What is finitephobia? People who have a illogical fear of running out of resources. This paranoia isn’t new. Well educated people have promised all kinds of scarcity disasters. One day we’re faced with overpopulation; a few decades later it’s water or oil. At the heart of American scarcity paranoia is the idea that the average Wal-Mart consumer is fat, uneducated and polluting the planet. Elitists all over the fruited plain like to look down at these stupid peasants.
Nothing lasts forever, but the idea that we’re at the precipice of running out of vital resources is absurd. There’s no evidence to suggest we’re almost out of any resource. The world could use more clean water, but the Earth isn’t running out of water. In order to have more clean water we have to pay for it. Another popular finitephobia is that the United States is becoming overdeveloped. Well over 90% of the United States is undeveloped, but this doesn’t seem to stop communities from implementing Smart Growth. There’s nothing smart about it.
Ultimately, the irrational fear of scarcity becomes problematic. Here’s a prime example from a finitephobe I encountered at Creative Loafing’s the 941 blog. I tried to make this point about finitephobia and was promptly greeted with a mixture of anger, profanity and condescension. Here was Susan Nilon’s reaction:
It doesn’t take much intelligence to look around you and see that we cannot sustain ourselves at the rate we are going. If you can’t recognize that, then please step aside. You are in the way. [emphasis added]
There’s the rub. “I am in the way.” Well, that’s a fairly totalitarian way of looking at a differing opinion. What’s the solution then? Everyone with my opinion must be exterminated in order to “fix things.” I jest, but when this kind of religious devotion to finitephobia sets in it becomes nearly impossible to have a logical debate. How do you debate someone who is “looking around” and claims “we cannot sustain ourselves at the rate we’re going”? Do we have to stop growing? De we start sterilizing humans? Will the world appoint a Growth Czar to make sure there’s no illegal breeding?
I’m troubled by the elitist mentality by many Americans. It’s especially annoying when these people can’t even form a logical argument. It might be fun to drink cocktails and make fun of people who shop at Wal-Mart. When this sentiment starts shifting from snobbery to a “these people are in the way” then there’s a problem. One last point…. Why is it that so many people who are worried that growth is unsustainable are the same people who don’t see any problem with unsustainable government growth?
The debate on having an elected Mayor in Sarasota is heating up. It seems like the racism card is only conceivable argument against the amendment. Some community leaders are worried that the Newtown area will not be adequately represented. Fight for the statue quo is puzzling since the current arrangement doesn’t seem to be helping that community. The fight to stop Wal-Mart from coming into Northern Sarasota is a landmark example of stupid city planners. Instead of having a few hundred low paying jobs the planners fought successfully to make sure that Wal-Mart couldn’t afford to open a store in that area. That’s real great. So now there’s an empty lot collecting trash and no new jobs. This is progress!
Much of the debate has focused on how a strong mayor would affect the predominantly black Newtown neighborhood. Residents there say that because the change would also add two at-large City Commission seats, it would weaken their representation in city matters. To show their opposition, many Newtown residents are putting out door hangers urging neighbors to vote against the proposal.
“They are going to dilute our voice,” said Ed James, chairman of the Coalition of African American Leadership. “Every time you introduce another player, we get the ball a lot less.”
Someone should tell James it would be easier to pay for a ball at the local Wal-Mart if city leaders would have just gotten out of the way. Just read this website. It would be great if ignorance like this could be squashed but it’s everywhere. If the best argument against having an elected Mayor is this nonsense then I’m all for it.
I thought Democrats were the party of the average guy? Here is a newsflash; Wal-Mart is the average guy’s store. It’s has everything that middle-class families need. Sure their stores can be dirty and you might have to fight for the last loaf of bread with some elderly midget with tourettes syndrome, but Wal-Mart’s prices are the best out there. It’s no surprise that 80% of people who have never shopped at Wal-Mart voted for John Kerry in the last election. These people file into IKEA stores and shop at Nordstrom’s and discuss how horrible it is to see the filthy peasants lined up outside the local Wal-Quaeda. What is this disease that makes people think things are always horrible? When the LA Times runs an editorial discussing how crazy this topic is, it’s time for a reality check.
One reason the Democrats may have a tin ear on this subject is demographic. Certainly most of the party’s urban liberal activists are far removed from the Wal-Mart phenomenon. The retailer has thrived mainly in small towns and exurbs, which is one reason a Zogby poll found that three-quarters of weekly Wal-Mart shoppers voted for President Bush in 2004, and why 8 out of 10 people who have never shopped at Wal-Mart voted for John Kerry. Denouncing the retailer may make sense if the goal is to woo primary activists, but it’s a disastrous way to reach out to the general electorate.
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