Sunday, March 12, 2023

Environmentalist

 

Selway Bitterroot Wilderness, Idaho             

If I were to define myself with a six-syllable insult to the English language, I would not choose a word invented fifty years ago by some well-meaning activists who didn't consider the fact that people are story-based critters who hate to be be bored with long, silly words. This modern noun: "Environmentalist". It was born to be misused and abused like those other unfortunates hastily-invented by clever wordsmiths to describe other factoids and truisms. "Politically-correct" and "woke" come to mind. Handy handles to beat people who annoy you over the head with, if you're into that sort of thing. You should know by now that if you're not one of those, there are plenty of people who are and there's nothing left of snaky words like "environmentalist" anymore except for the warm and fuzzy Earth Day banner it has become, whipping north and south like a wet noodle, right or left, whichever way the foundation-money winds happen to be blowing that day.

If I were to choose a six syllable phrase to define my concern for the Land, I'd choose the handle that Montana writer, Rick Bass gave himself. I'd call myself a "human-fucking being".

1 comment:

  1. We’ll said Bill! Nice blog page! For myself, I’m starting to embrace Woke as a beautiful thing and a complement. It’s meaning is the very opposite of: unconscious, oblivious, ignorant, unaware, unmindful, heedless, dozing, asleep…

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