Me-cycling and Other Failed Green Efforts

A little something I like to call "me"-cycling...

I just got finished reading an article in the New York Times about the opposition to so-called "green" initiatives like bike lanes, wind power and improved mass-transit systems.  It's a malady I like to call "me"-cycling.  If it doesn't directly benefit the people involved, they want no part in it.

Windmills become "ugly" instead of "chiche."  Bike lanes are "incovenient" instead of "heaven-sent."  As Jack Nicholson would say "something's gotta give."

I see both sides of the issue, but that doesn't make it any easier to resolve it.  The key, according to the article, anyway, is that a perceived critical mass needs to be achieved.  People have to think that everybody else is already doing it (not working for the bike lane in Brooklyn--studies show that 75% of the population favors it, with a mere 10% dissenting) and enjoying it.

Makes me think of Brokaw's book "The Greatest Generation."  The key thing that made that pre-WWII generation great was their selfless willingness to sacrifice for us.  Different times, some people would argue.  Post-modernism makes us consumers that are issue oriented on every issue under the sun.  Whatever the case, I think it's largely mental and something we can get over.

Personally I wouldn't be opposed to my children growing up with the silhouette of windmills on the sunset skyline...

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