Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Wespeak: Missing the Forest

Check out this Wespeak written by Alexa Jay. It's pretty much hilarious. I agree with her that the real solution to climate change/consumerism is a huge restructuring of society, but of course end up frustrated whenever I go down that chain of thought because like her, "I have no idea how that restructuring can happen and don’t pretend to." Well, maybe sometimes I like to pretend to know. Anyway, take a look.

EDIT: hmm, yeah, I don't really know what to think about this. If you have a strong opinion, comment.

1 comment:

Nate said...

This Wespeak really undermines a lot of what EON values as important. It debases what we are trying to accomplish by labeling green initiatives as "sexy" and "trendy." I think the more appropriate "forest for the trees" analogy should be applied to people like Ms. Jay not being able to understand why these bottom-up behavioral changes are necessary for the eventual mitigation of climate change. No one is trying to be "cool" or "sexy" here. We're trying to help prevent natural disasters, droughts, floods, famines, poverty, disease, refugees, and widespread warfare, among other things. Sure, making kids at Wesleyan change the way they use energy won't have much of an impact at all. But if a few people at every institution in the country do a little to help, it makes a huge difference. And writing wespeaks like this simply serve to challenge whatever difference we can make. I think a strong response is definitely in order.