[XogGyux]

I don't "throw brainwashing" around. I have studied the phenomenon extensively.

By urban design and by mass media, the range of emotions of the citizen are reduced to something that can be controlled by 'the state' which, in the USA, means the largest corporations.

And unlike governments, this "state" answers to no one. Like the worst dictators of olde.

Also, since capitalism has produced so many things that can destroy the built environment, the fact that we're still plodding along in SUVS and using up all our precious oil... demonstrates that our regulations serve only the interests of "the corporate state."

This is perhaps the largest tragedy (and the most abusive power relationship) in the history of homo sapiens. And corporations are making sure we sleep through our own demise so they can keep on selling hamburgers until the earth's clock runs out.

The cold stoicism of the modern consumer is a product of mass media overconsumption. It has made us fatally numb to things that affect our survival.

Hey! easy up buddy! with that attitude we might as well line up and suicide in mass. Your view of the word is more pessimistic than pragmatic.
First: We are not destroying the world. We are changing it. You can argue that we are destroying ourselves... and perhaps that's true. The word (and its ecosystems) have seen far more violent changes through history and it's still here. The earth was warmer a few hundreds years ago and it was thriving with life despite having far more CO2 and higher temperatures than we have now. Yes we would probably die if that happen (or at least the population drop significantly and habitable areas as well) but the world itself will be fine.
Pessimistic attitude does not help either. How many NASA engineers were like "going to space is impossible, stop trying"?
I understand you are unhappy how the world is ran, to be honest I am not very happy with it either but it has been way worse also so there is hope that we are moving in the right direction.
We need a bit more optimism, we need the idiots that think global warming is not real/man made to wake the heck up but we also need the tree huggers to realize that abrupt change is not likely to happen (unless some kind of cataclysm or something) and have to work in a realistic manner.

[QatzelOk]

Hey! easy up buddy! with that attitude we might as well line up and suicide in mass.

That's what we're doing. Most of the world has already taken your advice to "take a chill pill." We actually have major epidemics of pain-killer abuse, so your forced optimism has probably already gone too far.

First: We are not destroying the world. We are changing it. You can argue that we are destroying ourselves... and perhaps that's true.

Your optimism seems pretty hollow here. "Sure, the world will always exist, we just won't be in it." Let us write pops songs about that cheerful, optimistic thought.

Pessimistic attitude does not help either. How many NASA engineers were like "going to space is impossible, stop trying"?

What if a pessimistic attitude had stopped us from destroying our environment with new technologies? Would that have been so bad? I realize that humanity's continuing to exist isn't that important to you, but pessimism might help this insignificant thing.

we need the idiots that think global warming is not real/man made to wake the heck up

Why? Are they too optimistic? Maybe they care even less about humanity continuing to exist than you do.

[XogGyux]

I prefer we make it. But if we don't make it I don't have a problem with it.
A bad life is worse than no life.

[One Degree]

The extremes of both views get the headlines. It is what we must all remember. We need to try to be reasonable when bombarded with unreasonable headlines.
One of the more common dire predictions of global warming is our major coastal cites will be flooded.
Why the hell are we encouraging more and more people to live there then?
Why are we not encouraging population re distribution?
Why are we not encouraging 'generation type spaceship' communities on earth to experiment with small group survival?
Maybe both sides should quit bitching and take some practical approaches to a new method of living.

[QatzelOk]

One of the more common dire predictions of global warming is our major coastal cites will be flooded.
Why the hell are we encouraging more and more people to live there then?

Well, we are seeing a lot more development along seashores and along lakes because it's a source of easy money. That's the reason: easy money.

By "letting the market decide" what to zone as residential, we (and lots of other animals and fish and insects) are losing the ability to even SEE the water. Natural bodies of water have provided a major quality of life feature for all humans and animals for millions of years before "the market" even existed.

France long ago decided to make the first six feet of shoreline/seacoast PUBLIC (don't let the market decide) in order to allow the public permanent access to water - one of the basics of life and uh... where we originally came from.

Developing shorelines as housing destroys natural habitats, does aesthetic damage and psychological damage, and it also decreases the over-all land value of the community.

This example of LTMD is very close to being the same thing as "soiling our nest."

[Michaellog]

What "free market" are you refering to? The level playing field FDR would consider a free market economy or Bushs rape and pillage version? It seems obvious that the two had very different outcomes, though both would be considered free market.

[QatzelOk]

What "free market" are you refering to? The level playing field FDR would consider a free market economy or Bushs rape and pillage version? It seems obvious that the two had very different outcomes, though both would be considered free market.

A market that isn't adequately restrained by the desires of the community and the global fulfillment of each individual person's and individual family group's needs... is what I'm warning against.

If the FDR saving of the free market lead to slash-and-burn capitalism, it's because FDR was ideologically bound to a sick system. All he could do is prolong the disease he was part of by applying pain killers.

The market is full of fakeness and greed (marketing is basically lying, competitive consumption is suicidal and nasty, etc.) and when the merchant-bankster class are given too much leeway, they kill the system the way termites will if they govern a tree.

[Sivad]