Dear Hasbeen,

By culturally deprived I mean children who live in a neighborhood where their lives are uncertain, where they may not be in school Monday after a weekend because it is cheaper to move than to pay rent or because one of their parents has moved out or because they may not have adequate clothing and it is winter. There are such neighbourhoods in the US, and my daughter is a school librarian who conducts reading programs in a school in such a neighbourhood.

I hope you are in the minority in your attitude toward the carbon footprint.

david/quote..""By culturally deprived..I mean children
who live in a neighborhood..where their lives are uncertain''

so suggestive
first thought was palistein children in the ghettos
next i thought first people..[culture]

then though its the same same same

if we loose india/china
al wil be wel..if its mainly 'towel heads'...[or arabs..or terropriosts kids....fair game]

will we accept it
if were the ones balloted to die
[of course not]..thus govt plans a nice quick death

for a clue..think rosie ringgs..,sneezing and falling 'down'

its the plan man

they really think to kill one third..two thirds
then going and killing plotting and planning ...no more

sure

Dear Hasbeen,

Davidf is a very rare breed in the rather pompous world of OLO, a member who is able to say they were embarrassed about one of their posts.

I don't think I have ever been that self effacing here, I'm pretty damn sure neither have you and a person like runner would rather rip out their tongue than do the same.

As to the use of the term ’carbon footprint’ try to leave your rejection of human induced climate change aside for a moment and just think of it as a measure of resource consumption. It serves this purpose very well.

Dear davidf,

The use of the word culture was of course provocative and marvelous for sparking spirited responses. My brother-in-law would be hard pressed to have read more than half a dozen books in his life, yet his depth of knowledge in areas like bee keeping, or old rifles, or native and introduced grasses is extensive. To sit outside with him on a summers night and be introduced to the sound of a fox coughing, echolocating as it circled the house is not something to be found in books on medieval Italy.

Your daughter's interests are no less esoteric but who is to say they are provide superior internal resources or are more grand? Not I.

Perhaps there will be an intelligent lass in a few hundred years who will do a dissertation on our current sporting culture, a culture so often dismissed by our ’alphas'. Perhaps she will recognize its value in bringing to us ’masses’ pathos, tragedy, and life affirmation. The names Nikki Windmar, Ben Cousins, Jimmy Stynes all evoke stories that in many ways rival the impact the Shakespearian characters or the Greek tragedies had in their day. Or does something only become culture when experienced from afar?

The great gift your daughter is bestowing is a love of books and reading. This provides tools for following and enhancing ones interests whether they concern older or alien cultures, or our own.

David f,

Your daughter sounds as if she has her head in the right place.

The trouble with the West as it stands at present is that people like Hasbeen are running the show - and people like David f aren't.

All this consumption guilt reminds me of Blazing Saddles.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcokL59jeqU

To me it all seems a bit silly, as the guilt would seem to stem from an extrapolation involving billions of people suddenly transitioning from Pol Pot's Nirvana to modern civilisation. And were this to suddenly happen, my consumption would be denying others their due. And for this I am to feel guilty?

Am I the only one who finds this extrapolated guilt trip an absurdity?

Sorry Fester,

I think you have been watching too much Blazing Saddles as you seem to be channeling Gabby Johnson.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hKI3nW5LMA&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Pol Pot? Really?

But even giving you the benefit of the doubt you sound like a NSW irrigator telling a South Australian farmer on the Murray the reason he isn't getting any water is because it is all about protecting farming families but to extrapolate this downstream is absurd.

Well good luck with that.