Invasion of the issue snatchers
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One reason the conservation movement has not been
able to get much traction over the years, especially among
Republicans, is that it was invaded, starting back in the
’60s, by what one could call the "Issue Snatchers." Most of
these Issue Snatchers were chartreuse green. They had other fish to
fry, agendas that came from the pseudoscience of sociology, with
its egalitarian, class war, top-down socialist-sounding
"solutions."
These new people (unlike most of the golden oldies like Rachel Carson, Aldo and Starker Leopold, Durward Allen, David Brower, Ding Darling, Bernard De Voto and many, many more) had long lists of grievances against the establishment and entitlement expectations for client pressure groups. We, the second-generation greens, were not to have civic peace or conservation of resources unless, first, there was economic democracy, justice, ethnic balance and an end to poverty, sexism, racism, hunger and cultural myopia.
The agendas of the sociologists are so vast they will sink conservation. From the green standpoint, it is more important to save the pie itself than to squabble over the size of the slice of pie each of us is to get.
David Tillotson
Lake Mills, Wisconsin
These new people (unlike most of the golden oldies like Rachel Carson, Aldo and Starker Leopold, Durward Allen, David Brower, Ding Darling, Bernard De Voto and many, many more) had long lists of grievances against the establishment and entitlement expectations for client pressure groups. We, the second-generation greens, were not to have civic peace or conservation of resources unless, first, there was economic democracy, justice, ethnic balance and an end to poverty, sexism, racism, hunger and cultural myopia.
The agendas of the sociologists are so vast they will sink conservation. From the green standpoint, it is more important to save the pie itself than to squabble over the size of the slice of pie each of us is to get.
David Tillotson
Lake Mills, Wisconsin
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