Seth Sandronsky asked,
>Tom, do you mean selling the "growth is the problem, not the solution to
>what ails us" message to the news media or to the general population?
I mean the general public, the media, academics and policy elites (including
progressive intellectuals). But the difficulties are of course different
with each of the different groups. I agree that the public is open to the
anti-growth message and that it is a challenge communicating with them
outside of the mainstream media. Ironically, I find that what I would call
"progressive intellectuals" tend to be receptive personally and skeptical of
its broader appeal.
Us progressive intellectuals are very ambivalent about our professional
standing in the eyes of our (reactionary) peers. We tend to unthinkingly
concede greater weight to the conventionally prestigious act. Every
peer-reviewed, published article with equations in it adds to the weight of
authority even if the equations are trivial nonsense. A million
peer-reviewed, published articles with trivial nonsensical equations in them
constitutes a scholarly field (I won't mention names). Somehow we feel that
the way to refute those million trivial nonsensical equations is to publish
a hundred thousand peer-reviewed articles with non-trivial sensical
equations in them, as if reason will win out in a dialogue with unreason.
I play that game, too. Maybe I do it to keep from having self-doubts about
whether I _could_ do it.
>By the way, I think that the latter is open to your anti-growth message.
>But, communicating with them outside of the mainstream news media is quite a
>challenge. Consider the information the U.S. general population does get.
>Here's one example. The media watchdog group Fairness and Accuracy in
>Reporting did a study of U.S. TV coverage during the 2000 U.S. presidential
>campaign and found that it got less attention then the case of Elian
>Gonzalez, the Cuban boy who lived briefly in Florida.
Tom Walker
Bowen Island, BC
604 947 2213
