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[jfb]

Here's a great post on environmentalism, ad pollution, and protecting the commons. Lots of quotable stuff, like this:

Because what's environmentalism all about, really? Protecting the commons. It's misunderstood by some as being about the hugging of trees and the cuddling of fuzzy baby owls, but what it's about is making sure that in the future, you won't have to be rich to breathe fresh air and drink clean water and eat nontoxic food and look at a pretty landscape now and then.

And later, about advertising:

If you haven't tried turning down the volume, you just can't imagine how noisy the world is, how much it knots your muscles, how distracted you are. (And there aren't any technological tools for eliminating billboards and brand names and "swoosh"-logo t-shirts.) And yet, mostly... we don't notice. We're the proverbial boiled frogs.

And here's a practical guide to removing logos from your life.

Comments

In the begining was the Logos

[artname.livejournal.com]

I went to a medium-snotty prep school from 8th to 12th grade. [Actually, from 2nd to 6th form, just to help you judge the snot level.] One of the things I noticed at some level but never really popped into my frontal bran was the lack of being sold to advertisers. We had sit-down meals in a hall with wood panels and no ads. We had classes in rooms with no ads. We had dorms with no ads. We wore jackets and ties, so no logo-T-shirts.

Two stories: Our headmaster was always harping on trash on campus. One year as a gag gift someone gave him a stick with a nail in the end to pick up papers. He wasn't very amused. I think around 11th grade he had two lovely wooden slat trash cans installed outside Donner Hall. And on the two were maybe 8x8 bright yello "Don't be a litterbug" plaques. And MAN that got on my nerves. So one night I went over with my screwdriver and took them. I think I still have one, and I may have put the other through his office mail slot. I could stand being outside Donner Hall again.

So 2001 was my 25th reunion. I had been back once or twice, but probably not for 15 or 20 years. The place has changed. One of the changes is that meals are not, generally sit-dwon with faculty and their families, but are more cafeteria-style. And the dining hall has logos. A few bins of cereal with big G on them, milk machines that used to be back in the kitchen and are now in plain sight. The thin end of the wedge.

It was interesting to spend five years at a low level. It has made me notice more, I think ..