Thanks for this Donna!
----------
> From: donna <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To: STUDIES IN WOMEN AND ENVIRONMENT <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Subject: Devil's Dictionary
> Date: Monday, January 04, 1999 10:12 PM
>
> Happy New Year to All.
> >From the pacific northwest,
> love/donna
>
>
> 1/3/99
> To Usual Suspects # 15
>
> This is part one of a "Devil's Dictionary" for grassroots
> environmentalists containing some uncommon definitions for common
> words and phrases and also some laws, constants and rules-of-thumb
> discovered over the years. This post, Part one of three, covers the
> areas of Public Administration and Watershed Councils & Partnerships.
> Ten other subject areas such as science, timber, and economics will be
> covered in later posts.
>
> 1. PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
>
> 1st. Law of Property: Land, once stolen fair and square, cannot be
> stolen back.
>
> 1st. Law of Public Land: The tough guys always get the ground.
>
> Acceptance & Acceptability: When people say that local people will not
> support what they do not understand, what they mean is that people
> will not accept what they do understand if accepting it costs them
> money or proves their whole life has been a tragic mistake. (see
> Willful Ignorance)
>
> Accountability: Generally advocated after it is too late to actually
> achieve it.
>
> Balance: The process of making tradeoffs between tepidly enforcing
> environmental laws and ignoring them altogether. When the Grand Canyon
> Dam was proposed, every elected and civic official within 100 miles of
> the proposed dam agreed the "balanced approach" was to build it.
> Derived not from the Latin "bilanz" - to weigh, but rather from the
> Greek "balanoc" - to insert a suppository in the rectum to ease
> irritation, as in, "Please bend over so the doctor can insert a
> "balanoc" into your equation."
>
> County: American political designation originally developed along with
> the township and range system to facilitate real estate speculation.
>
> Environmental Enforcement - Basic Rule of: From St. Augustine, "Give
> me chastity and continency - but not yet!"
>
> Environmental Enforcement - Circular Argument of: 1. Environmental
> laws are essential to sustain the web of life upon which we all
> depend. 2. Alas, if we ever seriously tried to enforce these laws, the
> subsequent public outcry would cause their repeal. 3. Therefore, we
> must never seriously enforce them. 4. Nevertheless, go back to #1.)
>
> Equation: "We must put people back into the equation!" Mythical
> mathematical concept generally used to advocate injecting local job
> impacts into Endangered Species listings for the same reason the law's
> framers specifically excluded them in the first place. To whit, if we
> had to consider whether it was worth eliminating a man's job to
> protect some poor creature, nothing non-human could ever be protected
> from anything, anytime, anywhere.
>
> Gridlock: Originally referred to third-world traffic congestion
> created by pervasive non-enforcement of traffic laws. Today sometimes
> used to refer to a legal impasse which prevents clearcutting in many
> forests. Gridlock is usually unmistakable evidence that activists have
> been successful in thwarting the devious plans of large corporations.
> So Gridlock is a badge of honor and a measure of effectiveness.
>
> MacCollism: A type of soothing, pre-authorized speech. At the Clinton
> Forest Summit, the distinguished historian Kimbark MacColl was asked
> to review the history of the timber industry in the West. Just before
> he spoke, MacColl was ordered to delete from his speech, key phrases
> like, "Timber cutters came to despoil ...", "...absentee timber owners
> simply treated the region as a colony to be exploited." This allowed
> President Clinton to speak immediately after MacColl and say of the
> timber industry, "I've been impressed with their love of the land."
>
> Property Rights - Basic rule of: If a property owner ever had the
> right to urinate on a piece of property, he has a perpetual right to
> site a toxic outfall on that same property. Asserting rights over
> one's private property is All-American: asserting public interest over
> public property is un-American.
>
> Reaching Out: Oft asserted bromide that enlightened public policy
> requires we accommodate those adversely impacted by environmental laws
> - to the point of selective non-enforcement of those laws. Had
> President Eisenhower "reached out" to the citizens of Little Rock,
> Arkansas in the 1950's, he might have dispatched community
> facilitators instead of armed troops, and probably the schools in the
> South would still be segregated. (see Partnering and Win-Win)
>
> Observer: According to conservatives, the only proper relationship of
> a citizen to local extractive industry is as an observer.
>
> Scoping: The process by which land management agencies solicit public
> input on their proposed plans. In practice, Scoping is often scheduled
> too early to be seriously considered or too late to make any
> meaningful difference.
>
> Willful Ignorance: A reflexive and instinctive reaction by "higher
> monitoring authorities" to scientific data that proves their past
> practices created environmental problems. Succinctly captured by
> Horace who said, "To all that which thou provest me thus, I refuse to
> give credence, and hate."
>
> Win-Win (From the old English word "winnan" - to fight): A negotiating
> strategy urged upon environmentalists by their opponents, who seldom
> practice it themselves, to ensure activists "lose-lose" and are
> grateful for it.
>
> Utopian Localism: A pervasive myth that rural officials know best
> about what "really works" on the local level. Realistically, if we
> ever ceased Federal enforcement of environmental laws, our public
> resources would be extracted or privatized in short order with local
> officials as cheerleaders because the environmental values of most
> local officials run a continuum from indifference to outright
> hostility.
>
> 2. WATERSHED COUNCILS AND PARTNERSHIPS,
>
> 1st. Law of Economic Development: Rural economic development always
> involves extending free water and sewer lines to a partners'
> previously undevelopable land. (see Utopian Plumbing "Pipes for
> Partners" )
>
> 1st. Law of Local Knowledge: "Locals know best" because by living
> close to environmental problems they obtain the unique insight that
> the local area's clean water, shrimp, old growth trees, turtles,
> elephants or whatever is without limit and therefore really can never
> be used up.
>
> 1st. Law of Not Ramming Things Down People's Throats: Distant,
> imperial bureaucracies should respect the customs and culture of rural
> folks. Basically this is a creative reworking of John Calhoun's (c.
> 1850 - South Carolina) Theory of Nullification which directly led to
> the Civil War. If communities engage in practices destructive to the
> local environment long enough they become "grand fathered in" to do so
> into perpetuity.
>
> Activism - Gresham's Law of: Gresham observed that when you introduce
> debased coins they always drive out good coinage. For activists, his
> law predicts that if you introduce "consensus based" environmental
> activism into a community, it will always drive out the existing
> "advocacy based" environmental activism. As the former becomes
> established, the latter is extinguished.
>
> Advocacy - Rule of: Self-imposed problem apparently unique to the
> science of Biology, which discourages as unethical the advocacy of any
> research that suggests people might alter their behavior to help other
> species survive. If medicine adopted the Rule of Advocacy, physicians
> at accidents might be constrained to counting dead people.
>
> Appropriate Agenda Items: "Non-controversial" issues acceptable for a
> Watershed Council's consideration, i.e. "To coordinate Federal and
> State funded resources to lobby Federal scientists and agencies not to
> list species on the verge of extinction where the law and science
> clearly compels it." Conversely, for a Watershed Council to discuss
> the possibility of asking a timber company to defer clear cutting a
> sheer slope in a critical fish bearing watershed would probably be
> considered highly inappropriate. (see Blocking)
>
> Blocking: The basic right of any member of a consensus-based Watershed
> Council to forbid placing on the agenda any of the matters which led
> to the creation of the Council in the first place. Ordinarily invoked
> for controversial or divisive issues which might establish that some
> council member, relative or boss ought to be indicted as an ecological
> war criminal.
>
> Consensus Decision Making: Generally promoted by the strong and
> verbally skillful to create an appearance of democratic process while
> oppressing the weak. [Note: generally OK for families, tribes or
> religious orders with endless time and shared values.]
>
> Consensus Decision Making - History of, England: Since the first
> meetings of the English Shires "under the spreading oaks" in 500 A.D.
> said by all parliamentarians to be the poorest deliberative procedure
> because 1. Intimidation is inevitable. 2. Leaders can easily suppress
> the views of minorities. 3. Conflicts of interest cannot be challenged
> and thus will be concealed. 4. Invariably motions are passed which
> conflict with higher authority.
>
> Consensus Decision Making - History of, Greece: Decision-making
> procedure in use prior to 136-109 B.C. Abandoned due to widespread
> intimidation and coercion. Replaced by principles of voting, ballots,
> representation and parliamentary procedure.
>
> Cross Purposes: As in "State and Federal agencies too often work at
> cross purposes." This comment usually indicates there is some poor
> fool over at Fish and Wildlife who won't fudge the data and ignore
> violations and so is considered "working at cross purposes" with the
> other agencies that do so.
>
> Local Involvement: A call for people to be "creatively empowered" to
> more fully participate in matters that directly affect them,
> especially those concerning the use of public property. Taken to its
> logical conclusion, communities adjacent to the Statue of Liberty
> could decide to melt it down to create good paying jobs for local
> scrap metal yards.
>
> Neo-liberalism: The six key premises of modern public decision-making.
> 1. All problems can be negotiated by people of good will. 2. Social
> conflicts are imaginary constructs. 3. Examining systemic malfeasance
> is unprofitable and inordinately time-consuming because no problem's
> root source is ever corruption. 4. Those with the most financial
> conflict with any issue should be deeply involved with the
> administration of any law regarding it. 5. Problems always arise from
> "mistakes." 6. "Bad actors" never have names or faces because guilt is
> everywhere and nowhere.
>
> Nudnik (Nudzh, Nudge): A Yiddish word meaning one who continually
> pesters and annoys others. When effective environmental activists
> begin to actively participate in "roundtables", partnerships, local
> economic development schemes and other "win-win" processes, over time
> they are are gradually and inevitably reduced to Nudniks.
>
> Oregon Plan: Creative "partnering" between State and Federal agencies
> and local landowners to create a complex fig-leaf to cover the fact
> that the State lacks the will to enforce the Endangered Species Laws.
> If one wishes to establish nationwide restoration schemes based on the
> the principle that "Crooks Know Best", it is extremely helpful to get
> a liberal Western Democratic Governor to pilot one for you.
>
> Partnering: Innovative method used to establish compromising and
> conflict-of-interest-prone relationships between law enforcers and
> violators. A creative public policy tool generally used to slip
> serious environmental enforcement ahead in time hopefully into the
> indefinite future.
>
> Reconciliation - Saul Alinsky's Opinion of: "Reconciliation means just
> one thing: when one side gets power, the other side gets reconciled to
> it."
>
> Roundtable: Unique administrative forums whose purpose is to convince
> local activists they have a de facto authority to give away public
> assets or suspend environmental laws. If policemen were "roundtabled",
> they might be persuaded that since they routinely issue tickets for
> speeding violations, they also have the power to exempt some of their
> neighbors from motor vehicle laws.
>
> Stakeholder (Steakholder): This emerging theory of public
> administration holds that if you lease government land, you obtain
> proprietary relationships over it. However this is strictly a one-way
> relationship. A rancher might loudly assert a "Stakeholder"
> relationship to public land he leases to graze cattle, but if a tenant
> in a house on the ranchers land claimed the minutest "Stakeholder"
> relationship to the ranchers rental property, the rancher would
> probably shoot him.
>
> Talk and Log Group: Formal ongoing consultative process that meets
> while some trees are being logged, to assess the best ways to
> permanently protect them. Generally disbands after the trees become
> logs.
>
> Timber Dependent Communities: A local community so complicit with the
> benefits of logging that reduced logging levels cannot be considered,
> imagined or discussed.
>
> Utopian Plumbing: Since the "outputs" of local economic development
> partnerships are always underground pipes of 6" or larger diameter to
> service the "partner's" land, they are best viewed as Utopian Plumbing
> Schemes or "Pipes for Partners." (see 1st. Law of Economic
> Development)
>
> Watershed Council: A novel political construct which allows a local
> community to substitute children's innocuous high school science
> experiments for the enforcement of Federal Environmental Laws.
> Sometimes used to expedite placing law enforcement authorities and
> resources into the hands of environmental criminals. Also used to
> camouflage public agencies' and officials' lobbying with public funds
> in contravention of statutes forbidding such practices. (see Oregon
> Plan)
>
> Note from Donna:
> This post came in today from the ever rockin' WSU engineering prof.
> Chuck Pezchezki, (of course he's 32 and tenured, what's your excuse?).
> Thank the forces his wife Kelly just gave birth to their first child...
he's
> much more in tune. 'Gotta have fun, while you're kickin,' Chuck says.
> This was written by Jim Britell a friend of Chuck's.
>
> Jim Britell P.O. Box 1349 Port Orford, Or 97465
> Archive of his writing is at:
> http://www.britell.com
