not?
Where is the squeeze on the financial powerhouses to put something back? Where is the incentive to help the wealthy to stop squandering on hugeness and luxury in some meaningful way and rehabilitate them into the universe of souls all looking out for each other
I know a good game to play. Let’s create this thing that pretends to do something good and throw the responsibility to some one else. Let’s trade in carbon credits (whatever they are in the real world) and make obscene gluts of money while planet’s life is being squeezed.
But I digress. I was talking about unsubscribing from AntiApathy. However I have changed my mind. I’d like to stay. I like the fact you bother to be there against all the odds. Every little bit counts and I like associating with people with social conscience and a eye to what is left of our future.
Yeah, your question made me think. Thanks.
I have long been an admirer of Tom Engelhardt’s commentaries and analyses, and the erudite voices he nurtures. Against all odds they give us a view of the world that few dare to admit or acknowledge. His website TomDispatch, for me, is a lighthouse illuminating a dark world of vested interest, power play and mainstream media spin. While the majority of the world’s populace is kept blindsided, pacified and in blissful ignorance, the affairs of the planet are far from well.
