Message-ID: <APrm3MtWsK@mb.sorostm.ro> Date: Tue, 3 Jun 1997 20:51:01 +0400 From: Florin Jurcovici <mailto:fljurcovici@MB.SOROSTM.RO> Subject: Re: Common resources & common good To: mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU
> I think Jurcovici has a point here, although s/he was ...
It's "he".> ... arguing a
> different issue, and the kind of propaganda necessary to improve global
> living conditions, is that which convinces people living in high
> consumer societies that they will be better off in the long run if they
> forget about buying shiny new cars, and every disposable (ie non-user
> servicable) home appliance on the market, and concentrate on improving
> the soil in their own back yards, recycling whatever is possible,
> picking up more rubbish than they drop, solving more problems than they
> create in their various inter-personal relationships, and so on and so
> forth.
I think this is not a matter in which the usage of propaganda will help, as I said about the teaching problem in Pakistan. The reason: from better education people will get a benefit sooner than from the topic raised above. Sustaining unsustainable economies will increase the problems of further generations, but not of the actual generation. Sustaining unsustainable economies can still go on for some time. Only at this point people (consumers) will become aware of their problems, and try to solve them out. one of my teachers in high school expressed a simple explanation why eskimos don't fight one another vs. american indios, which did it. Eskimos have enough problems only trying to survive, they don't need more. For people who live good, problems have to be created, or else they would get bored (we, for instance, are discussing for quite a while boring problems!). However, a point in which such propaganda might help, is if you address to people showing them a dark future for their children. However, which company would put it's money in such advertising, since this would lower their income? Altough it seems unprobable, it happens: most advertising spots for german television insist on health and environmental protection. Do you know why? Because there many people are allready let's say infected by the "green" virus. But this happened only after the living standard in Germany became quite high.
-- Jurcovici Florin mailto:fljurcovici@mb.sorostm.ro