Tell people that air pollution causes asthma in one in four children in central Harlem and the Bronx or tell them that global warming may cause millions of children to die of dysentery and the best you’ll get may well be a shrug. Show them a child who has collapsed on the street and is struggling for breath, on […]
Society
What No Impact feels like after ten months
Unremarkable. Life as usual. Isn’t that strange? You click off family’s electricity and make them go to bed at nine every night because it’s too dark to do anything else. You ban them from the elevator so they have to walk up and down nine flights of stairs. You take away their fridge so they can’t keep more […]
Maybe they’ll understand…
PS This “change the message” ad is completely available for reposting or sending around. Please put it wherever you want. PPS This could be just the first in a series of change the message ads. If you feel like making your own and emailing it to me, maybe we can post it here on No […]
Are we too selfish to change?
What changed that? Marketing. Factory owners wanted to keep their production lines churning and factory workers wanted to keep their tummies full. Repetitive consumption seemed like the answer. Slowly but surely we convinced ourselves that new was better than old. It became ok to throw things out. It became ok to waste. In fact, out with the old […]
On not throwing the baby out with the bathwater
A few months back, I was at the farmer’s market with Michelle, and a gorgeous woman with a mane of blonde hair rode by on a tricycle with a bench for her child on the back. Michelle had noticed the woman a bunch of times before and had told me about her. “There she is!” […]
“Without terror, you can’t have terrorism”
Today’s blog title is a quote from a recent post called Marketing Fear by the astute social thinker Seth Godin. The picture to the right comes from his blog as an illustration of how a convenience store used the fear of terrorism to market duct tape. Godin says: “Marketing with fear is a powerful tool. […]
Something sad
I remember in childhood the first time that I became aware that countries sent their young men to war to fight out their differences. I remember being incredulous. How did you know who won? Was it decided by whomever managed to kill more of the other’s children? I decided I was a pacifist. I’d like to say I am […]
If you don’t trust the politicians, take matters into your own hands–repost
I’m away, but here’s a recycled post some of you newcomers to the blog might not have seen and might want to discuss in the comments. Winston Churchill said that “Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.” The question is, though, whether we […]