dagblog - Comments for "Get Off My Damn Lawn Capitalism"

Great post. The scope

moat — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 03:54:42 +0000

In reply to Get Off My Damn Lawn Capitalism

Great post. The scope requires more than I can muster at the moment to properly respond to.

Maybe after a bit of time.

Is it a coincidence that

Elusive Trope — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 00:08:29 +0000

In reply to I have run into the fear of

Is it a coincidence that Agenda 21 and the Rio conference occurred the same year as these going-ons in Whatcom County? Actually I don't think so. There was a certain tipping point as systems theory and environmental sustainability leached out from the scientific and academic communities into the consciousness of political and business communities. Suddenly people were realizing that deforestation there could have outputs and feedback in a larger system that led to something like diminishment of fish stock and the jobs associated with it. It led to things like Washington State coming out with the Growth Management Act in 1990.

(Actually my friend who I was helping video tape the council meetings was able to get sponsored to go down to the Rio conference to video tape it, which is why I was on hand videoing the County Council when they passed the Resolution declaring Whatcom County a Sasquatch Protection and Refuge area)

I didn't mention it in the blog, but the property rights article quoted at the end of the blog was a product of the Cato Institute. The business elites were not in any way blind to the momentum of the new sustainability movement emerging in the early 1990s. With Clinton in the White House, things could get quickly out of hand, with things like the 1994 Northwest Forest Plan.

The mobilization of the homeowners against the UN Agenda 21 is similar to the mobilization of the tea partiers. There has been a network of private property rights organizations and individuals since the 1990s. It just takes a little financial support, some talking points to give direction, and off they go.

I think we forget how much fear there was about the New World Order during this time. Events like the Rio Conference and initiatives the Agenda 21 played perfectly into those fears. And it is not in the least surprising to see the caption under the photo to your link:

Sue Ann Penna, Chairman, Essex County (New Jersey) Tea Party Coalition, describes what UN Agenda 21 means in local terms.

I think it just reinforces the notion that for the most part, the Tea Party is not the emergence of a new group of people, but the same old people from before under a new label, being supported behind the scenes by the same corporate and political interests.

I have run into the fear of

Donal — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 23:24:13 +0000

In reply to Get Off My Damn Lawn Capitalism

I have run into the fear of land-use planning in many discussions which imply that low-density, suburban planning might not have been the best allocation of resources. I'm not sure who is behind it, but rural and suburban homeowners have been mobilized against the sustainable development plan known as UN Agenda 21.

Many of the laws are

Elusive Trope — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 21:30:57 +0000

In reply to Nice piece. Two thoughts come

Many of the laws are definitely aligned with property rights both in terms of financial benefits and quality of living benefits. The one that comes to mind are those associated with assuring ground water supplies are used in a sustainable manner. In so many cases, the resistance or opposition to growth management and other property related laws is created by developers and resource management (read: extraction) entities distorting the facts and outright spreading falsehoods.

The lessons learned through developing the "grassroots" efforts in the private property right realm were applied in the the most recent example of the tea party protests.

The Hutterites are, indeed, an interesting case. It does bring up the issue of to what extent can a society with not only a diversity of ideologies and religious views, but an commitment to that diversity, move toward a communal system. The system developed by Hutterites is grounded in specific religious texts that drive and facilitate their socio-economic paradigms, and this provides a common bond, a sense of communality through the beliefs. Can the Atheists and Calvinists and Buddhists and Scientologists all sit down at the table together?

Nice piece. Two thoughts come

Verified Atheist — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 21:14:03 +0000

In reply to Get Off My Damn Lawn Capitalism

Nice piece. Two thoughts come to mind:

(1) As a new home owner (my first), I live in an area that is seeing a lot of development. Many of these laws that limit what those developers can do help to protect the value of my property. So, for some (most?) property owners, the laws are not always at odds with property rights.

(2) I find the Hutterites to be an interesting case study. The issue of property rights doesn't disappear completely for them, but it moves from the personal to the community.