Rant on Generalization
Mar. 30th, 2008 10:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
helwenGot aggravated reading something by Richard Heinberg, who writes and lectures about peak oil and stuff. He may be a baby boomer himself, but I still don't appreciate him making statement like "The peak generation — the baby boomers — have a lot to answer for. They are responsible for all the consuming." (btw, although I'm using peak oil and generations as examples, this is not specifically about those.)
Um, hello? Consumption of fossil fuels began way before the first boomers were born, thanks. We didn't invent trains, airplanes, or automobiles. We didn't invent and drop the first bombs, or start the usage of hydrogenated fats to increase the shelf life of foods, or any of a number of delightful "advances" in civilized living. We didn't invent the telegraph or the telephone, either.
People of the baby boomer generation (born ~1945-1965 time span) may or may not have been brought up by their parents to conserve resources. They may or may not have been exposed to the concept in the childhood or young adult years. Despite all their parents having lived through the Great Depression (at least the U.S.) or other pre-WWII loveliness in other parts of the world, not all parents believed in passing on their experiences in conserving and common sense living. Some were determined that their children would never have to experience rationing, which tended to lead to not learning to plan or have forethought in some cases... other folks were well enough off and insulated from the deprivations of those earlier times that they have no idea what people are talking about.
My mother has two friends who originally lived in Germany, before WWII. One adamantly refused to believe there was anything wrong with pre-war Germany, but she lived a sheltered life and left Germany at a younger age than the other person. Only recently has she come to realize and acknowledge that there were serious problems in her beloved home country (economy, not just Hitler coming to power). Proof that even at age 98, one can learn and grow.
What the boomer generation did do was build on what existed, making better (well sometimes), faster, technology. They and the previous generation did great things in the field of medicine too, and other fields like astronomy, psychology, physics, archeology, etc. Some of it's great, some of it's a waste of materials. With cheap fossil fuels, there was (seemingly) plenty of resources to spread around, exploring different fields of interest, whether they were useful or not.
And of course the next generations after, also grew up in this world of 'anything is possible', and acted accordingly.
People have tried to caution against reckless, thoughtless use of resources, and these people come from a wide span of generations, including the boomers. Still trying.
***
Reading on peak oil and similar topics, you get to read all sorts of interesting statements, like nuclear power will save us, technology will save us, no wait all technology is bad!, we have to go back to doing things by hand! Discussions and articles can get quite polarized, and generalizations and absolute statements abound.
Now, I happen to believe that nuclear power isn't one of the viable solutions, in large part because the cost of building them is huge and our economy isn't strong enough to support the additional debt of building those -- also, they do use quite a bit of fossil fuel to make power, there's the problem of disposal of materials, and of course they use huge amounts of water, and considering half the country is suffering from varying levels of drought, that just seems like a really stupid thing to do. But, I digress.
***
I realize that generalizations can be useful, but quite often they can be harmful, get in the way of whatever message a person is trying to communicate. And this doesn't apply just to discussing peak oil/climate change/technology/etc., it can apply to most anything people are involved in. For instance, there are children being raised to believe the WWII Holocaust never happened. In the U.S. No doubt other places too.
Most of the folks who read my LJ would probably agree that statements like "All white people are more privileged than any other people" or "All black people do drugs" or "All teenagers are no-good slackers who play video games all day" aren't true. But there are people in the world who do believe these things. And it's scarily easy, in a world where so much hyperbole is seen in writings and speeches, on- and off-line, to fall into the trap of making generalizations. Many folks like the certainty of a black-and-white statement. It's comfortable, safe.
For better or worse though, living in our world has never been safe, not now, not a hundred years ago, not a thousand years ago. Life isn't black and white, it isn't always safe and comfortable, and no matter how far ahead you try to see and plan, the unexpected can happen and upset your carefully designed applecart.
Is that a bad thing? Not necessarily. After all, some surprises we don't want, like car accidents or cancer, but some we do, like winning a scholarship or falling in love. And sometimes even the bad things can lead to good things, one never knows. So, learn what you can, prepare for what you can, try to keep an open mind....
Me, I'm just thankful for being alive, which gives me the chance to try to do good, be good, and have fun doing it -- preferably with company :) I _think_ that's one thing I can safely generalize on!
Um, hello? Consumption of fossil fuels began way before the first boomers were born, thanks. We didn't invent trains, airplanes, or automobiles. We didn't invent and drop the first bombs, or start the usage of hydrogenated fats to increase the shelf life of foods, or any of a number of delightful "advances" in civilized living. We didn't invent the telegraph or the telephone, either.
People of the baby boomer generation (born ~1945-1965 time span) may or may not have been brought up by their parents to conserve resources. They may or may not have been exposed to the concept in the childhood or young adult years. Despite all their parents having lived through the Great Depression (at least the U.S.) or other pre-WWII loveliness in other parts of the world, not all parents believed in passing on their experiences in conserving and common sense living. Some were determined that their children would never have to experience rationing, which tended to lead to not learning to plan or have forethought in some cases... other folks were well enough off and insulated from the deprivations of those earlier times that they have no idea what people are talking about.
My mother has two friends who originally lived in Germany, before WWII. One adamantly refused to believe there was anything wrong with pre-war Germany, but she lived a sheltered life and left Germany at a younger age than the other person. Only recently has she come to realize and acknowledge that there were serious problems in her beloved home country (economy, not just Hitler coming to power). Proof that even at age 98, one can learn and grow.
What the boomer generation did do was build on what existed, making better (well sometimes), faster, technology. They and the previous generation did great things in the field of medicine too, and other fields like astronomy, psychology, physics, archeology, etc. Some of it's great, some of it's a waste of materials. With cheap fossil fuels, there was (seemingly) plenty of resources to spread around, exploring different fields of interest, whether they were useful or not.
And of course the next generations after, also grew up in this world of 'anything is possible', and acted accordingly.
People have tried to caution against reckless, thoughtless use of resources, and these people come from a wide span of generations, including the boomers. Still trying.
***
Reading on peak oil and similar topics, you get to read all sorts of interesting statements, like nuclear power will save us, technology will save us, no wait all technology is bad!, we have to go back to doing things by hand! Discussions and articles can get quite polarized, and generalizations and absolute statements abound.
Now, I happen to believe that nuclear power isn't one of the viable solutions, in large part because the cost of building them is huge and our economy isn't strong enough to support the additional debt of building those -- also, they do use quite a bit of fossil fuel to make power, there's the problem of disposal of materials, and of course they use huge amounts of water, and considering half the country is suffering from varying levels of drought, that just seems like a really stupid thing to do. But, I digress.
***
I realize that generalizations can be useful, but quite often they can be harmful, get in the way of whatever message a person is trying to communicate. And this doesn't apply just to discussing peak oil/climate change/technology/etc., it can apply to most anything people are involved in. For instance, there are children being raised to believe the WWII Holocaust never happened. In the U.S. No doubt other places too.
Most of the folks who read my LJ would probably agree that statements like "All white people are more privileged than any other people" or "All black people do drugs" or "All teenagers are no-good slackers who play video games all day" aren't true. But there are people in the world who do believe these things. And it's scarily easy, in a world where so much hyperbole is seen in writings and speeches, on- and off-line, to fall into the trap of making generalizations. Many folks like the certainty of a black-and-white statement. It's comfortable, safe.
For better or worse though, living in our world has never been safe, not now, not a hundred years ago, not a thousand years ago. Life isn't black and white, it isn't always safe and comfortable, and no matter how far ahead you try to see and plan, the unexpected can happen and upset your carefully designed applecart.
Is that a bad thing? Not necessarily. After all, some surprises we don't want, like car accidents or cancer, but some we do, like winning a scholarship or falling in love. And sometimes even the bad things can lead to good things, one never knows. So, learn what you can, prepare for what you can, try to keep an open mind....
Me, I'm just thankful for being alive, which gives me the chance to try to do good, be good, and have fun doing it -- preferably with company :) I _think_ that's one thing I can safely generalize on!
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no subject
Date: 2008-03-30 10:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-31 02:23 pm (UTC)I think they took the energy crisis in the 70s more seriously than some folks, remembering their childhoods, and instead of ignoring it or trying to protect us from it, they taught us useful skills for just in case. Every loving parent does the best he or she can, and hopes it's the right thing.
My mom had a couple of bumper stickers in her study back then:
- Split logs not atoms
- They didn't spill logs at Santa Barbara
Mind you, we still had oil heat for the house, but she had a little woodstove for her study in the front basement -- was good for heating up a pot of tea, too :)
Personally, I think trying to name generations doesn't work very well. Marketing trends, especially ones that target by peer-pressure, are more accurately named than the people themselves. We come from so many different cultures, classes, and life experiences that a lot of the 'definitions' for any given age group are quite artificial.
no subject
Date: 2008-03-31 02:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-31 03:18 pm (UTC)I know when we started being a little more open about some of our conservation habits, even some of our friends thought it was because we didn't have enough money to do things the 'normal' way. Mind you, we _did_ have some tight times, but we chose to take that risk while we were sorting out a life path that better suited us.