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Environmentalism may not be dead yet, but it is diseased and dying. The kerfuffle over the past few months as the "environmental movement" has suffered many blows and public humiliations continues to spark commentary. A significant part of the disease is association with the Democratic party and its drift into irrelevance over the past few decades as it abandoned its populist roots and became a rag tag collection of special interests with no governing philosophy or ethical credibility. See Left Out for more on that. The "environmental movement" was just one of the special interest groups clinging to that sinking raft.
In Response to "Death": Part II Ken Ward attempts to spin his way out of the whirlpool drawing Democrats into the depths. [via The Uneasy Chair]
Rather than give up our identity as environmentalists, as proposed by S&N, we should reaffirm green values and, however difficult it may seem today, remember that our mission is to win the world to our view. This is not a sentimental perspective, there is both a sound strategic rationale and a practical imperative to do so.This comes after a fussy semantic dance that attempts to embrace Lakoffian nonsense while rejecting Lakoffian nonsense.
Most environmentalists get the gist of framing analysis. We know the story of how the right wing methodically built its institutions, particularly the think tanks, and crafted precise wording to evince strength of character and signify righteousness.The central defect here is that this is a myth. The "left wing" didn't get drubbed by the "right wing" because they lost the framing war and had shabby packaging for their ideas. They lost because people clearly saw through them and made a choice between two poor alternatives; they picked their poison. Framing will do nothing to help this problem, it will make things worse, play into the existing caricature of Democrats as cynical elitists trying to game society for personal advancement. It's more self-punking.Framing offers useful insights and an important analytical approach to understanding public communications and environmentalists are adopting and adapting this new tool. The technique comes encumbered, however, with a pernicious political perspective that should be challenged.
What the "right wing" did that the losing left should grok is that they listened to the people. They didn't set out to persuade people to act against their values and interests as the left does, they set out to identify those values and associate themselves with them. Their art consisted of portraying themselves as representatives of those values and interests though it was only partly true.
There is a world of difference between these two approaches, both of which have a large component of deceit which does not go unnoticed. Society is smart enough to see through the pretenses, to see each power group as they truly are. But society prefers a deceitful group that has taken the time and trouble to listen to them and at least promise to act in their interests, above a deceitful group that is stone deaf, that hears nothing but its own litany, however packaged after lengthy and expensive focus grouping and academic mumbo jumbo.
The confusion and insincerity of Ward and others like him masks useful insights that are noted but not understood.
Environmental values also appeal to people across the political spectrum and we should not lose sight of, or crimp, this adaptability.It isn't that environmental values appeal to most people, it is that most people have always been quite aware of their environment and interested in caring for it. Trying to pry these values away from their various sources as a separable issue that can be used as a wedge is both bad environmentalism and bad politics. It is the key defect of the Democrats that has resulted in their decline, the blunder that allowed them to abandon their base of power in the working classes as well as their philosophical and ethical core.
Environmental preservation and remediation isn't a special value only held by greens of various, often drab, hues. It is a nearly universal human value. The way to assist humans in their efforts to do right is to provide them with information and tools to do as they desire. Knowing that activity x has consequence y and can be improved by techniques a, b and c is all they need to clean up the place. They are willing workers, motivated and capable. The art that enthusiasts can contribute consists of a clever tool kit with sufficient variety to provide a tool for every circumstance, so that each can contribute according to their interest and ability. There's no movement, no politics, no persuasion or gaming required. Those are all ways to impede environmental care.
Environmentalism isn't dead yet, but thankfully it is dieing. Hopefully it will finish the job soon since there is a lot of work to do.
... many well-intentioned children’s shows are much more obviously manipulative in their intent than the producers of those shows or their parental devotees tend to think. I think many kids have a nearly instinctive nose for manipulation, and most of them have an equally innate suspicion of it.Even kids do it. Especially kids do it.Good for them.