Journalist Andrew Bolt reckons that the "green sickness" is "spreading". He quotes from a story by journalist Bryony Gordon:
Psychiatrists in America have identified a new mental illness that threatens the very fabric of society: an obsession with saving the planet. Some people are so addicted to cutting their carbon emissions that they seem to have gone quite mad.
Take, for example, Sharon Astyk, who makes her four children sleep in a huddle so she doesn't have to turn on the heating (if she was that concerned about the planet, perhaps she could have stopped reproducing after baby number two).
Have American psychiatrists really identified a new mental illness? Well, no. Gordon does not provide any source for her claim, but it's from a rather silly story by journalist Joanne Kaufman in the New York Times:
Then there are people like Ms. Astyk, 36, a writer and a farmer who is trying, with the aid of a specially designed calculator, to whittle her family's energy use to 10 percent of the national average. She and her husband, Eric Woods, a college professor, grow virtually all their own produce, raise chickens and turkeys, and spend only $1,000 a year in consumer goods, most of which they buy used. They air-dry their clothes, and their four sons often sleep huddled together to pool body heat.
Kaufman's story includes a picture so that you can figure out that "sleep huddled together" means "share a bedroom". But what about those American psychiatrists who diagnosed it as a mental illness? Here's what Kaufman wrote:
Certainly there is no recognized syndrome in mental health related to the compulsion toward living a green life. But Dr. Jack Hirschowitz, a psychiatrist in private practice in Manhattan and a professor at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, said that certain carborexic behaviors might raise a red flag.
"The critical factor in determining whether something has reached the level of a disorder is if dysfunction is involved," he said. "Is it getting in the way of your ability to do a good job at work? Is it taking precedence over everything else in your relationships?"
American psychiatrist Joseph j7uy5 explains what's wrong with this:
There are two facts that are pertinent here. First, every single symptom that is listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is something that could occur in anyone. No single symptom is, by itself, diagnostic of anything. Second, any behavior, even if perfectly normal for most people, can become pathological if taken to an extreme, or if undertaken at inappropriate times. This is true of behaviors undertaken in the service of sustainability, because it is true of all behaviors, period.
So the author found two therapists who were willing to say that Ms. Astyk's behaviors could, in some circumstances, conceivably, be indications of mental illness.
It probably was not hard to find those therapists. After all, any therapist with a modicum of training could say that about any behavior. We know this is true, because it is always true. Unfortunately, is is not particularly interesting, informative, or meaningful.
Also of interest is Astyk's blog post about the piece:
I was nervous, but now that the worst has happened - the article appears in a completely decontextualized article about crazy people, complete with quotes from therapists.
and a longer response:
The language of the article included the term "huddle together for warmth" to describe the fact that my young kids sleep together in both warm and cold weather. All of this operated to implicitly imply that I'm abusing my kids in my pursuit of a lower energy life. And since even implied accusations of child abuse and mental illness are a potent weapon in this society, I wouldn't be shocked if you did think I was crazy and a bad mom. ...
Without a model for a good, sustainable, and happy American life that produces 50-90 percent less carbon -- not from costly technologies that simply can't be put in place in time, but from ordinary practices of daily life that can -- we're doomed. If we believe that living a sustainable life makes us crazy, or forces us to live in misery and poverty, we face misery and poverty for future generations all over the world.
The good thing is that the good American life isn't so very far away. In 1945 we used 80 percent less energy per household than we do now. Your parents and grandparents lived that way. They heated the rooms they used most often and closed off the other ones, wore sweaters, and walked more than they drove. They took the bus. They ate less meat. They grew victory gardens and ate food grown near them. They shared with their neighbors more, and they worked together on what was then the greatest challenge facing the world: the rise of fascism.
Kathy McMahon over at Peak Oil Blues posted this very insightful commentary:
http://www.peakoilblues.com/blog/?p=806
All Ms Astyk has to do is mention "Little House on the Prairie" and cast her actions as 'survivalist' and she will be the darling of the American right. It's all in the branding.
Well, in brains of a particular percentage of the population, people living their lives thoughtfully and eschewing profligate waste are crazy. Either G-d or technology will care for our sins.
That is how these people think. You can hit them over the head with facts, but if the facts don't fit their worldview, the facts are categorized as 'media bias', 'heresy', 'belief', 'crazy' or whatever the op-ed author chooses for that day.
So anyway, all you can do is ignore these people or live with them somehow. They are not like other people.
Best,
D
Huddling together Bedroom sharing is the SS uniform of Liberal Fascism.
Holy FSM. Just when I think the NYT readers can't possibly get anymore self-absorbed without making a stylish wardrobe out of Bounty paper towels, they print this crap.
I guess I must be well and truly nuts, then. I dry clothes on a clothesline, keep a large veggie garden AND an orchard, keep not only laying hens but also rare breed chickens, eat local venison instead of beef, make my own soap from veggie oil (including laundry detergent and shampoo), and "huddle" in the same bed with my husband for, uh, warmth or something. And we also heat the house with a combination of woodstove (wood cut from our own woodlot), large furry dogs, and "If you're cold put a sweater on." You would too if your oil heating bill was $6000 for five months' worth of 60 degree heat.
Is it because the people who write such silliness associate having the time to do this stuff as meaning, your time is not valuable enough to merit paying someone else to do it? As in, they figure if you aren't pulling down six figures it's because there's something mentally wrong with you in the Land Of Opportunity?
Lora:
Lord Bernanke finds your lack of faith .. disturbing.
Well, I applaud Sharon Astyk. I'm an urbanite and therefore use less fuel for transportation, but I can't easily eat very locally (no garden). It's not easy composting in my highrise, but that's something I'm happy to do. And taking the stairs instead of the elevator has exercise as its reward.
Two summers ago my girlfriend and I went to visit her family in Romania (a bit of a GHG-guilt trip) and spent some time in a village near the Molovian border where I carried water, ate fruit from the orchard, and exchanged pleasantries (poorly) with folks in the horse-drawn carts passing by. I believe this environment helped us overcome the language barrier and come closer together.
Well, I guess I'm crazy then. Line dried clothes. Composting. Gardening. I've been building all of my recent home projects with free hippy-tainted "recovered" lumber instead of the expensive Republican approved Home Depot stuff. I don't even own a car, I bicycle or walk everywhere. I ignored my realtor's advice to "buy as much house as you can afford", and bought as little house as I could live in. My clothes come from Goodwill, $6 for khakis with the $60 tag still on them.
If I so much as hinted to my Republican coworkers of anything that rhymed with "environment" or "efficiency", I'd be ostracized and probably lose my job as a vaguely related consequence. Instead, I tell them it's because all of this gives me more free time than them, saves me hundreds of dollars a week, and I enjoy doing it and have fun all day, every day. Oh, and I'll be able to retire at 50. And quite a few of them are following suit in one way or another as a result. That's the power of mental illness, er, I mean branding.
Well, apparently my wife and I are right on the edge. We dry either out on a line or on indoor drying racks. It costs a lot less. That, and our washer and dryer both decided to die the same year and it wasn't a very busy fire fighting season so we just replaced the washer. We have a vegetable garden (71 quarts of tomatoes, 20 quarts of chili peppers). We recycle. We try to buy minimum packaging. We have a house that is small (but only costs $180 a month to heat (in Norhteastern PA). We do not have air conditioning.
I don't think mentally ill is the right diagnosis. It is more likely, I have a kid in college and we are broke.
Talk about cultural differences! Over here, line-drying clothes is totally normal. Sucks if you're too poor to have a garden with a clothesline, and you have to use a laundromat or buy a tumble-dryer. Though there is a rise in urban apartments, so using a dryer is becoming more a bit more common these days.
Our climate may have something to do with it, too :)
I don't know if it's still true but in a lot of the US it was illegal to dry clothes anywhere outside the house. Maybe if you want to preserve your own brand of fascism (banning outside clothes-drying), you call your opponents mentally ill.
Of course "over here" is where Tim lives, as opposed to where I expect most readers to be :)
I'm told it still is in Calgary.
Chris - I don't think that's true at all. It's only true where you buy a house which has a covenant and a neighborhood association that enforces a covenant which doesn't allow for outdoor drying of clothes. Developers do it all the time, but neighborhood associations don't always enforce them. If your house is in an old neighborhood (before the mass development era, but they came into wide use in the 1980s), then you can put a clothesline out in the backyard and nobody can do a damn thing. State and Federal laws can overrule covenants, too. That's how race-based covenants got banned, though those were much older (when you saw a development that was called "restricted" or "highly restricted", it meant "N**gers and Jews cannot buy here, so you're safe here Mr. Ofay, your neighbors will look just like you.").
And if the bed is broad enough, what's so horrible about children sleeping together (like Huey, Dewey and Louie)? "Child abuse"? WTF?!?
Therefore, the badge of sanity is obviously to not give a damn about the future existence of the human race. OK!
Saving money is socialism!
I couldn't care less about the tree-hugging movement, but I dry clothes on a line or on a wire rack when they're too delicate for the dryer. I'll probably buy a prius one of these days, just because it's a cool hack.
I might even build a house that's off the grid, but that's just because utility companies are such lousy vendors. If my power goes out, I want to be able to just grab my toolbox and turn it back on myself, not wait a couple of days for PG&E to show up.
IIRC the laws were made by local governments and had nothing to do with covenants.
I don't know if it's still true but in a lot of the US it was illegal to dry clothes anywhere outside the house.
-----
A clothesline ban was just lifted in Ontario, Canada. (Or rather, the province overrode a number of local bans in place in various parts of the province)
"Lord Bernanke finds your lack of faith .. disturbing."
*giggle, snork* I will await the arrival of the storm troopers, flying monkeys, or inquisitors (his choice) with glee. I could always use free dog food for the big fluffy hungry livestock guard dogs...
He should blame his marketing department for failing to anticipate my needs, interests and sense of identity. I would probably buy shit if there was anything decent to buy. Unfortunately, my choices seem to be high fructose corn syrup extruded into various shapes, fluorescent pink maternity mini-dresses and strappy 3" heels, and strangely-colored goo that smells of industrial solvent. I didn't mean to be a hippie, it just came out of having aesthetics.
In the home of the Hills hoist, the idea of a ban on drying ones clothes outside seems absurd.
With a smile:
In Germany we believe that in the US people take offence when they see men's and women's underwear hanging next to each other on a line in your backyard! Whereas here, nobody would even notice this fact. (Maybe unless you don't mind showing off your fancy stuff as mentioned by Lora.)
But instead, we still (in 2008!) do have areas where people take offence when you are drying outside at all on Sundays!!!
b.t.w.: Anyone knows the positions of the presidential candidates on drying outside?
i myself refuse to oppress the sunshine without consent; i let it go free, and wear my clothing wet. if i want it dry, my own body heat will do it.
in fact, in the future i intend to wash my clothes without oppressing the water.
Chris, I know of nowhere in my state where such a daft rule exists. (except in developments where a buyer has to sign a covenant with restrictions on such things as grass height, color of house, brand and color of car parked in driveway, height, weight, sex, and number of children, etc., and if a person is stupid enough to sign the covenant, he deserves all he gets) There are more backwards parts of the country than where I live. Also, it seems that these "laws" couldn't be very old, as clothes dryers only became affordable (thus more common) in the late 1960s. City/town councils can be as much of a nuisance as neighborhood associations, worming themselves into areas that are strictly none of their business. I don't care what they must do about public property (and public safety), but what an owner does with his private property shouldn't be a concern unless it impacts the public good. Now how tortured a reason can there be for a clothesline being an impact on the public good? It makes the town look impoverished? I mean, give me a solid legal reason here for those laws. "Because they can" doesn't count, BTW. That was the same reasoning behind the race covenants, too.
We air-dry our clothes on the Aussie icon the mighty Hills Hoist. We even, and I hang my head in shame here, actually wash our dishes by hand as we do not have dishwasher. I am also guilty of recycling and using CFL lights.
I think I should check myself into the mental health clinic right away for a bit of consumer re-education.
Repeat after me: Work - Consume - Die ........
Lora:
Nicely counterintuitive. Think I'll get that engraved on wood and hung in the hall :-D
There's even some bonus hidden snark in there when you think that most non-hippies probably think of themselves as having much more class and taste than those - ugh - tree-huggers down the road.
It's a bit like my cycling mantra: "I cycle because I'm lazy" - in other words, I don't have to earn all the extra money to run a car, I can't be arsed spending 3-4 hours a week at the gym to keep fit, and I can get up a few minutes later in the morning because cycling to work is quicker round here than driving!
I don't air-dry my clothes (wouldn't be able to do it well for 6 months of the year around here, anyway, unless you like getting frostbitten fingers while pinning shit to the line) and I don't skimp on the heat. Those are my vices. As I said to a friend of mine when he was talking about saving water by hand-washing clothes, "You will pry my washer and dryer out of my cold, dead, disabled hands."
On the other hand, I do not own a car (I walk the manageable distances in the non-snow/ice months, bus the rest), live in a tiny 1910-vintage house that I share with another person with whom I'm not sharing a bed (it makes a difference), don't own a dishwasher or an air conditioner, compost, grow things in the backyard, and otherwise lead a low-consumption lifestyle. My self-worth is not predicated on how much disposeable crap I can buy.
I'd like to grow more, but a) my landlady would look askance at my ripping up the back lawn, b) I live in a beautiful old streetcar suburb in "the Forest City," so almost the whole backyard is covered in deep shade all day long as soon as the trees leaf out, and c) I'm too disabled to reliably be able to tend a large garden very well -- one good dry spell combined with one spell of me not being able to haul the hose, and my garden is toast. :(
I've read that new apartments in China come equipped with an air-dry room.
Well, she was right about Palin.
I always air dry - keeps my electric bill lower.