Dear HCN,
I have found recent
letters to the editor and the latest essay by Stephen Lyons to
contain some bits of hidden wisdom. The larger message that I get
from these writings is that when all is said and done, at the end
of the day, we’re all a bunch of selfish bastards. Opinions on
whether to have fixed rock-climbing bolts in the wilderness, to
carry cell phones in the wilderness, to have livestock on the land,
to hunt, to embrace New West or Old West, blah, blah, blah are
rarely tempered and tested by the twin fires of personal sacrifice
and empathy for others. Like opposing armies, we invoke the name of
“God” for our side, say he dresses and talks like us and has only
our thoughts in his head. We demonize the opposing army and then
set out to make war on it. We claim to hold diversity in high
esteem and in the same breath label opposing viewpoints as backward
and wrong and hold them in self-righteous derision. There is a
dimension that calls all environmental ideologies home, that makes
us all play jester to the clown, and that dimension is know as
“intolerance.” I think I shall come down from my ivory tower and go
hug an enemy. But for today
only.
Stephen
Hansen
Logan,
Utah
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Everyone is wrong but me.
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