Today was going to post a great op-ed from the New York Times about the lies the McCain campaign continues to spread, but I just can’t. My blood pressure has been too high lately. There have been too many provoking incidents over the last week and I’m just out of fury.
Instead, let’s take Jason’s advice and think of how our grandparents got through worse things. The archives of the American Legion are online and you can take a look at their WWII posters. Here were my favorites–about Victory Gardens:
The first one is even appropriate today! There are others in the archives about saving fuel and sharing rides, too–maybe we need to print them up again.
September 24, 2008 @ 12:24 pm
Jason, I couldn’t agree more. I was going to include something along those lines in my original post, but you’ve put it much better.
September 24, 2008 @ 12:14 pm
Karen, that’s a great link… I love these old posters. Great graphic design, and, as you note, messages that could easily apply today. I like the one you put up the other day, too, the “Keep Calm and Carry On” one. I was going to get a t-shirt with that logo on it, but given the exchange rates at the moment…
Mr. Isbell, maybe I’m a horrible cynic, but I don’t have a lot of faith about Americans embracing conservation even with the right messages coming from Washington. Remember, people in World War II were coming out the Depression. They were already accustomed to doing without, repairing and reusing old things, etc. Our society is three generations — maybe four, depending on how you measure it — since we’ve known any serious privation. “Planned obsolescence” is a perfectly accepted part of life, novelty is king, and people no longer fix anything, they just go buy a new one.
I’m sure we can — and probably will have to — relearn what our grandparents knew how to do, but it’s going to be a major campaign to break down our wasteful paradigms.
September 24, 2008 @ 10:57 am
Maybe if there was an *actual* war causing an *actual* shortage of goods, people would *actually* conserve.
GRRRRRRRRRR