From: barry@netcom.com (Kenn Barry)
Subject: Re: Who are we kidding?
Summary: This is a flame. You have been warned.
Organization: QQQCLC
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 06:02:27 GMT

In article <1992Nov19.234722.6935@leela.cs.orst.edu> casspa@atlantis.CS.ORST.EDU (Paul Cass) writes:
>In article <1992Nov19.062412.19164@netcom.com> barry@netcom.com (Kenn Barry) writes:
>>	Hey, why don't you and Janis get sandwich boards saying
>>"Repent! The End of the World is Nigh!" Growing very long beards would
>>add to the total effect, but I guess Janis can skip that part.
>
>Hey..what do you know...a cheap shot..I always did enjoy those.

	No cheap shot, Paul. There's no difference between Janis's
childish post and any other end-of-the-world junk I've seen. I thought
about a serious reply to her article, but there was no point - nothing
to reply to. She's stared into her navel, decided there's 30 years
left, and her personal response is to dig a hole, climb in, and pull
the hole in after her, but without even the dignity of resignation. No,
she wants to put on Jeremiah's robes and throw curses. How is she
different from any other deranged prophet of apocalypse?

>One of the things that bothered me about your post was your complete
>lack of caring about Janice's feelings and concerns.

	Yeah, she's _so_ polite :-). Try _her_ lack. Is this really the
bottom line of environmentalism? To be a quitter? To say "fuck you all"
to the whole human race, because it's easier (if less honest) than
owning up to the SELF-hate that lurks in every word? To love trees and
hate people?

>It might help
>your growth as a human being if you attempted some understanding 
>rather than slinging insults.  You might even try convincing her that
>she has nothing to worry about.

	I've responded to Janis before, always seriously, politely and
constructively. The first attempt I recall making (last April) got no
response, best I recall. The last two (October and this month) earned
empty and patronizing replies suggesting I was an unschooled teenager.
When I demonstrated otherwise in followups, still politely... silence.
If she actually _knows_ anything about the subjects I've challenged her
on, she certainly hides it well. I suspect she checks the dust jacket of
every book she reads, to make sure in advance there's nothing in it she
might disagree with, nothing that might threaten her squint-eyed view of
reality.

	I've wasted more than enough time on her. Janis hides her own
sense of personal inadequacy behind a thin shell of arrogance and an
unfocused anger that dare not recognize its true object. Simply put,
she is a coward. I may have my differences with ecological extremists,
but I respect the fact that they're _trying_ to do what they think is
right; and time will tell. But I have no respect for quitters or
crybabies. She is the ultimate conservative, the kind of peasant
mentality that's afraid it'll rain, and afraid it won't; afraid of
_life_, and the changes life brings. For a person like that, the
thought of unavoidable global catastrophe is comforting, you see. It's
much less scary than a future that goes on and on, never predictable,
never safe, never reassuring. All responsibility is removed; the play
is over. And with a petulant whine of "I told you so" she absolves
herself.

>If you can do that - please convince me too.

	You I don't know. We'll see if you're worth talking to.

-  Nothing fails like success  -             Kenn Barry
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ELECTRIC AVENUE:                             barry@netcom.com