The World's Fair

I lost nearly all respect for Beck after I learned he was a Scientologist.

Posted by: cephyn | March 28, 2008 5:21 PM

Sure. Impressive but ultimately worthless. People are overwhelmed by numbers like that - they just turn numb and forget about it. Eddie Izzard has a bit about this and mass murderers - after a certain number, we just can't comprehend it anymore. It's all the same.

So yeah, we produce a ton of waste. But with SO MUCH being produced, how can little ol' me even make a dent? It's just not worth it. That's what people think.

There are only 2 ways to get people to do something, en masse - 1) pay them and/or 2) make it easy. Municipal recycling programs are very successful, usage-wise. But if there isn't any, not so much. The only things that do OK are things you get paid for. But grocery bag recycling? Forget it - you don't get paid, and you have to haul the bags back to the store (at best) to recycle them. Hell I have a huge pile of grocery bags. I feel guilty tossing them - but like I'm gonna pile 1000 bags into my car and go to the store with them? But give me a bin in my backyard, and I'm more than happy to participate.

Posted by: cephyn | March 28, 2008 6:51 PM

Perhaps cephyn is no longer available.

Although sentiments like cephyn's tend to frustrate and depress me, I do see an element of interest to me underlying those comments. Currently our culture does have socially-reinforced belief mechanisms that tend to make harmful behaviors our default. Those socially-reinforced beliefs sometimes create some extra work just to Do The Right Thing. And that does pretty much suck.

I recall that BRC once said something along the lines of, "All scholarship is about making things VISIBLE." I like that. It describes my experience.

I didn't understand this stuff, and I didn't really pay attention, until I had the experience of someone directing my gaze, holding my attention, and saying the equivalent of, "Don't look away. Keep looking until you SEE."

And after I finally noticed the stuff that I had not been paying attention to, I discovered that I could no longer ignore it.

Different people have different ways of noticing things, I guess. I'd like to think that pairing the waste message with popular music (popular with some listeners, at least) might hold someone's attention long enough for them to notice what it means. Or at least to begin to become somewhat more willing to consider paying a little more attention, next time.

Posted by: etbnc | March 31, 2008 4:03 PM