WWII frame for reducing consumption
Tip of the Hat
Mike Davis (Sierra Club)
Would Americans ever voluntarily give up their SUVs, McMansions, McDonald's, and lawns? The surprisingly hopeful answer lies in living memory. In the 1940s, Americans simultaneously battled fascism overseas and waste at home. My parents, their neighbors, and millions of others left cars at home to ride bikes to work, tore up their front yards to plant cabbage, recycled toothpaste tubes and cooking grease, volunteered at daycare centers and USOs, shared their houses and dinners with strangers, and conscientiously attempted to reduce unnecessary consumption and waste.
Not specified
In my opinion, this article has two very useful arguments:
1. Conservation (recycling, reducing consumption, biking, ride-sharing, smaller houses, house sharing, urban gardening) is not new - our grandparents did it. It ca be done, and Americans will not only accept but excel at it - they have in the past.
2. Conservation is patriotic - it helped the US win WWII.
collapse all
| Show as "new" comments posted within the last:
Conservation strengthens community
A third important point implied is that conservation also brings people together around a common goal - it strengthens the community.
New! Reducing Consumption
Thanks, glacier, for finding and sharing this. It really establishes a strong contrast with Bush's call for Americans to go shopping following September 11. It is not only that Bush encouraged wasteful consumption rather than conservation, but also that conservation, as it was pursued during World War II, can build community, as you note, while shopping is generally an individual activity.
Incidentally, Bill Maher put out a book called "When You Ride Alone, You Ride with bin Laden" a few years ago that featured updated versions of World War II posters, some of which relate to conservation efforts of that era:
http://en.wikipedia.org/[…]/When_You_Ride_Alone_You_Ride_with_bin_Laden
Evan