Letters to the Editor
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faux altruism
Wolverine said:
It's not only attacking the motives and morality of folks who aren't doing anything but trying to live better and smarter; at its heart they're trying to say it's laudable to live like nothing matters but you. The consumptive life is righteous, the efficient life is not. It's a Conservative thing.
But, see, that's just it. That's what this blog is all about: good intentions commodified.
Sure, I use reusable shopping bags. They're sturdier and hold more groceries than the plastic ones. But the folks Lander is ridiculing don't just use the standard 10/$10.00 kind I have (and maybe you do too), with the name of the local supermarket chain (NOT Whole Foods, btw) printed on the side. Noooo--they have to have the "right" kind (http://gothamist.com/2007/07/18/im_not_a.php). I support Obama, have since he came to prominence in 2002 in my state. Maybe they're Obama cultists, too. All fine and dandy while it lasts, but don't get too starry-eyed--when the cultural zeitgeist swings right, the privileged white upper middle class will, too, with all the fervor of religious converts. (I worry that they all claim to support Obama because it's hip and demonstrates how non-racist and evolved they are, but in the end they'll end up voting for the white guy.)
Case in point: remember the Sixties? At some point, a lot of those boomers stopped dropping acid and picked up briefcases and NIV Bibles and became neocons and the Christian Right and brought us Reagan and the Moral Majority. They still puff themselves up and talk about how their generation changed everything...but they sure don't nostalgize about how they subsequently helped put us on the road to ruin.
Yeah, there are faux liberals, wolves in sheep's clothing, and maybe Lander is one of them, I don't know. But there are also the sheep themselves, and when a herd of sheep panics, you don't want to be in the way.