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Show SI From Scott Silver... VER’S BULLET www.wildwilderness.org Editor’s Note: For the last couple of years, my email address has been bombarded with a ree amount of information from a guy named Scott Silver. His interests are eclectic and his enthusiasm and energy are extraordinary. He’s relentless. It occurred to me finally to put some of this stuff in The Zephyr. I don't agree with all of it, but he definitely challenges the reader to think. From conspiracy theories and globalization, to Fee Demo and privatization of public lands, Silver is like the Energizer Bunny. We'll be running Scott's stuff from time to time, but for a comprehensive look, check out his web site...JS "BRAVE NEW WORLD" COMES EARLY? Aldous Huxley wrote "Brave New World” in 1932, fearing that five, perhaps six, centuries into the future, Man might inhabit such a world as he described. But in less than the span of a single lifetime, Corporate Globalization has brought us a New World Order that is remarkably (and. frighteningly) similar to that which Huxley ARC AND THE SCENIC HIGHWAYS PROGRAM : In the past I’ve referred to "America’s Scenic Byways" program as the "American Recreation Coalition’s Scenic Byways" program. When doing so, | always thought I was given ARC a bit more credit than they deserved. Sure, I knew they were the chief proponents of the program, but it was through a joint effort of the petroleum industry, the motorhome industry and the travel-tourism industry that the Scenic Byways program was turned into massive pork-barrel program for industrial tourism. So let me be the first to admit surprise upon discovering on ARC’s own web site that they themselves refer to this program as "the American Recreation Coalition’s Scenic Byways Program". Hmmmum. I guess I underestimated them. I think a great many forest activists have underestimated them. From td http://www.f iaate Hen enen til Mary Beth Seibert -- foresaw. I've talked in the past of "The Corporate Takeover of Nature," "The Disneyfication of the Wild,” and the efforts of the recreation industry to commercialize, privatize and motorize recreational opportunities on America’s public lands. Well, now I have rediscovered that, a lifetime ago, Huxley wrote of the crucial/pivotal role that would be played by "Industrial Strength Recreation/Tourism" in the creation of his, dreaded, Brave New World. - Quoted below are a few short passages from Brave New World. See if you recognize it as the pay-to-play, industrial strength recreation, agenda that is currently being forced upon America and it’s citizens today. Senior Consultant Mary Beth Seibert is the Senior Consultant for the American Receaion _ Coalition's Scenic Byways Program. Prior to this position, she served as the organization's Vice President. She has played a central role in the development of the nation’s scenic byways program, including roles as the Conference Coordinator of the first national scenic byways conference, Scenic Byways 88. She later served that same role for Scenic Byways ‘91 and the 1998 Scenic Byways Regional Workshops. She was the founding editor of the Scenic Byways Bulletin and served as a judge for the U.S. Department of Transportation's Excellence in Design Competition. Y Patiently the D.H.C. [Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning] explained. If the children were made to scream at the sight of a rose, that was on grounds of high economic policy. Not so very long ago (a century or thereabouts), Gammas, Deltas, even Epsilons, had been conditioned to like flowers-—flowers in particular and nature in general. The idea was to make them want to be going out into the country at every available opportunity, and so compel them to consume transportation. "And didn’t they consume transport?” asked the student. Who IS “Quite a lot," the D.H.C. replied. "But nothing else.” Primroses and landscapes, he pointed out, have on grave defect: they are gratuitous. A love of nature keeps no factories busy. It was decided to abolish the love of nature, at any rate amongst the lower classes to abolish the love of nature, but not the tendency to consume transport. For of course it was essential that they should keep on going to the country, even though they hated it. The problem was to find an economically sounder reason for consuming transport than a mere affection for primroses and landscaped. It was duly found. masked that man? “We condition the masses to hate the country,” concluded the Director. "But simultaneously we condition them to love all country sports. At the same time, we see to it that all country sports shall entail the use of elaborate apparatus. So that they consume mae v Ged articles as well as transport. Hence those electric shocks." "I see,” said the Poa, and was silent, lost in admiration. The Director and his students stood for a short time watching a game of Centrifugal Bubble-puppy. Twenty children were grouped in a circle round a chrome-steel tower. A ball thrown up so as to land on the platform at the top of the tower rolled down into the interior, fell on a rapidly revolving disk, was hurled through one or other of the numerous cs pierce the ea! casing, and had to be caught. "Strange." mused the Director, as they turned away, “strange to think that even in Our Ford's day most game were player without more apparatus than a ball or two and a few sticks and perhaps a bit of netting. Imagine the follow of allowing people to play elaborate games which do nothing whatever to increase consumption. It’s madness. Nowadays the Controllers won't approve of any new game unless it can be shown that it requires at least as much apparatus as the most complicated of existing games.” He interrupted himself. --- Aldous Huxley, Brave New World, 1932 USFS RECREATION PASSES: THE GOOD NEWS & THE BAD NEWS Here’s a news flash regarding those "recreation passes” that the US Forest Service is marketing. Those passes will be required at fewer trailheads this season. . The good news is, you will be able to use those "free" areas without being counted as supporting for fee-demo, So get out and enjoy your public lands! The bad news (and sorry, there generally is bad news) is, the Forest Service is looking to DEVELOP many of these areas so that they can justify turning them info FEE-AREAS in the future. The USFS is doing all it can to quench some of the growing opposition against fee-demo while they aggressively lobby congress to make the fee program permanent. They are temporarily giving people places where they can commune with nature without having to pay. The USFS does not want your money as much as they want your silence!!! They are prepared to BUY your silence by TEMPORARILY giving you back something you already own. So enjoy these free spots while you can BUT please never let up in your efforts to totally eliminate this much detested program. Fee-Demo can not be fixed. It must be eliminated. ENVIRONMENTALISM AND ENTREPRENEURISM... I recently read an article by John Baden, of the Foundation for Research on Economics and the Environment in Bozeman, Montana. His column is an attempt on the part of one free-market “environmentalist” to claim that he and his friends were ahead of their times and that their ideas are finally being proved correct. In reality, this piece of PR is simply confirmation that some within the environmental movement have been lead astray. Baden is. correct on one very important point—-environmental policies that were anathema to environmentalists 20 years ago are being accepted today. I don’t see that as good news and I, for one, am not ready to endorse the likes of Mr. Baden or his fellow free-marketeers .... Gale _ Norton, Terry L. Anderson, Randal O'Toole, etc.... Every last one of these free-marketeers aggressively endorses recreation user-fees. They understand the connection between Pay-to-Play and PRIVATIZATION. Unfortunately, some big-green organizations and their high-priced staffers are unable to work this out. Other green organizations are almost certainly responding to requests from their funders to accept free-market solutions as the price of continued financial support. In other words, these funders are getting exactly what they are paying for.... which is further PROOF, I suppose, that the free-market works. Mr. Baden -—- please tell us: WHO are YOUR funders! Here is the link to Me Baden’s article: http Jhww } Aq had oe 013002.html A-WEB SITE FOR ALTERNATIVE THINKING There are a zillion conspiracy web site out there. Some are unapologeticly crackpot, others are obsequiously apologetic-— warning readers that the site contains unproved theories and that the reader should draw his/her own conclusions. AND THEN THERE IS A WEB SITET WANT YOU TO KNOW ABOUT: Globalism: The Secret Agenda Exposing the Powers Behind the New World Order http://www.globalism.com.au/ This Australian site is as enormous as it is impossible to categorize. It is part Left Wing, part Right Wing, part Evangelical Christian and parts unknown. It is eclectic and it is good. If you are like so many folks in this post September 11 era and are searching for answers and are willing to look in unusual and sometimes uncomfortable places, then Globalism: The Secret Agenda is a web resource well worth f checking out. |