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• Monday, November 3, 2008 10:36 AM

  @bigguns

  don't be bemused. My conceding that this planet would be better balanced without us isn't a happy concession.

  I'm not bemused by your professed unhappiness, bigguns. But seeing as in this case, it's entirely nothing more than the result of your own philosophical choice, I'll spare you my commiseration.

  What bemuses me is, more generally, the unspoken undertone in ALL of the misanthropic laments of this nature that I've ever heard: "humankind is a pox on the Earth (myself and present company exempted, of course!)"

  It's always there- the implicit implication that if only the rest on humankind were as Enlightened as oneself and ones eco-progressive compatriots, everything would have worked out.

  In my experience, when delivered in person, such rants are generally followed by a careful perusal of the dessert counter at the coffeehouse, or a flip of the phone to check where the party is, that evening.

  That's what's called being a poser.

  I've never observed an emotional cast of genuinely doomstruck misery and self-loathing from anyone who has ever expressed such sentiments. And I've spent a lot of time observing people in mild-to-severe states of emotional distress.

  So these days I try to be amused, when the faux eco-misanthropy crops up.

  —cabdriver Read cabdriver's other letters
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