ABCD Lars & Roemer

Roemer
van
Toorn
in
conversation
with
Lars
Lerup
Nature and culture. In some areas one of the two dominates. In the
case of the city, culture dominates, particularly so in the traditional
city. The suburban city may be a place where both equally rule.
Your political concerns seem to stem from the need to find and
challenge the culprit destroying Nature. Having seen the Baltic’s
gradual dying, largely because the Left (Russia) has slowly but surely
polluted it, suggests to me that “human progress” rather than
“political ideology” lies behind its demise. (The armchair leftists who
sit in comfortable seats all over the Western world are to be neither
counted on nor blamed since they have zero power.)
The green issue is much larger and more complex than the squabble
between political ideologies. Of course, this does not mean that this
greening is not a highly charged political issue, and that capitalists
without a conscience, just like state industries without one, will not
do everything in their power to ship (or sell) their pollutants down the
river. Being both a pragmatist and skeptic, I believe it is necessary to
“build as naturally as possible,” rather than use “sustainability” as the
goal – sustainability is unattainable and always will be since we don’t
really know what it means. If you allow me a metaphor: “Society,
whether steered by the Left or the Right (or anything in-between), is a
very large ship that will take enormous effort to turn.” So those in
power have to exercise both patience and cunning to do the turning.
Toxic events, like the one I am sitting through at this moment
(Hurricane Ike), are sobering and will result in change, so if you have
any heavenly connections, ask them to “bring it on.”
O as in Oppression
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