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The Withering of the American Environmental Movement
The Withering of the American Environmental Movement
The surest sign of decadence in a social/political movement is its engagement in the suppression of internal dissent: such decadence now erodes the moral core of the environmental movement. Stray beyond the margins of permitted discourse, publicly critique the prevailing "strategy," strike out in an authorized new direction and the overlords of the environmental movement crack down. They enfilade the insurgents with legalistic maledictions, gag orders, and accusations of sedition.
Witness the Sierra Club’s threats to sue renegade chapters that publicly opposed anti-wilderness bills proposed by the Club’s political favorites in Montana. Or its attacks on anti-war protesters in the Club’s ranks in Utah. Or NRDC’s attempt to squelch the filing of endangered species petitions, for on-the-run critters such as the Queen Charlotte’s goshawk. Or the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund’s arm-twisting of its own clients in the spotted owl cases. Or the Environmental Defense Fund’s betrayal of at-risk communities across America when it endorsed Dow Chemical’s proposed "revamping" of the Superfund Act. (Col. Fred Krupp, EDF’s CEO, was once overheard telling Carol Browner, Clinton’s head of the EPA, "You are our general. We are your troops. We await your orders."
Or the sado-masochistic pleasure that NRDC (yes, them again) displayed while boasting about "breaking the back of the environmental opposition to NAFTA."
To quote Jospeh Heller: Something happened. Somewhere along the line, the environmental movement disconnected with the people, rejected its political roots, pulled the plug on its vibrant and militant tradition. It packed its bags, starched its shirts and jetted to DC, where it became what it once despised: a risk-aversive, depersonalized, hyper-analytical, humorless, access-driven, intolerant, centralized, technocratic, dealmaking, passionless, direct-mailing, lawyer-laden monolith to mediocrity. A monolith with feet of clay.
The power of the people can still overwhelm the influence of big money. Look at Chiapas. Read Edward Abbey. Listen to Mandela and Evo Morales. Anything is possible. Find your place, take a stand. People will join you.
The surest sign of decadence in a social/political movement is its engagement in the suppression of internal dissent: such decadence now erodes the moral core of the environmental movement. Stray beyond the margins of permitted discourse, publicly critique the prevailing "strategy," strike out in an authorized new direction and the overlords of the environmental movement crack down. They enfilade the insurgents with legalistic maledictions, gag orders, and accusations of sedition.
Witness the Sierra Club’s threats to sue renegade chapters that publicly opposed anti-wilderness bills proposed by the Club’s political favorites in Montana. Or its attacks on anti-war protesters in the Club’s ranks in Utah. Or NRDC’s attempt to squelch the filing of endangered species petitions, for on-the-run critters such as the Queen Charlotte’s goshawk. Or the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund’s arm-twisting of its own clients in the spotted owl cases. Or the Environmental Defense Fund’s betrayal of at-risk communities across America when it endorsed Dow Chemical’s proposed "revamping" of the Superfund Act. (Col. Fred Krupp, EDF’s CEO, was once overheard telling Carol Browner, Clinton’s head of the EPA, "You are our general. We are your troops. We await your orders."
Or the sado-masochistic pleasure that NRDC (yes, them again) displayed while boasting about "breaking the back of the environmental opposition to NAFTA."
To quote Jospeh Heller: Something happened. Somewhere along the line, the environmental movement disconnected with the people, rejected its political roots, pulled the plug on its vibrant and militant tradition. It packed its bags, starched its shirts and jetted to DC, where it became what it once despised: a risk-aversive, depersonalized, hyper-analytical, humorless, access-driven, intolerant, centralized, technocratic, dealmaking, passionless, direct-mailing, lawyer-laden monolith to mediocrity. A monolith with feet of clay.
The power of the people can still overwhelm the influence of big money. Look at Chiapas. Read Edward Abbey. Listen to Mandela and Evo Morales. Anything is possible. Find your place, take a stand. People will join you.
Although I put it in for balance, I don't believe that closing paragraph is true. Not in the larger world of dying oceans, 400 ppmv, declining aquifers and hundred-year weather catastrophes happening every hundred days...
If the American environmental movement is withering, it is doing so from an ailment for which there is no cure - the subliminal recognition of the truth.
Estamos tan jodidos!