(173,6,'2010-11-22 19:29:51','2010-11-22 19:29:51','<em>Let us settle ourselves, and work and wedge our feet downward through the mud and slush of opinion, and prejudice, and tradition, and delusion, and appearance, that alluvion which covers the globe, through Paris and London, through New York and Boston and Concord, through Church and State, through poetry and philosophy and religion, till we come to a hard bottom and rocks in place, which we can call reality, and say, This is, and no mistake; and then begin, having a point d\'appui, below freshet and frost and fire, a place where you might found a wall or a state, or set a lamp-post safely, or perhaps a gauge, not a Nilometer, but a Realometer, that future ages might know how deep a freshet of shams and appearances had gathered from time to time. If you stand right fronting and face to face to a fact, you will see the sun glimmer on both its surfaces, as if it were a cimeter, and feel its sweet edge dividing you through the heart and marrow, and so you will happily conclude your mortal career. Be it life or death, we crave only reality. </em>\r\n\r\nHenry David Thoreau\r\n\r\n<strong><em>******************</em></strong>\r\n\r\nOn college campuses, students often speak about the difference between college and “the real world.”  The student speaker at the 2003 St. Olaf College commencement told her classmates that their graduation confirmed their status as “real adults.”  Our students are told that they need to work hard to get ready for \"the real world.\"  They know that some majors—in science and computers, economics and business—have “real-world” payoffs, but other majors--History and English and the arts--are relatively impractical.  Parents and professors warn students that they\'ll need to behave differently—more seriously--in \"the real world.\"  They’re advised to take internships to get “real-world experience.”  Conventionally, college is understood as a counterpoint to “the real world.”  In general, the academic world of inquiry and imagination, of trust and thoughtfulness, is defined as unreal.  Once, in my presence, a group of my own students made the distinction between between professors and real people. I\'ve been suspicious ever since.\r\n\r\nInnumerable books and essays reinforce the distinction between college and the real world.  An advice column at the job-search website Monster.com begins with the assertion that “the `real world’ starts once you’re out of college and on the job.”  Maria Shriver writes about <em>Ten Things I Wish I’d Known Before I Went Out into the Real World</em>.  Chad Foster advises <em>Teenagers: Preparing for the Real World</em>.  Stacy Kravetz offers graduates a <em>Welcome to the Real World, </em>while <em>The Everything After College Book</em> offers “real-world advice for surviving and thriving on your own<em>.” </em>For students not ready for the real world (but still caught up in the concept), Colleen Kindler tells about <em>Delaying the Real World: A Twentysomething’s Guide to Seeking Adventure.</em>\r\n\r\nCritics of academia (and even some friends) also describe colleges as “the ivory tower.”  E.D. Hirsch’s <em>The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy</em> says that “living in an ivory tower” means “an impractical existence removed from the pressures and troubles of everyday life.”  As an example, Hirsch offers this sentence: “Like most college professors, Clark lives in an ivory tower.”  According to critics, this ivory tower is both a place and a state of mind where people grapple with intellectual or idealistic considerations rather than practical everyday life.  In the bubble, in the ivory tower, in college, we seem remote from “the real world.”\r\n\r\nAt St. Olaf, students also talk about the “St. Olaf bubble,” the safe space of college, the place where they\'re freed of many practical responsibilities (including food and shelter) to engage in other responsibilities (learning to learn).  The image of the bubble connotes a dome that encases the campus, a protective shield against many of the problems of other places.  It’s an image of campus that emphasizes students’ separation from the real world, their freedom from practical responsibilities, and their submission to rules that inhibit their full freedom.\r\n\r\nBut what exactly do we mean by \"the real world?\"  What makes it real, and what makes the rest of the world unreal?  What does our characterization of “the real world” tell us about our social construction of common sense?  What does the “reality” of that world tell us about the social construction of reality?  And how does “the real world” of our imaginations affect the way we live now?\r\n\r\n<strong><em>The Reality of the Real World</em></strong>\r\n\r\n“The real world” is deeply attractive to many college students.  Most students believe that college should be, in some way, preparation for “the real world.”  They’re eager to graduate and test themselves by “real-world” standards, even though they expect them to be more demanding than college life. And this attraction points to a wider web of American values and cultural patterns.\r\n\r\nIf you talk to college students, you quickly discover that independence is the main appeal of “the real world.”  College students look forward to a time without a syllabus, without homework, without RAs, without the paternalistic advice of professors and administrators.  Even though <em>in loco parentis</em> is obsolete on most of America’s college campuses, students resent even the vestiges of parental care.  It’s a rule on college campuses that you can’t like rules, and you can’t like regulations or restrictions either.\r\n\r\nIn “the real world” world, according to students, you’re finally on your own.  You can’t depend on other people to pay your bills.  You have to do it yourself because there’s no safety net.  “The real world” is the world of American individualism where the self-made man or woman makes it—or not.  It’s where college students find out if they’ve learned enough to earn enough to survive outside the ivory tower\r\n\r\nThis emphasis on independence fits perfectly with broader patterns of American socialization.  In America, growing up is growing apart.  We socialize our children for autonomy; we take pride in their emerging independence.  We congratulate them when they can do things “on their own.”  In America, as soon as you’re really self-sufficient, you’re grown up.  So “the real world” benefits from its associations with autonomy, adulthood, and Emersonian self-reliance.\r\n\r\nIn America, unless you’re independently wealthy, your independence depends on your income.  So students also look forward to the work of “the real world.”  In order to pay your bills, you need to work.  And in “the real world” you’re not working for grades—you’re working for a living.  So the stakes are high.  Failure in “the real world” is worse than a failing grade in physics or philosophy. Your job and your lifestyle both depend on your own ability and industry.<a href=\"#_edn1\">[i]</a>\r\n\r\nFor some students, the main attraction of work is the work itself.  They feel called to serve people in some capacity—in medicine, in law, in teaching, in nursing, in business, in social work—and they look forward to helping to make people better in a better world.  For more and more students, however, the attractions of work are mainly monetary.  They look not to the intrinsic rewards of good work but to the extrinsic rewards of good pay—not for the money itself, but for the freedom it seemingly promises.  At least from the perspective of college, paying the bills is a sign of freedom and a foundation for family life.\r\n\r\nStudents anticipating the freedoms of “the real world” often forget that freedom can be quite expensive.  Once you’ve signed the lease, you’re not free to skip the rent.  Once you’ve purchased the car, you’re not free to skip the “low monthly payment.”  Once you’ve charged a purchase with the credit card, you’re no longer free of debt.  And once you’ve established a lifestyle, there’s more social pressure to upscale than to downshift. In “the real world”—and even on campus—American commercial culture works by persuading us to spend money that obligates us to spend our time at work.  We respond by praying the great American interdenominational prayer “Thank God it’s Friday,” and by celebrating the cultural institution we call the weekend.  We often buy entertainment and commodities that have been packaged as “escape” thus expressing our distance and disdain for the job.  When we do, of course, we actually buy the signs of freedom with the substance of unfreedom.  But that’s not how it looks from a classroom or a dorm room.\r\n\r\nWhen you think about America’s social construction of “reality,” it’s quickly apparent that \"the real world\" is basically the commercial world, the world of American business.  When students talk about “the real world,” they’re not usually thinking about love and relationships or friends and children.  They’re not talking about spiritual life or religious community.  They’re not talking about their leisure pursuits.  They’re not talking about travel or vacations.  They’re talking about the work world, in which people toil for a wage to support themselves.  It\'s the world of the bottom line, the world of money and the marketplace.  This “real world” is Darwinian.  It\'s “a man\'s world,” although working women are now a part of it.  It\'s a dog-eat-dog world, a world of competition and one-upsmanship.  To a great extent, what makes the real world real is its hostility.  The real world is—in many of our assumptions about it, if not in fact—unpleasant and alienating.\r\n\r\nWhen students talk about “the real world,” therefore, you don’t hear many images of deep human fulfillment.  In fact, anticipating their impending engagement with reality, students seem to take pleasure in its lack of pleasure.  They assume it will be hard and tough and challenging. They know it’s not as easy as life in college.   Their “real world” is the world of Calvin and Hobbes—and not the comic strip.  It’s a world of people who are depraved—or at least untrustworthy—and it’s a world where life is nasty, brutish, and long. Often, talking about “the real world,” students sound like masochists, lusting for pain.  They seem to accept uncritically the cliché “No pain, no gain” (and its illogical corollary, “the spinach principle:” “if it tastes bad, it must be good for you.”)<a href=\"#_edn2\">[ii]</a>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>The Reality of the Unreal World</em></strong>\r\n\r\nThe “real world” imagined by our college students is one half of an American dualism—the half they don’t live in.  Americans love dichotomies, because they reduce the complexity of the real world to a single pair.  Mocking this double vision, writer Robert Benchley once said that “there are two kinds of people—those who think there are two kinds of people, and those who don’t.”  The problem with dichotomies, however, is that they erase the middle ground, the fertile spaces between the poles.  A dichotomous world would have North and South poles, but nothing in between.  But the real world isn’t dichotomous, even though we define it that way.\r\n\r\nIf you look it up in the dictionary, the word <em>real</em> means: \"1. Being or occurring in fact or actuality; having verifiable existence; 2. True and actual, not illusory or fictitious; 3. Genuine and authentic, not artificial or spurious; 4. (in philosophy) Existing actually and objectively.\"  It comes from the Latin \"res\" which means \"thing.\"  The same root leads to <em>real estate</em>, and to <em>republican</em> (<em>res publica</em>--the public things).  In comparing possible synonyms, the dictionary notes that <em>real</em> \"pertains basically to that which is not imaginary, but is existent and identifiable as a thing, state, or quality.\"\r\n\r\nColleges are arguably real; they occur in fact or actuality.  There are buildings and grounds, roads and parking lots.  There are classrooms and dorm rooms, cafeterias and bookstores.  Colleges are connected to basic utilities—gas and electricity, water and sewers, telephone and computer cables.  Colleges have real income and real expenses.  Many people have jobs at colleges; in some towns, the college or university is one of the primary employers.  College people eat and drink and shit and copulate.  At most colleges in America, you can buy a Coke, and, as we know, Coke is “the real thing.”  So why aren’t colleges considered as real as McDonald’s or Microsoft?\r\n\r\nCollege professors are also true and actual, genuine and authentic.  Shakespeare realized this in <em>The Merchant of Venice</em>: “Hath not a college professor eyes? hath not a college professor hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a middle manager is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?”  We exist actually and objectively.  So why aren’t college professors as real as lawyers and doctors and insurance agents?\r\n\r\nThe social patterns of a college are also verifiable.  Real people—including professors and students—interact in institutional patterns that have been established over centuries.  Real people enact the social roles of presidents and professors, registrars and deans, students and staff.  College cultures include observable patterns of human life: deference and authority, hierarchy and inequality, status and competition, politics and power.  A relationship on campus is just as real as one off-campus, even though both partners may live in “the bubble.”  A kiss feels just as good in college as in “the real world.”  And even the virtues of college—truth and beauty, wisdom and wonder, imagination and freedom of thought—are arguably real, since they’re embodied by faculty and staff and students.\r\n\r\nEnvironmental patterns of college life also have measurable consequences.  The campus is not, in fact, a bubble, and college campuses are not cut off from the world.  Every day, resources from all over the planet flow in and out of the so-called bubble.  Trucks and cars come onto campus, along with parking problems, pavement, and air pollution.  Few campuses grow their own food, so each campus creates its own foodshed, importing coffee and bananas, meat and milk, fruits and vegetables, beer and pizza from around the globe.  Electricity sizzles onto campus in wires, illuminating our lives without illuminating our connections to the sources of electrical power like coal and uranium.  Water pumps through faucets and showers and toilets and hoses.  If a college campus <em>is</em> a bubble, it\'s a bubble as big as the biosphere.\r\n\r\nStill we speak about college as if it were unreal.  Why?\r\n\r\nI’m not sure, but I have six suggestions.\r\n\r\nFirst, I think we define colleges as unreal because students aren’t paid for schoolwork, and if work isn’t paid, it isn’t worth much.  When we define reality this way, of course, we forget that much of the world’s good work is unpaid—like parenting.  We also forget that professors are compensated for their academic work.  We forget that many students work to pay their tuition and fees.  We forget that some students are, in fact, paid to think, because they receive grants and scholarships that subsidize their education.  And we forget that, in the long run, the work of college does pay off: the average college graduate makes around a quarter of a million dollars more than the average high school graduate.  But these logical inconsistencies don’t interfere with our constructions of reality.  If work’s not paid, we think, it’s not real.\r\n\r\nTo some extent, secondly, we think colleges are unreal because we define them as places of preparation.  You’re not a real lawyer until you’ve completed law school and passed the bar.  You’re not a real doctor until you’ve been certified.  But preparation for the real world seems to be a real-world activity too.  We don’t think that food preparation is less real than eating a meal.  We don’t think that music practice is less real than a concert.  So why would we think that academic work is less real than paid employment?\r\n\r\nWe define colleges as unreal because students and faculty deal in theory and abstractions, concepts and method.  We consider academics unreal because they use an analytical language that’s not always easy to understand.  Americans have a predisposition to prefer action to analysis, and we celebrate cultural heroes—cowboys and cops and Presidents—who don’t think too much.  We seem to believe that thinking is less real than action, even though almost all action depends on thinking, either present or previous.  We forget that business also deals in theory and abstractions, concepts and method—think of “total quality management” or “just-in-time delivery.”  The standard operating procedures of business don’t seem theoretical because the theory is already embedded in routines and practices.\r\n\r\nThird, sometimes college seems unreal to students because it’s not the world of the news.  College students often feel detached from the world, and from news about the world.  If things are newsworthy, they somehow seem more real.  And the day-do-day life of college seldom makes the news.  Students feel like they don’t know what’s going on in “the real world,” and that they’ll be more in touch after they graduate.\r\n\r\nThe disconnection of college students is, of course, their own choice.  They have time to read a newspaper, although most of them don’t.  They could watch the news, or cable news channels, or documentaries, even though they watch videos and DVDs of movies they’ve seen a million times before.  They even have time to check the news on-line, and some of them do.  But on-line news is so superficial that it seems like no news at all; it’s almost as ephemeral as Instant Messenger, which tends to get more dedicated time anyway.\r\n\r\nIn the same way, in reality, it’s unlikely that college graduates will be more attentive to news about the real world.  Given the patterns of privatization in American life—private property, private enterprise, and personal privacy—we generally don’t get more connected than this.  After college, students will be working a job from 8 to 5, and spending time on the necessities of life—food and shelter and clothing—that are provided for them now.  In the real world of American culture, people usually narrow their focus to life, lifestyle and livelihood—the 20<sup>th</sup> century version of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”  Unlike Jefferson, who understood the pursuit of happiness as both a private and a public matter, we generally define our primary pursuits as private.  He believed in citizenship; we believe in “sitizenship,” which mainly entails sitting around bitching about the politics we don’t support or participate in.  In any case, by looking for “the real world” on TV, we ignore the real world on our side of the television screen.\r\n\r\nFourth, I think college is seen as unreal because it’s generally a world of enough.  Students generally have enough food and clothing and shelter.  They can go to the health service when they’re sick.  They can see counselors if they’re depressed.  Even entertainment is provided on campus.  But American society is, by design, a system in which some people don’t have enough so that other people can have too much.  In that world, the prospect of poverty makes life after college seem more real than college life.  We define the “real” in terms of privation or the possibility of privation.  The danger of “the real world” is a defining element of its reality.  The suffering—even if we don’t personally experience it—makes our successes sweeter.\r\n\r\nThis explains why many students like rap and hip-hop and so-called “urban” fashions.  For young people growing up in suburban safety and security (even when it’s mainly mythical), the life of ghetto kids and gangs looks “edgy, gutsy, risky—all that adolescents crave.”  Romanticizing poverty and the ghetto, many students buy the sound and look of the city’s gritty realism, and they buy into a social construction of reality that tells them that urban poverty is not just different than their own lives, but more “real”—and therefore, more valuable.  Like other constructions of “the real world,” this one is paradoxical.  Students don’t want to live the “real” life of the ghetto; they just want to use it as a way of criticizing their own lives.<a href=\"#_edn3\">[iii]</a>\r\n\r\nFifth, I think college is defined as unreal because it discusses and displays assumptions about human nature that are less pessimistic than people in power prefer.  College assumes that people are rational, and that they can be improved.  College assumes that people are good—or at least that they have the capacity for being good—and that it’s possible to make people and institutions better.  College assumes that it’s important to ask big questions, even if you can’t always find the big answers to match them.  It’s important to ask “What are people for?” because, if you don’t, you might settle for a second-rate existence.  It’s important to ask “What are <em>my </em>deepest values?” because, if you don’t, you might live a life you don’t really value. It’s important to ask “Why do we act the way we do?” because otherwise you might never get wise to the whys of your culture.\r\n\r\nFinally, college is considered unreal because, comparatively speaking, people care about you as a person.  Most college students are supported in college by families who care for them.  Most college mission statements talk about the development of the whole person.  Many college classes put that care on the syllabus in the form of questions about character and vocation.  Some college students find that their professors and teachers care for them too, although the economies of education often keep that care at a distance.  When we think about the real world as a competitive marketplace, we forget the care and cooperation that characterize the institutions Americans love most—family and friendship, church and school.<a href=\"#_edn4\">[iv]</a>\r\n\r\nWhatever the reasons for our social construction of reality, it definitely performs cultural work for us.  When “the real world” is defined as the world of the business bottom line, it affects both our perception and our experience.  Instead of hope, we get diminished expectations and a habit of settling for someone else’s understanding of reality.  Having defined reality unrealistically, we’re bound to see the world through distorted lenses.  We mock people who see the world through rose-colored glasses, but we implicitly praise people who see it cynically in shades of black.\r\n\r\nEven worse, though, our conventional definition of the real world makes us irresponsible by defining us—the people of higher education—as unreal.  Defining college as unreal, we deftly define ourselves as unreal.  Seeking meaning in the culture’s construction of reality, we demean ourselves.  In the process, we avoid responsibility for our real lives.  If accountability is a feature of “the real world,” and we’re still in college, we don’t have to be accountable.  Some students, in fact, seem to use “the bubble” as an excuse to maintain their disengagement from the world.  It’s easier to blame it on the bubble than to get involved.  These people, says one student, will eventually make a bubble of their lives as well.  If the real world is somewhere else, we’re not responsible for it.  Instead, it’s party time!<a href=\"#_edn5\">[v]</a>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> “Get real!”</em></strong>\r\n\r\nAmerica’s unreal definition of “the real world” has real consequences.  It marginalizes values that don’t fit the competitive marketplace.  It teaches students to suspect care and cooperation, simplicity and humility.  It tells them that “it’s a material world,” so it also teaches students that ideas and idealism are illusory and ephemeral.  And students are taught to believe that interdependence is a fleeting phase of life, and that comprehensive critical thinking is something we’ll grow out of.  This is no accident.  In America, the institutions that offer an alternative to the values of competitive capitalism are systematically marginalized or commodified.  The business of America is business, said Calvin Coolidge, and part of the power of business is the power to define reality.\r\n\r\nIn America, and even at American colleges, ideas are somewhat suspect.  Americans worry about the power of ideas, and so we often try to protect ourselves against them.  In high school, the student who loves ideas is often mocked and marginalized.  S/he becomes “the Brain,” the nerd, the geek, the dork.  There’s more regard for ideas in college, but students with other substantial talents—a passion for sports or fashion or video games or beer—still occupy many of the popular campus hierarchies.  American education may be a meritocracy, but students who merit praise from professors often merit scorn from their peers.\r\n\r\nIn America, often, idealism is even more suspect than ideas.  Idealism is the sense that what should be could be.  Realism is often the sense that what should be can’t be.  So the social construction of “the real world” is a way of hobbling our hope.  The conventional image of “the real world” helps us to adjust to the banality and evils of our time.  Instead of learning hoping mechanisms, we content ourselves with coping mechanisms.  We learn to adapt to the demands of our world instead of demanding that the world adapt to our visions of the good.  In the 1960s, critic Paul Goodman advised students to \"Think about the kind of world you want to live and work in.  What do you need to know to help build that world?  Demand that your teachers teach you that.\"  Much of the time, sadly, today’s students don\'t follow his advice.  Too often, they prepare themselves to live in “the real world,” instead of the world they really want to live in.  Too often, they take courses to fulfill requirements instead of requiring courses to fulfill them and to help them build a better world.  And students hardly ever demand enough from their professors or their education.\r\n\r\nAmericans often remind each other of our social construction of “reality” with the injunction “Get real!”  Sometimes this exclamation is just a figure of speech, and it doesn’t mean much. Other times it means so much it’s demeaning.  When somebody tells us good news, sometimes we reply by saying “Get real!”  We mean “it’s too good to be true.”  But we implicitly suggest that goodness is extraordinary, that it’s not in the order of things.  We seem to believe that good news is miraculous in a world characterized by bad news.  But even though we say it all the time, do we really espouse this pessimistic vision?  In America, for example, most of us profess a faith that begins with an affirmation of the goodness of creation and ends with a proclamation of the gospel—the good news.  And by almost any standard, this world is amazingly out of the ordinary.  After all, we live on the only planet in the solar system that supports life.  “If the landscape reveals one certainty,” says Annie Dillard, “it is that the extravagant gesture is the very stuff of creation.”<a href=\"#_edn6\">[vi]</a>\r\n\r\nIf “Get real” is a common response to good news, it’s also often a response to statements of hope or idealism.  In that case, “Get real” means “It’ll never happen.”  When a student says she believes in “practical idealism,” we tell her to “Get real!”  When students hope for an environmentally sustainable college community, we tell them it’s not possible.  We encourage students to volunteer to help young people or seniors or racial minorities, but if students want to change the structures that disadvantage such people, we tell them it won’t work.  In such circumstances, “Get real!” is the voice of practical pessimism.  It means “Think like me” or Get hopeless, like me.”   It means “Think like the majority” or “Think like all the other people who live lives of quiet desperation.”  “Get real!” tells us to stop trying to make our deepest dreams real.  “Get real!” means “<em>Con</em>form to the world, don’t <em>re</em>form or <em>trans</em>form the world.”\r\n\r\nIn this instance, “Get real!” reinforces the standard vision of “the real world,” privileging fatalism over initiative, conformity over creativity, realism over idealism.  We can have ideals, we’re told, when other people are paying the bills.  We can be idealistic in college, but thankfully we’ll get over it.  We, too, can adjust to the cynicism of the real world.\r\n\r\nA “reality check” is similar to the injunction to “Get real!”  Sometimes a reality check is just an occasion when we tell the truth to ourselves.  But in other situations, it’s a way of avoiding the truth about reality.  In the first instance, a “reality check” asks us to examine our assumptions, and to identify the illusions that may be causing us grief.  We might aspire to be a professional basketball player; a reality check reminds us that we’re not very talented.  We might hope to be a straight-A student; a reality check notifies us that we’re not that smart.  We may want to be beautiful or buff, and a reality check reminds us that we don’t have the body for it.  Usually, a reality check asks us to keep our aspirations in line with our actual abilities, so that we’re not perpetually disappointed.  It doesn’t ask us to give up hope; but it keeps us from wishful thinking.\r\n\r\nUnfortunately, we seldom perform a second sort of reality check—a check on “reality” itself.  In this sort of reality check, people might ask if reality in America adequately addresses the full humanity of human beings, or if our social construction of reality allows for the flourishing of the natural world.  In this instance, reality is checked by idealism.  In the nineteenth century, for example, slavery was very real; it was one of the primary institutions of American culture.  But a reality check showed that it didn’t match American ideals, and so Americans abolished it.  In the twentieth century, chlorofluorocarbons made air conditioning a widespread reality.  But a reality check showed that they also obliterated the ozone layer, and so international treaties abolished the use of these chemicals.\r\n\r\nSometimes such idealism provides a useful reality check for the so-called “real world.”  In fact, one of the primary virtues of today\'s impractical idealists is to show the impracticality of the so-called “real world.”  In the real world of nineteen major industrial nations, for example, Americans are first in the world in greenhouse gas emissions, and first in contributing to acid rain; first in air pollutants per capita; first in forest depletion; first in paper consumption per capita; first in garbage per capita; first in hazardous waste per capita; first in gasoline consumption per capita, first in oil imports, and first in oil spills affecting our shores; first in TVs per capita; first in cars per capita, and first in use of cars instead of public transportation. Is that practical?  Is that realistic over the long haul?  How long can we live this reality?\r\n\r\nIn the real world of industrial nations, the United States is number one in infant mortality, number one in percentage of low birth-weight babies, number one in children and old people in poverty, number one in inequalities of wealth, number one in big homes and in homelessness, number one in credit cards and in private consumption, and number one in executive salaries and inequalities of pay. We\'re number one in time devoted to TV, and last in books published per capita. Is this practical?  Is this realistic?  Is this good?\r\n\r\nNo.   Environmentally, “the real world” is a disaster area.  Capitalism has always been a system of “creative destruction,” and it’s been an amazing catalyst for human imagination and inventiveness. But in our time, the destruction seems to be outpacing the creativity.  The “realism” of American capitalism is undermining the life systems of the planet.  The so-called realists have gotten us into real trouble.  And more “realism” is probably not the solution.\r\n\r\nIn this situation, the actual realists are America’s idealists—people who understand both the needs of human nature (as opposed to their desires) and the needs of the planet.  David Orr, author of <em>Ecological Literacy</em>, <em>Earth in Mind</em>, and <em>The Nature of Design</em>, contends that we\'re living in a time when altruism and necessity coincide--when the impractical idealists are the consummate practical realists.  And these new realists are telling the architects of “the real world” to “Get real!”\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Conclusion</em></strong>\r\n\r\nAll our talk about “the real world” is just that—talk.  It’s words and ideas.  But these words and ideas can affect our worlds and ideals.  They in-form our hearts and minds, our beliefs and behavior.  So it’s a good idea to understand the implications of this construction of “the real world.”\r\n\r\nIf we performed a reality check on “the real world,” we’d realize that it’s not as real as we thought—nor does it really encompass the whole world.  Our conventional definition of “the real world” omits too much reality.  As we’ve seen, our conventional definition of the real world omits many of the real wonders and pleasures of the people and places that surround us.\r\n\r\nAnother unreality of “the real world” is that it only includes the human world.  By any sensible standard, the real world is much bigger than human games or gains.  The real world is the biosphere, a delicate balance of organisms, fluids, solids, and gases that supports life.  And if the real-world activities of human beings threaten the web of life, then—quite simply—they’re not realistic.  While we’re at college, we may have minimal effects on the bottom line of business, but we have environmental impacts that are real and substantial.  And paying attention to campus ecology can remind us of that crucial reality.  “The real world,” as it happens, is just part of the world, and it’s manufactured every day by people like us.  So if we realized all the implications of our social construction of “the real world,” we might begin to <em>realize</em> alternative visions of reality.\r\n\r\nOne meaning of the word “realize” is “to comprehend completely or correctly.”  Comprehending “the real world” of American culture, we can see that it’s not reality, but a social construction of reality.  The predominant image of “the real world” is, happily, just a half-truth.  It’s true to some of our experience, but not to all of it.  It’s like Catch-22.  In Joseph Heller’s novel, Captain Yossarian is threatened by Catch-22, the simple proposition that “specified that a concern for one\'s safety . . . was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask, and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions.”  Ultimately, Yossarian discovers that “Catch-22 did not exist . . . but it made no difference.  What did matter is that everyone thought it existed, and that was much worse, for their was no object or text to ridicule or refute, to accuse, criticize, attack, amend, hate, revile, spit at, rip to shreds, trample upon or burn up.”  When something as arbitrary or unreasonable as Catch-22 or “the real world” becomes a part of the social construction of common sense, only uncommon sense can guide us back to reality.  When “the real world” results in real problems, sometimes the lofty perspectives of the ivory tower can offer a corrective to practical everyday life.<strong> </strong>\r\n\r\nA second meaning of “realize” is “to make real or actualize,” and the example given is “to realize an ideal.”  In the first definition, we get our thoughts in line with reality.  In the second instance, we get reality in line with our thoughts and ideals.  It’s this sort of realization that I’m most interested in.  It’s this sort of realization that’s possible on America’s college campuses.  Sometimes the practices of the ivory tower can offer important alternatives to practical everyday life.\r\n\r\nWe don’t just go into a real world that’s already made, but that we <em>make</em> the real world in our everyday lives.   We make it by our beliefs and behavior, by the way we act and the way we talk.  So we need to be careful what we do or say.  If we continue to talk about “the real world” as if it were somewhere else, we’re likely to miss the real world all around us.  If we continue to prepare to go out into “the real world,” we’ll be unprepared to affect the real world we inhabit now.  If we act like “Animal House,” the real world will be “animalistic.”  If we act like citizens, the real world will include the common good.  When we act on our ideals, we make them real.   As we learn an ethic of sustainability, and as we enact it, we can make a real world that’s really worth living in.\r\n\r\nThe real world <em>is</em> out there.  But it’s also in here, in our hearts and minds and souls.  It’s not just there in the business world; it’s in our families and neighborhoods, and it’s right here in our college classes and the cafeteria.  If we want real-world experience, we don’t have to get an internship.  We don’t have to move off campus.  David Orr contends that colleges are for designing minds, and for designing ideas and institutions that make it easier to be good for one another—and the whole creation.  He expects colleges to apply the theories they profess and to practice the values they preach right on their own campuses.  Orr agrees with John Dewey, who said that “education is not preparation for life.  Education is life itself.” So we can begin to realize our ideals <em>in the real world</em>, where we are right now.\r\n\r\n<hr size=\"1\" /><a href=\"#_ednref1\">[i]</a> Many students, of course, are working already, both on and off campus, so they’re gaining “real-world” experience.  But these part-time jobs—or even full-time jobs—don’t seem to affect the way they think about college and the “real world.”\r\n\r\n<a href=\"#_ednref2\">[ii]</a> In fact, we often seem to think that pain necessarily leads to gain.  The “spinach principle” of life, for example, suggests that if it tastes bad, it must be good for you, and conversely, if it’s pleasurable, it can’t be substantive.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"#_ednref3\">[iii]</a> Alex Kotlowitz, “False Connections,” in <em>Consuming Desires</em>, pp. 70-71.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"#_ednref4\">[iv]</a> Of course, there’s a lot of care and cooperation in business too, but within a “real world” worldview, you can’t talk about it.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"#_ednref5\">[v]</a> Thanks to Breanna Peterson for some of the insights in this paragraph.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"#_ednref6\">[vi]</a> Annie Dillard, <em>Pilgrim at Tinker Creek</em>, p. 9.','\"The Real World\"','','publish','closed','open','','the-real-world','','','2018-07-09 14:32:20','2018-07-09 19:32:20','',149,'http://natureofcollege.org/',0,'page','',0),(174,6,'2010-11-22 19:29:44','2010-11-22 19:29:44','<em>Let us settle ourselves, and work and wedge our feet downward through the mud and slush of opinion, and prejudice, and tradition, and delusion, and appearance, that alluvion which covers the globe, through Paris and London, through New York and Boston and Concord, through Church and State, through poetry and philosophy and religion, till we come to a hard bottom and rocks in place, which we can call reality, and say, This is, and no mistake; and then begin, having a point d\'appui, below freshet and frost and fire, a place where you might found a wall or a state, or set a lamp-post safely, or perhaps a gauge, not a Nilometer, but a Realometer, that future ages might know how deep a freshet of shams and appearances had gathered from time to time. If you stand right fronting and face to face to a fact, you will see the sun glimmer on both its surfaces, as if it were a cimeter, and feel its sweet edge dividing you through the heart and marrow, and so you will happily conclude your mortal career. Be it life or death, we crave only reality. </em>\n\nHenry David Thoreau\n\n<strong><em>******************</em></strong>\n\nOn college campuses, students often speak about the difference between college and “the real world.”  The student speaker at the 2003 St. Olaf College commencement told her classmates that their graduation confirmed their status as “real adults.”  Our students are told that they need to work hard to get ready for \"the real world.\"  They know that some majors—in science and computers, economics and business—have “real-world” payoffs, but other majors--History and English and the arts--are relatively impractical.  Parents and professors warn students that they\'ll need to behave differently—more seriously--in \"the real world.\"  They’re advised to take internships to get “real-world experience.”  Conventionally, college is understood as a counterpoint to “the real world.”  In general, the academic world of inquiry and imagination, of trust and thoughtfulness, is defined as unreal.  Once, in my presence, a group of my own students made the distinction between between professors and real people. I\'ve been suspicious ever since.\n\nInnumerable books and essays reinforce the distinction between college and the real world.  An advice column at the job-search website Monster.com begins with the assertion that “the `real world’ starts once you’re out of college and on the job.”  Maria Shriver writes about <em>Ten Things I Wish I’d Known Before I Went Out into the Real World</em>.  Chad Foster advises <em>Teenagers: Preparing for the Real World</em>.  Stacy Kravetz offers graduates a <em>Welcome to the Real World, </em>while <em>The Everything After College Book</em> offers “real-world advice for surviving and thriving on your own<em>.” </em>For students not ready for the real world (but still caught up in the concept), Colleen Kindler tells about <em>Delaying the Real World: A Twentysomething’s Guide to Seeking Adventure.</em>\n\nCritics of academia (and even some friends) also describe colleges as “the ivory tower.”  E.D. Hirsch’s <em>The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy</em> says that “living in an ivory tower” means “an impractical existence removed from the pressures and troubles of everyday life.”  As an example, Hirsch offers this sentence: “Like most college professors, Clark lives in an ivory tower.”  According to critics, this ivory tower is both a place and a state of mind where people grapple with intellectual or idealistic considerations rather than practical everyday life.  In the bubble, in the ivory tower, in college, we seem remote from “the real world.”\n\nAt St. Olaf, students also talk about the “St. Olaf bubble,” the safe space of college, the place where they\'re freed of many practical responsibilities (including food and shelter) to engage in other responsibilities (learning to learn).  The image of the bubble connotes a dome that encases the campus, a protective shield against many of the problems of other places.  It’s an image of campus that emphasizes students’ separation from the real world, their freedom from practical responsibilities, and their submission to rules that inhibit their full freedom.\n\nBut what exactly do we mean by \"the real world?\"  What makes it real, and what makes the rest of the world unreal?  What does our characterization of “the real world” tell us about our social construction of common sense?  What does the “reality” of that world tell us about the social construction of reality?  And how does “the real world” of our imaginations affect the way we live now?\n\n<strong><em>The Reality of the Real World</em></strong>\n\n“The real world” is deeply attractive to many college students.  Most students believe that college should be, in some way, preparation for “the real world.”  They’re eager to graduate and test themselves by “real-world” standards, even though they expect them to be more demanding than college life. And this attraction points to a wider web of American values and cultural patterns.\n\nIf you talk to college students, you quickly discover that independence is the main appeal of “the real world.”  College students look forward to a time without a syllabus, without homework, without RAs, without the paternalistic advice of professors and administrators.  Even though <em>in loco parentis</em> is obsolete on most of America’s college campuses, students resent even the vestiges of parental care.  It’s a rule on college campuses that you can’t like rules, and you can’t like regulations or restrictions either.\n\nIn “the real world” world, according to students, you’re finally on your own.  You can’t depend on other people to pay your bills.  You have to do it yourself because there’s no safety net.  “The real world” is the world of American individualism where the self-made man or woman makes it—or not.  It’s where college students find out if they’ve learned enough to earn enough to survive outside the ivory tower\n\nThis emphasis on independence fits perfectly with broader patterns of American socialization.  In America, growing up is growing apart.  We socialize our children for autonomy; we take pride in their emerging independence.  We congratulate them when they can do things “on their own.”  In America, as soon as you’re really self-sufficient, you’re grown up.  So “the real world” benefits from its associations with autonomy, adulthood, and Emersonian self-reliance.\n\nIn America, unless you’re independently wealthy, your independence depends on your income.  So students also look forward to the work of “the real world.”  In order to pay your bills, you need to work.  And in “the real world” you’re not working for grades—you’re working for a living.  So the stakes are high.  Failure in “the real world” is worse than a failing grade in physics or philosophy. Your job and your lifestyle both depend on your own ability and industry.<a href=\"#_edn1\">[i]</a>\n\nFor some students, the main attraction of work is the work itself.  They feel called to serve people in some capacity—in medicine, in law, in teaching, in nursing, in business, in social work—and they look forward to helping to make people better in a better world.  For more and more students, however, the attractions of work are mainly monetary.  They look not to the intrinsic rewards of good work but to the extrinsic rewards of good pay—not for the money itself, but for the freedom it seemingly promises.  At least from the perspective of college, paying the bills is a sign of freedom and a foundation for family life.\n\nStudents anticipating the freedoms of “the real world” often forget that freedom can be quite expensive.  Once you’ve signed the lease, you’re not free to skip the rent.  Once you’ve purchased the car, you’re not free to skip the “low monthly payment.”  Once you’ve charged a purchase with the credit card, you’re no longer free of debt.  And once you’ve established a lifestyle, there’s more social pressure to upscale than to downshift. In “the real world”—and even on campus—American commercial culture works by persuading us to spend money that obligates us to spend our time at work.  We respond by praying the great American interdenominational prayer “Thank God it’s Friday,” and by celebrating the cultural institution we call the weekend.  We often buy entertainment and commodities that have been packaged as “escape” thus expressing our distance and disdain for the job.  When we do, of course, we actually buy the signs of freedom with the substance of unfreedom.  But that’s not how it looks from a classroom or a dorm room.\n\nWhen you think about America’s social construction of “reality,” it’s quickly apparent that \"the real world\" is basically the commercial world, the world of American business.  When students talk about “the real world,” they’re not usually thinking about love and relationships or friends and children.  They’re not talking about spiritual life or religious community.  They’re not talking about their leisure pursuits.  They’re not talking about travel or vacations.  They’re talking about the work world, in which people toil for a wage to support themselves.  It\'s the world of the bottom line, the world of money and the marketplace.  This “real world” is Darwinian.  It\'s “a man\'s world,” although working women are now a part of it.  It\'s a dog-eat-dog world, a world of competition and one-upsmanship.  To a great extent, what makes the real world real is its hostility.  The real world is—in many of our assumptions about it, if not in fact—unpleasant and alienating.\n\nWhen students talk about “the real world,” therefore, you don’t hear many images of deep human fulfillment.  In fact, anticipating their impending engagement with reality, students seem to take pleasure in its lack of pleasure.  They assume it will be hard and tough and challenging. They know it’s not as easy as life in college.   Their “real world” is the world of Calvin and Hobbes—and not the comic strip.  It’s a world of people who are depraved—or at least untrustworthy—and it’s a world where life is nasty, brutish, and long. Often, talking about “the real world,” students sound like masochists, lusting for pain.  They seem to accept uncritically the cliché “No pain, no gain” (and its illogical corollary, “the spinach principle:” “if it tastes bad, it must be good for you.”)<a href=\"#_edn2\">[ii]</a>\n\n<strong><em>The Reality of the Unreal World</em></strong>\n\nThe “real world” imagined by our college students is one half of an American dualism—the half they don’t live in.  Americans love dichotomies, because they reduce the complexity of the real world to a single pair.  Mocking this double vision, writer Robert Benchley once said that “there are two kinds of people—those who think there are two kinds of people, and those who don’t.”  The problem with dichotomies, however, is that they erase the middle ground, the fertile spaces between the poles.  A dichotomous world would have North and South poles, but nothing in between.  But the real world isn’t dichotomous, even though we define it that way.\n\nIf you look it up in the dictionary, the word <em>real</em> means: \"1. Being or occurring in fact or actuality; having verifiable existence; 2. True and actual, not illusory or fictitious; 3. Genuine and authentic, not artificial or spurious; 4. (in philosophy) Existing actually and objectively.\"  It comes from the Latin \"res\" which means \"thing.\"  The same root leads to <em>real estate</em>, and to <em>republican</em> (<em>res publica</em>--the public things).  In comparing possible synonyms, the dictionary notes that <em>real</em> \"pertains basically to that which is not imaginary, but is existent and identifiable as a thing, state, or quality.\"\n\nColleges are arguably real; they occur in fact or actuality.  There are buildings and grounds, roads and parking lots.  There are classrooms and dorm rooms, cafeterias and bookstores.  Colleges are connected to basic utilities—gas and electricity, water and sewers, telephone and computer cables.  Colleges have real income and real expenses.  Many people have jobs at colleges; in some towns, the college or university is one of the primary employers.  College people eat and drink and shit and copulate.  At most colleges in America, you can buy a Coke, and, as we know, Coke is “the real thing.”  So why aren’t colleges considered as real as McDonald’s or Microsoft?\n\nCollege professors are also true and actual, genuine and authentic.  Shakespeare realized this in <em>The Merchant of Venice</em>: “Hath not a college professor eyes? hath not a college professor hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a middle manager is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?”  We exist actually and objectively.  So why aren’t college professors as real as lawyers and doctors and insurance agents?\n\nThe social patterns of a college are also verifiable.  Real people—including professors and students—interact in institutional patterns that have been established over centuries.  Real people enact the social roles of presidents and professors, registrars and deans, students and staff.  College cultures include observable patterns of human life: deference and authority, hierarchy and inequality, status and competition, politics and power.  A relationship on campus is just as real as one off-campus, even though both partners may live in “the bubble.”  A kiss feels just as good in college as in “the real world.”  And even the virtues of college—truth and beauty, wisdom and wonder, imagination and freedom of thought—are arguably real, since they’re embodied by faculty and staff and students.\n\nEnvironmental patterns of college life also have measurable consequences.  The campus is not, in fact, a bubble, and college campuses are not cut off from the world.  Every day, resources from all over the planet flow in and out of the so-called bubble.  Trucks and cars come onto campus, along with parking problems, pavement, and air pollution.  Few campuses grow their own food, so each campus creates its own foodshed, importing coffee and bananas, meat and milk, fruits and vegetables, beer and pizza from around the globe.  Electricity sizzles onto campus in wires, illuminating our lives without illuminating our connections to the sources of electrical power like coal and uranium.  Water pumps through faucets and showers and toilets and hoses.  If a college campus <em>is</em> a bubble, it\'s a bubble as big as the biosphere.\n\nStill we speak about college as if it were unreal.  Why?\n\nI’m not sure, but I have six suggestions.\n\nFirst, I think we define colleges as unreal because students aren’t paid for schoolwork, and if work isn’t paid, it isn’t worth much.  When we define reality this way, of course, we forget that much of the world’s good work is unpaid—like parenting.  We also forget that professors are compensated for their academic work.  We forget that many students work to pay their tuition and fees.  We forget that some students are, in fact, paid to think, because they receive grants and scholarships that subsidize their education.  And we forget that, in the long run, the work of college does pay off: the average college graduate makes around a quarter of a million dollars more than the average high school graduate.  But these logical inconsistencies don’t interfere with our constructions of reality.  If work’s not paid, we think, it’s not real.\n\nTo some extent, secondly, we think colleges are unreal because we define them as places of preparation.  You’re not a real lawyer until you’ve completed law school and passed the bar.  You’re not a real doctor until you’ve been certified.  But preparation for the real world seems to be a real-world activity too.  We don’t think that food preparation is less real than eating a meal.  We don’t think that music practice is less real than a concert.  So why would we think that academic work is less real than paid employment?\n\nWe define colleges as unreal because students and faculty deal in theory and abstractions, concepts and method.  We consider academics unreal because they use an analytical language that’s not always easy to understand.  Americans have a predisposition to prefer action to analysis, and we celebrate cultural heroes—cowboys and cops and Presidents—who don’t think too much.  We seem to believe that thinking is less real than action, even though almost all action depends on thinking, either present or previous.  We forget that business also deals in theory and abstractions, concepts and method—think of “total quality management” or “just-in-time delivery.”  The standard operating procedures of business don’t seem theoretical because the theory is already embedded in routines and practices.\n\nThird, sometimes college seems unreal to students because it’s not the world of the news.  College students often feel detached from the world, and from news about the world.  If things are newsworthy, they somehow seem more real.  And the day-do-day life of college seldom makes the news.  Students feel like they don’t know what’s going on in “the real world,” and that they’ll be more in touch after they graduate.\n\nThe disconnection of college students is, of course, their own choice.  They have time to read a newspaper, although most of them don’t.  They could watch the news, or cable news channels, or documentaries, even though they watch videos and DVDs of movies they’ve seen a million times before.  They even have time to check the news on-line, and some of them do.  But on-line news is so superficial that it seems like no news at all; it’s almost as ephemeral as Instant Messenger, which tends to get more dedicated time anyway.\n\nIn the same way, in reality, it’s unlikely that college graduates will be more attentive to news about the real world.  Given the patterns of privatization in American life—private property, private enterprise, and personal privacy—we generally don’t get more connected than this.  After college, students will be working a job from 8 to 5, and spending time on the necessities of life—food and shelter and clothing—that are provided for them now.  In the real world of American culture, people usually narrow their focus to life, lifestyle and livelihood—the 20<sup>th</sup> century version of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”  Unlike Jefferson, who understood the pursuit of happiness as both a private and a public matter, we generally define our primary pursuits as private.  He believed in citizenship; we believe in “sitizenship,” which mainly entails sitting around bitching about the politics we don’t support or participate in.  In any case, by looking for “the real world” on TV, we ignore the real world on our side of the television screen.\n\nFourth, I think college is seen as unreal because it’s generally a world of enough.  Students generally have enough food and clothing and shelter.  They can go to the health service when they’re sick.  They can see counselors if they’re depressed.  Even entertainment is provided on campus.  But American society is, by design, a system in which some people don’t have enough so that other people can have too much.  In that world, the prospect of poverty makes life after college seem more real than college life.  We define the “real” in terms of privation or the possibility of privation.  The danger of “the real world” is a defining element of its reality.  The suffering—even if we don’t personally experience it—makes our successes sweeter.\n\nThis explains why many students like rap and hip-hop and so-called “urban” fashions.  For young people growing up in suburban safety and security (even when it’s mainly mythical), the life of ghetto kids and gangs looks “edgy, gutsy, risky—all that adolescents crave.”  Romanticizing poverty and the ghetto, many students buy the sound and look of the city’s gritty realism, and they buy into a social construction of reality that tells them that urban poverty is not just different than their own lives, but more “real”—and therefore, more valuable.  Like other constructions of “the real world,” this one is paradoxical.  Students don’t want to live the “real” life of the ghetto; they just want to use it as a way of criticizing their own lives.<a href=\"#_edn3\">[iii]</a>\n\nFifth, I think college is defined as unreal because it discusses and displays assumptions about human nature that are less pessimistic than people in power prefer.  College assumes that people are rational, and that they can be improved.  College assumes that people are good—or at least that they have the capacity for being good—and that it’s possible to make people and institutions better.  College assumes that it’s important to ask big questions, even if you can’t always find the big answers to match them.  It’s important to ask “What are people for?” because, if you don’t, you might settle for a second-rate existence.  It’s important to ask “What are <em>my </em>deepest values?” because, if you don’t, you might live a life you don’t really value. It’s important to ask “Why do we act the way we do?” because otherwise you might never get wise to the whys of your culture.\n\nFinally, college is considered unreal because, comparatively speaking, people care about you as a person.  Most college students are supported in college by families who care for them.  Most college mission statements talk about the development of the whole person.  Many college classes put that care on the syllabus in the form of questions about character and vocation.  Some college students find that their professors and teachers care for them too, although the economies of education often keep that care at a distance.  When we think about the real world as a competitive marketplace, we forget the care and cooperation that characterize the institutions Americans love most—family and friendship, church and school.<a href=\"#_edn4\">[iv]</a>\n\nWhatever the reasons for our social construction of reality, it definitely performs cultural work for us.  When “the real world” is defined as the world of the business bottom line, it affects both our perception and our experience.  Instead of hope, we get diminished expectations and a habit of settling for someone else’s understanding of reality.  Having defined reality unrealistically, we’re bound to see the world through distorted lenses.  We mock people who see the world through rose-colored glasses, but we implicitly praise people who see it cynically in shades of black.\n\nEven worse, though, our conventional definition of the real world makes us irresponsible by defining us—the people of higher education—as unreal.  Defining college as unreal, we deftly define ourselves as unreal.  Seeking meaning in the culture’s construction of reality, we demean ourselves.  In the process, we avoid responsibility for our real lives.  If accountability is a feature of “the real world,” and we’re still in college, we don’t have to be accountable.  Some students, in fact, seem to use “the bubble” as an excuse to maintain their disengagement from the world.  It’s easier to blame it on the bubble than to get involved.  These people, says one student, will eventually make a bubble of their lives as well.  If the real world is somewhere else, we’re not responsible for it.  Instead, it’s party time!<a href=\"#_edn5\">[v]</a>\n\n<strong><em> “Get real!”</em></strong>\n\nAmerica’s unreal definition of “the real world” has real consequences.  It marginalizes values that don’t fit the competitive marketplace.  It teaches students to suspect care and cooperation, simplicity and humility.  It tells them that “it’s a material world,” so it also teaches students that ideas and idealism are illusory and ephemeral.  And students are taught to believe that interdependence is a fleeting phase of life, and that comprehensive critical thinking is something we’ll grow out of.  This is no accident.  In America, the institutions that offer an alternative to the values of competitive capitalism are systematically marginalized or commodified.  The business of America is business, said Calvin Coolidge, and part of the power of business is the power to define reality.\n\nIn America, and even at American colleges, ideas are somewhat suspect.  Americans worry about the power of ideas, and so we often try to protect ourselves against them.  In high school, the student who loves ideas is often mocked and marginalized.  S/he becomes “the Brain,” the nerd, the geek, the dork.  There’s more regard for ideas in college, but students with other substantial talents—a passion for sports or fashion or video games or beer—still occupy many of the popular campus hierarchies.  American education may be a meritocracy, but students who merit praise from professors often merit scorn from their peers.\n\nIn America, often, idealism is even more suspect than ideas.  Idealism is the sense that what should be could be.  Realism is often the sense that what should be can’t be.  So the social construction of “the real world” is a way of hobbling our hope.  The conventional image of “the real world” helps us to adjust to the banality and evils of our time.  Instead of learning hoping mechanisms, we content ourselves with coping mechanisms.  We learn to adapt to the demands of our world instead of demanding that the world adapt to our visions of the good.  In the 1960s, critic Paul Goodman advised students to \"Think about the kind of world you want to live and work in.  What do you need to know to help build that world?  Demand that your teachers teach you that.\"  Much of the time, sadly, today’s students don\'t follow his advice.  Too often, they prepare themselves to live in “the real world,” instead of the world they really want to live in.  Too often, they take courses to fulfill requirements instead of requiring courses to fulfill them and to help them build a better world.  And students hardly ever demand enough from their professors or their education.\n\nAmericans often remind each other of our social construction of “reality” with the injunction “Get real!”  Sometimes this exclamation is just a figure of speech, and it doesn’t mean much. Other times it means so much it’s demeaning.  When somebody tells us good news, sometimes we reply by saying “Get real!”  We mean “it’s too good to be true.”  But we implicitly suggest that goodness is extraordinary, that it’s not in the order of things.  We seem to believe that good news is miraculous in a world characterized by bad news.  But even though we say it all the time, do we really espouse this pessimistic vision?  In America, for example, most of us profess a faith that begins with an affirmation of the goodness of creation and ends with a proclamation of the gospel—the good news.  And by almost any standard, this world is amazingly out of the ordinary.  After all, we live on the only planet in the solar system that supports life.  “If the landscape reveals one certainty,” says Annie Dillard, “it is that the extravagant gesture is the very stuff of creation.”<a href=\"#_edn6\">[vi]</a>\n\nIf “Get real” is a common response to good news, it’s also often a response to statements of hope or idealism.  In that case, “Get real” means “It’ll never happen.”  When a student says she believes in “practical idealism,” we tell her to “Get real!”  When students hope for an environmentally sustainable college community, we tell them it’s not possible.  We encourage students to volunteer to help young people or seniors or racial minorities, but if students want to change the structures that disadvantage such people, we tell them it won’t work.  In such circumstances, “Get real!” is the voice of practical pessimism.  It means “Think like me” or Get hopeless, like me.”   It means “Think like the majority” or “Think like all the other people who live lives of quiet desperation.”  “Get real!” tells us to stop trying to make our deepest dreams real.  “Get real!” means “<em>Con</em>form to the world, don’t <em>re</em>form or <em>trans</em>form the world.”\n\nIn this instance, “Get real!” reinforces the standard vision of “the real world,” privileging fatalism over initiative, conformity over creativity, realism over idealism.  We can have ideals, we’re told, when other people are paying the bills.  We can be idealistic in college, but thankfully we’ll get over it.  We, too, can adjust to the cynicism of the real world.\n\nA “reality check” is similar to the injunction to “Get real!”  Sometimes a reality check is just an occasion when we tell the truth to ourselves.  But in other situations, it’s a way of avoiding the truth about reality.  In the first instance, a “reality check” asks us to examine our assumptions, and to identify the illusions that may be causing us grief.  We might aspire to be a professional basketball player; a reality check reminds us that we’re not very talented.  We might hope to be a straight-A student; a reality check notifies us that we’re not that smart.  We may want to be beautiful or buff, and a reality check reminds us that we don’t have the body for it.  Usually, a reality check asks us to keep our aspirations in line with our actual abilities, so that we’re not perpetually disappointed.  It doesn’t ask us to give up hope; but it keeps us from wishful thinking.\n\nUnfortunately, we seldom perform a second sort of reality check—a check on “reality” itself.  In this sort of reality check, people might ask if reality in America adequately addresses the full humanity of human beings, or if our social construction of reality allows for the flourishing of the natural world.  In this instance, reality is checked by idealism.  In the nineteenth century, for example, slavery was very real; it was one of the primary institutions of American culture.  But a reality check showed that it didn’t match American ideals, and so Americans abolished it.  In the twentieth century, chlorofluorocarbons made air conditioning a widespread reality.  But a reality check showed that they also obliterated the ozone layer, and so international treaties abolished the use of these chemicals.\n\nSometimes such idealism provides a useful reality check for the so-called “real world.”  In fact, one of the primary virtues of today\'s impractical idealists is to show the impracticality of the so-called “real world.”  In the real world of nineteen major industrial nations, for example, Americans are first in the world in greenhouse gas emissions, and first in contributing to acid rain; first in air pollutants per capita; first in forest depletion; first in paper consumption per capita; first in garbage per capita; first in hazardous waste per capita; first in gasoline consumption per capita, first in oil imports, and first in oil spills affecting our shores; first in TVs per capita; first in cars per capita, and first in use of cars instead of public transportation. Is that practical?  Is that realistic over the long haul?  How long can we live this reality?\n\nIn the real world of industrial nations, the United States is number one in infant mortality, number one in percentage of low birth-weight babies, number one in children and old people in poverty, number one in inequalities of wealth, number one in big homes and in homelessness, number one in credit cards and in private consumption, and number one in executive salaries and inequalities of pay. We\'re number one in time devoted to TV, and last in books published per capita. Is this practical?  Is this realistic?  Is this good?\n\nNo.   Environmentally, “the real world” is a disaster area.  Capitalism has always been a system of “creative destruction,” and it’s been an amazing catalyst for human imagination and inventiveness. But in our time, the destruction seems to be outpacing the creativity.  The “realism” of American capitalism is undermining the life systems of the planet.  The so-called realists have gotten us into real trouble.  And more “realism” is probably not the solution.\n\nIn this situation, the actual realists are America’s idealists—people who understand both the needs of human nature (as opposed to their desires) and the needs of the planet.  David Orr, author of <em>Ecological Literacy</em>, <em>Earth in Mind</em>, and <em>The Nature of Design</em>, contends that we\'re living in a time when altruism and necessity coincide--when the impractical idealists are the consummate practical realists.  And these new realists are telling the architects of “the real world” to “Get real!”\n\n<strong><em>Conclusion</em></strong>\n\nAll our talk about “the real world” is just that—talk.  It’s words and ideas.  But these words and ideas can affect our worlds and ideals.  They in-form our hearts and minds, our beliefs and behavior.  So it’s a good idea to understand the implications of this construction of “the real world.”\n\nIf we performed a reality check on “the real world,” we’d realize that it’s not as real as we thought—nor does it really encompass the whole world.  Our conventional definition of “the real world” omits too much reality.  As we’ve seen, our conventional definition of the real world omits many of the real wonders and pleasures of the people and places that surround us.\n\nAnother unreality of “the real world” is that it only includes the human world.  By any sensible standard, the real world is much bigger than human games or gains.  The real world is the biosphere, a delicate balance of organisms, fluids, solids, and gases that supports life.  And if the real-world activities of human beings threaten the web of life, then—quite simply—they’re not realistic.  While we’re at college, we may have minimal effects on the bottom line of business, but we have environmental impacts that are real and substantial.  And paying attention to campus ecology can remind us of that crucial reality.  “The real world,” as it happens, is just part of the world, and it’s manufactured every day by people like us.  So if we realized all the implications of our social construction of “the real world,” we might begin to <em>realize</em> alternative visions of reality.\n\nOne meaning of the word “realize” is “to comprehend completely or correctly.”  Comprehending “the real world” of American culture, we can see that it’s not reality, but a social construction of reality.  The predominant image of “the real world” is, happily, just a half-truth.  It’s true to some of our experience, but not to all of it.  It’s like Catch-22.  In Joseph Heller’s novel, Captain Yossarian is threatened by Catch-22, the simple proposition that “specified that a concern for one\'s safety . . . was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask, and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions.”  Ultimately, Yossarian discovers that “Catch-22 did not exist . . . but it made no difference.  What did matter is that everyone thought it existed, and that was much worse, for their was no object or text to ridicule or refute, to accuse, criticize, attack, amend, hate, revile, spit at, rip to shreds, trample upon or burn up.”  When something as arbitrary or unreasonable as Catch-22 or “the real world” becomes a part of the social construction of common sense, only uncommon sense can guide us back to reality.  When “the real world” results in real problems, sometimes the lofty perspectives of the ivory tower can offer a corrective to practical everyday life.<strong> </strong>\n\nA second meaning of “realize” is “to make real or actualize,” and the example given is “to realize an ideal.”  In the first definition, we get our thoughts in line with reality.  In the second instance, we get reality in line with our thoughts and ideals.  It’s this sort of realization that I’m most interested in.  It’s this sort of realization that’s possible on America’s college campuses.  Sometimes the practices of the ivory tower can offer important alternatives to practical everyday life.\n\nWe don’t just go into a real world that’s already made, but that we <em>make</em> the real world in our everyday lives.   We make it by our beliefs and behavior, by the way we act and the way we talk.  So we need to be careful what we do or say.  If we continue to talk about “the real world” as if it were somewhere else, we’re likely to miss the real world all around us.  If we continue to prepare to go out into “the real world,” we’ll be unprepared to affect the real world we inhabit now.  If we act like “Animal House,” the real world will be “animalistic.”  If we act like citizens, the real world will include the common good.  When we act on our ideals, we make them real.   As we learn an ethic of sustainability, and as we enact it, we can make a real world that’s really worth living in.\n\nThe real world <em>is</em> out there.  But it’s also in here, in our hearts and minds and souls.  It’s not just there in the business world; it’s in our families and neighborhoods, and it’s right here in our college classes and the cafeteria.  If we want real-world experience, we don’t have to get an internship.  We don’t have to move off campus.  David Orr contends that colleges are for designing minds, and for designing ideas and institutions that make it easier to be good for one another—and the whole creation.  He expects colleges to apply the theories they profess and to practice the values they preach right on their own campuses.  Orr agrees with John Dewey, who said that “education is not preparation for life.  Education is life itself.” So we can begin to realize our ideals <em>in the real world</em>, where we are right now.\n\n<hr size=\"1\" /><a href=\"#_ednref1\">[i]</a> Many students, of course, are working already, both on and off campus, so they’re gaining “real-world” experience.  But these part-time jobs—or even full-time jobs—don’t seem to affect the way they think about college and the “real world.”\n\n<a href=\"#_ednref2\">[ii]</a> In fact, we often seem to think that pain necessarily leads to gain.  The “spinach principle” of life, for example, suggests that if it tastes bad, it must be good for you, and conversely, if it’s pleasurable, it can’t be substantive.\n\n<a href=\"#_ednref3\">[iii]</a> Alex Kotlowitz, “False Connections,” in <em>Consuming Desires</em>, pp. 70-71.\n\n<a href=\"#_ednref4\">[iv]</a> Of course, there’s a lot of care and cooperation in business too, but within a “real world” worldview, you can’t talk about it.\n\n<a href=\"#_ednref5\">[v]</a> Thanks to Breanna Peterson for some of the insights in this paragraph.\n\n<a href=\"#_ednref6\">[vi]</a> Annie Dillard, <em>Pilgrim at Tinker Creek</em>, p. 9.','\"The Real World\"','','inherit','open','open','','173-revision','','','2010-11-22 19:29:44','2010-11-22 19:29:44','',173,'http://natureofcollege.org/2010/11/173-revision/',0,'revision','',0),(178,5,'2010-12-04 16:26:18','2010-12-04 16:26:18','We live <em>in designs</em> we don’t notice. We live in designs that don’t fulfill us or re-fill the planet. With our big brains and cultural heritage, we are designed <em>to design. </em>We can change “the good life” into a better life <em>by design</em>.  That’s the essential argument of David Orr’s provocative essay, <a href=\"http://www.stolaf.edu/green/words/essays/minds.html\">“Designing Minds,”</a> which contends that colleges should challenge students to understand the designs in their lives, and to create better designs—for artifacts, technologies, buildings, and product chains, as well as for our individual lives and institutional structures. In short, he suggests, culture is a human design, and because we’re humans, we can change it if we want to.\r\n\r\nUsually, when we think about designs, we think about professional designers—people like fashion designers or tech designers, web designers or visual artists. We think about expensive stuff, like designer jeans and architectural designs. We think about electronic attractions, like iPhones and iPods, custom cars and sleek notebook computers. But that’s just the surface of design. Right now, I’m sitting in several designs—in a chair in a room that’s designed to be an office, and that’s heated and cooled—by design.  My desk is littered with books and paper and pens and pencils—all designer goods because they’re designed. I woke up at 5:22, brushed my teeth, made some coffee, and booted up the computer—regular routines of the design I call my life. And I’m institutionally implicated—by design—with all of the companies that produced my stuff, with Google and Microsoft and Dakota Electric and Minnesota Power.\r\n\r\nWe make design choices all the time, usually without thinking about them. At the store, when I buy stuff, I’m endorsing the design of supermarkets or shopping malls, as well as the design of all the systems contrived to get distant stuff to me. At the car dealer, I opt for a well-designed car, but also for a transportation design that privileges cars and marginalizes mass transit. At the gas station, I tell BP and other corporations to keep designing deepwater drilling platforms.\r\n\r\nBut as David Orr suggests, we don’t have to accept the designs of the past. We can re-design our lives, and we can re-design the designs in our lives—architectural and technological, but also ideological and institutional. We can invent and implement designs—of stuff and infrastructure, but also of family and friendship and education and spirituality—that are kinder to human beings, to more-than-human beings, and to the planet we all inhabit.','Designing Minds','','publish','closed','closed','','designing-minds','','','2018-07-09 14:31:59','2018-07-09 19:31:59','',0,'http://natureofcollege.org/?p=178',0,'post','',0),(176,5,'2010-11-22 19:20:49','2010-11-22 19:20:49','College culture, students think, is not the real world. Over and over, they assert that they live in the [<em>insert the name of your college here</em>] “bubble,” segregated from the trials and tribulations of “the real world.”\r\n\r\nIs this true?\r\n\r\nDoes even it matter if students <em>think </em>it’s true? Sociologists speak about “the social construction of reality” and “the real world” seems to be one of those constructions. So what kind of cultural work does our common-sense conception “the real world” perform? What happens when students make a distinction between professors and real people? For answers, click the button below.\r\n\r\n[button]<a href=\"/the-real-world/\">Link to \"The Real World\"</a>[/button]','\"The Real World\"','','inherit','open','open','','159-revision-2','','','2010-11-22 19:20:49','2010-11-22 19:20:49','',159,'http://natureofcollege.org/2010/11/159-revision-2/',0,'revision','',0),(177,5,'2010-11-23 10:57:29','2010-11-23 10:57:29','College culture, students think, is not the real world. Over and over, they assert that they live in the [<em>insert the name of your college here</em>] “bubble,” segregated from the trials and tribulations of “the real world.”\n\nIs this true?\n\nDoes even it matter if students <em>think </em>it’s true? Sociologists speak about “the social construction of reality” and “the real world” seems to be one of those constructions. So what kind of cultural work does our common-sense conception “the real world” perform? What happens when students make a distinction between professors and real people? For answers, click the button below.\n\n[button]<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/essays/the-real-world/\">Link to \"The Real World\"</a>[/button]','\"The Real World\"','','inherit','open','open','','159-autosave','','','2010-11-23 10:57:29','2010-11-23 10:57:29','',159,'http://natureofcollege.org/2010/11/159-autosave/',0,'revision','',0),(179,5,'2010-12-04 16:24:36','2010-12-04 16:24:36','We live <em>in designs</em> we don’t notice. We live in designs that don’t fulfill us or re-fill the planet. With our big brains and cultural heritage, we are designed <em>to design. </em>We can change “the good life” into a better life <em>by design</em>.  That’s the essential argument of David Orr’s provocative essay, “Designing Minds,” which contends that colleges should challenge students to understand the designs in their lives, and to create better designs—for artifacts, technologies, buildings, and product chains, as well as for our individual lives and institutional structures. In short, he suggests, culture is a human design, and because we’re humans, we can change it if we want to.\n\nUsually, when we think about designs, we think about professional designers—people like fashion designers or tech designers, web designers or visual artists. We think about expensive stuff, like designer jeans and architectural designs. We think about electronic attractions, like iPhones and iPods, custom cars and sleek notebook computers. But that’s just the surface of design. Right now, I’m sitting in several designs—in a chair in a room that’s designed to be an office, and that’s heated and cooled—by design.  My desk is littered with books and paper and pens and pencils—all designer goods because they’re designed. I woke up at 5:22, brushed my teeth, made some coffee, and booted up the computer—regular routines of the design I call my life. And I’m institutionally implicated—by design—with all of the companies that produced my stuff, with Google and Microsoft and Dakota Electric and Minnesota Power.\n\nWe make design choices all the time, usually without thinking about them. At the store, when I buy stuff, I’m endorsing the design of supermarkets or shopping malls, as well as the design of all the systems contrived to get distant stuff to me. At the car dealer, I opt for a well-designed car, but also for a transportation design that privileges cars and marginalizes mass transit. At the gas station, I tell BP and other corporations to keep designing deepwater drilling platforms.\n\nBut as David Orr suggests, we don’t have to accept the designs of the past. We can re-design our lives, and we can re-design the designs in our lives—architectural and technological, but also ideological and institutional. We can invent and implement designs—of stuff and infrastructure, but also of family and friendship and education and spirituality—that are kinder to human beings, to more-than-human beings, and to the planet we all inhabit.','Designing Minds','','inherit','open','open','','178-revision','','','2010-12-04 16:24:36','2010-12-04 16:24:36','',178,'http://natureofcollege.org/2010/12/178-revision/',0,'revision','',0),(180,5,'2010-12-04 16:25:59','2010-12-04 16:25:59','We live <em>in designs</em> we don’t notice. We live in designs that don’t fulfill us or re-fill the planet. With our big brains and cultural heritage, we are designed <em>to design. </em>We can change “the good life” into a better life <em>by design</em>.  That’s the essential argument of David Orr’s provocative essay, <a href=\"http://www.stolaf.edu/green/words/essays/minds.html\">“Designing Minds,”</a> which contends that colleges should challenge students to understand the designs in their lives, and to create better designs—for artifacts, technologies, buildings, and product chains, as well as for our individual lives and institutional structures. In short, he suggests, culture is a human design, and because we’re humans, we can change it if we want to.\r\n\r\nUsually, when we think about designs, we think about professional designers—people like fashion designers or tech designers, web designers or visual artists. We think about expensive stuff, like designer jeans and architectural designs. We think about electronic attractions, like iPhones and iPods, custom cars and sleek notebook computers. But that’s just the surface of design. Right now, I’m sitting in several designs—in a chair in a room that’s designed to be an office, and that’s heated and cooled—by design.  My desk is littered with books and paper and pens and pencils—all designer goods because they’re designed. I woke up at 5:22, brushed my teeth, made some coffee, and booted up the computer—regular routines of the design I call my life. And I’m institutionally implicated—by design—with all of the companies that produced my stuff, with Google and Microsoft and Dakota Electric and Minnesota Power.\r\n\r\nWe make design choices all the time, usually without thinking about them. At the store, when I buy stuff, I’m endorsing the design of supermarkets or shopping malls, as well as the design of all the systems contrived to get distant stuff to me. At the car dealer, I opt for a well-designed car, but also for a transportation design that privileges cars and marginalizes mass transit. At the gas station, I tell BP and other corporations to keep designing deepwater drilling platforms.\r\n\r\nBut as David Orr suggests, we don’t have to accept the designs of the past. We can re-design our lives, and we can re-design the designs in our lives—architectural and technological, but also ideological and institutional. We can invent and implement designs—of stuff and infrastructure, but also of family and friendship and education and spirituality—that are kinder to human beings, to more-than-human beings, and to the planet we all inhabit.','Designing Minds','','inherit','open','open','','178-revision-2','','','2010-12-04 16:25:59','2010-12-04 16:25:59','',178,'http://natureofcollege.org/2010/12/178-revision-2/',0,'revision','',0),(181,5,'2010-12-04 16:27:24','2010-12-04 16:27:24','We live <em>in designs</em> we don’t notice. We live in designs that don’t fulfill us or re-fill the planet. With our big brains and cultural heritage, we are designed <em>to design. </em>We can change “the good life” into a better life <em>by design</em>.  That’s the essential argument of David Orr’s provocative essay, <a href=\"http://www.stolaf.edu/green/words/essays/minds.html\">“Designing Minds,”</a> which contends that colleges should challenge students to understand the designs in their lives, and to create better designs—for artifacts, technologies, buildings, and product chains, as well as for our individual lives and institutional structures. In short, he suggests, culture is a human design, and because we’re humans, we can change it if we want to.\n\nUsually, when we think about designs, we think about professional designers—people like fashion designers or tech designers, web designers or visual artists. We think about expensive stuff, like designer jeans and architectural designs. We think about electronic attractions, like iPhones and iPods, custom cars and sleek notebook computers. But that’s just the surface of design. Right now, I’m sitting in several designs—in a chair in a room that’s designed to be an office, and that’s heated and cooled—by design.  My desk is littered with books and paper and pens and pencils—all designer goods because they’re designed. I woke up at 5:22, brushed my teeth, made some coffee, and booted up the computer—regular routines of the design I call my life. And I’m institutionally implicated—by design—with all of the companies that produced my stuff, with Google and Microsoft and Dakota Electric and Minnesota Power.\n\nWe make design choices all the time, usually without thinking about them. At the store, when I buy stuff, I’m endorsing the design of supermarkets or shopping malls, as well as the design of all the systems contrived to get distant stuff to me. At the car dealer, I opt for a well-designed car, but also for a transportation design that privileges cars and marginalizes mass transit. At the gas station, I tell BP and other corporations to keep designing deepwater drilling platforms.\n\nBut as David Orr suggests, we don’t have to accept the designs of the past. We can re-design our lives, and we can re-design the designs in our lives—architectural and technological, but also ideological and institutional. We can invent and implement designs—of stuff and infrastructure, but also of family and friendship and education and spirituality—that are kinder to human beings, to more-than-human beings, and to the planet we all inhabit.','Designing Minds','','inherit','open','open','','178-autosave','','','2010-12-04 16:27:24','2010-12-04 16:27:24','',178,'http://natureofcollege.org/2010/12/178-autosave/',0,'revision','',0),(182,5,'2010-12-04 18:56:10','2010-12-04 18:56:10','One of the essential contentions of <em>The Nature of College</em> is that most of us don’t know what our environmental values really are. We think that environmental values are the ones that value the health of the environment, but we forget that all of our values have environmental implications, and that most of them aren’t necessarily healthy. As David Orr says, “All values are environmental values.” And as the chart on page 8 of <em>The Nature of College </em>suggests<em>, </em>the primary environmental values of college culture aren’t that good for the environment.\r\n\r\nDr. America has also contemplated the nature of our values, and the ways that our values affect nature, including human nature. In this set of essays, some of which appeared first in <em>Clergy Journal, </em>Dr. America explores some of the common-sense American environmental values, with sometimes surprising results.','American (Environmental) Values','','publish','closed','open','','american-environmental-values','','','2018-07-09 14:32:20','2018-07-09 19:32:20','',110,'http://natureofcollege.org/',0,'page','',0),(183,5,'2010-12-04 18:54:15','2010-12-04 18:54:15','One of the essential contentions of <em>The Nature of College</em> is that most of us don’t know what our environmental values really are. We think that environmental values are the ones that value the health of the environment, but we forget that all of our values have environmental implications, and that most of them aren’t necessarily healthy. As David Orr says, “All values are environmental values.” And as the chart on page xx of <em>The Nature of College </em>suggests<em>, </em>the primary environmental values of college culture aren’t that good for the environment.\n\nDr. America has also contemplated the nature of our values, and the ways that our values affect nature, including human nature. In this set of essays, Dr. America explores some of the common-sense American environmental values, with sometimes surprising results.','American (Environmental) Values','','inherit','open','open','','182-revision','','','2010-12-04 18:54:15','2010-12-04 18:54:15','',182,'http://natureofcollege.org/2010/12/182-revision/',0,'revision','',0),(184,5,'2010-12-04 19:12:19','2010-12-04 19:12:19','One of the essential contentions of <em>The Nature of College</em> is that most of us don’t know what our environmental values really are. We think that environmental values are the ones that value the health of the environment, but we forget that all of our values have environmental implications, and that most of them aren’t necessarily healthy. As David Orr says, “All values are environmental values.” And as the chart on page 8 of <em>The Nature of College </em>suggests<em>, </em>the primary environmental values of college culture aren’t that good for the environment.\n\nDr. America has also contemplated the nature of our values, and the ways that our values affect nature, including human nature. In this set of essays, some of which appeared first in <em>Clergy Journal, </em>Dr. America explores some of the common-sense American environmental values, with sometimes surprising results.','American (Environmental) Values','','inherit','open','open','','182-autosave','','','2010-12-04 19:12:19','2010-12-04 19:12:19','',182,'http://natureofcollege.org/2010/12/182-autosave/',0,'revision','',0),(185,5,'2010-12-04 19:00:29','2010-12-04 19:00:29','In all cultures and in most people, there’s a difference between expressed values and operative values.  Expressed values are the ones the come from our mouths and minds.  Operative values are the ones that are expressed by the rest of our bodies.  Expressed values are the ones we <em>have</em>—we always say that we <em>have </em>values (as if they were a commodity of some sort).  Operative values are the ones we <em>do</em>, the ones we put to work.  The word “operative” comes from the Latin “opus,” which means work.  So our operative values are our working values, the ones we’re actually living in our everyday lives.\r\n\r\nBecause operative values are operationalized, they can be observed.  We can see them in action (and in inaction, because some of our values require our passivity).  We can look at our actual behavior, and consider the implicit values of common sense.\r\n\r\nSo what are some of the operative values of American culture?  If an alien anthropologist arrived tomorrow, and didn’t know what we <em>say</em> about our values, what values would she see in our behavior?\r\n\r\nOne of the most important values in American culture is comfort.  Americans expect to be comfortable.  From the time that we’re born in the hospital and wrapped in blankets, and placed on a soft mattress in a climate-controlled room, we expect to be comfortable.  Except for the homeless, almost all Americans live in houses that are climate-controlled (and also controlling the future climate of the planet), we enjoy the “comforts of home.”  We go to sleep in our SelectComfort beds, and we wake up under a blanket called a comforter.  We sit in furniture crafted for our comfort, and we eat “comfort foods.”  We drive cars that keep us from the discomfort of powering our own mobility.  And we apparently will do what it takes—including altering the biosphere of our planet and driving other creatures to extinction—to stay comfortable.\r\n\r\nUsually, as Bill McKibben suggests in <em>The Age of Missing Information</em>, we don’t really value our comfort because we take it for granted.  Indeed, he suggests, our comfort causes us discomfort because it screens us from pleasure.  Comfort is a low-key, steady-state condition.  But people are animals designed for sensory stimulation, and comfort doesn’t do that too well.  Pleasure, McKibben suggests, comes from a high-intensity, immediate shift from a situation of discomfort to a situation of stimulus.  This is why a hot shower after a week of backpacking is more pleasurable than the same shower on a normal day.\r\n\r\nIn addition to physical comfort, we also expect to be socially comfortable.  We expect to get along and get ahead.  We want to be agreeable companions for the people around us, and that means we don’t want to cause or experience discomfort.  And that means, sadly, that we don’t talk about a lot of important issues. If we did, we might decide to redefine comfort with a value we might call “comfearth.”  Comfearth would be the quantity and quality of comfort that’s consistent with the comfort of a planet with a biosphere.  In the short run, we might have to wear more layers in the winter.  We might have to sweat in the summer.  We might have to use our legs for walking or biking.  We might need to pay more for more efficient houses and cars and appliances.  We might vote for a politicians who ask for sacrifice (a word well-known to religious people, but almost entirely absent from our political lexicon), and promise policies to enhance our comfearth.  We might lose some of our creature comforts, but in the long run, we might take more comfort in knowing that we can live harmoniously with the rest of Earth\'s creatures.','Comfort','','publish','closed','open','','comfort','','','2018-07-09 14:32:20','2018-07-09 19:32:20','',182,'http://natureofcollege.org/',0,'page','',1),(186,5,'2010-12-04 19:00:02','2010-12-04 19:00:02','','Comfort','','inherit','open','open','','185-revision','','','2010-12-04 19:00:02','2010-12-04 19:00:02','',185,'http://natureofcollege.org/2010/12/185-revision/',0,'revision','',0),(187,5,'2010-12-04 19:02:54','2010-12-04 19:02:54','In all cultures and in most people, there’s a difference between expressed values and operative values.  Expressed values are the ones the come from our mouths and minds.  Operative values are the ones that are expressed by the rest of our bodies.  Expressed values are the ones we <em>have</em>—we always say that we <em>have </em>values (as if they were a commodity of some sort).  Operative values are the ones we <em>do</em>, the ones we put to work.  The word “operative” comes from the Latin “opus,” which means work.  So our operative values are our working values, the ones we’re actually living in our everyday lives.\n\nBecause operative values are operationalized, they can be observed.  We can see them in action (and in inaction, because some of our values require our passivity).  We can look at our actual behavior, and consider the implicit values of common sense.\n\nSo what are some of the operative values of American culture?  If an alien anthropologist arrived tomorrow, and didn’t know what we <em>say</em> about our values, what values would she see in our behavior?\n\nOne of the most important values in American culture is comfort.  Americans expect to be comfortable.  From the time that we’re born in the hospital and wrapped in blankets, and placed on a soft mattress in a climate-controlled room, we expect to be comfortable.  Except for the homeless, almost all Americans live in houses that are climate-controlled (and also controlling the future climate of the planet), we enjoy the “comforts of home.”  We go to sleep in our SelectComfort beds, and we wake up under a blanket called a comforter.  We sit in furniture crafted for our comfort, and we eat “comfort foods.”  We drive cars that keep us from the discomfort of powering our own mobility.  And we apparently will do what it takes—including altering the biosphere of our planet and driving other creatures to extinction—to stay comfortable.\n\nUsually, as Bill McKibben suggests in <em>The Age of Missing Information</em>, we don’t really value our comfort because we take it for granted.  Indeed, he suggests, our comfort causes us discomfort because it screens us from pleasure.  Comfort is a low-key, steady-state condition.  But people are animals designed for sensory stimulation, and comfort doesn’t do that too well.  Pleasure, McKibben suggests, comes from a high-intensity, immediate shift from a situation of discomfort to a situation of stimulus.  This is why a hot shower after a week of backpacking is more pleasurable than the same shower on a normal day.\n\nIn addition to physical comfort, we also expect to be socially comfortable.  We expect to get along and get ahead.  We want to be agreeable companions for the people around us, and that means we don’t want to cause or experience discomfort.  And that means, sadly, that we don’t talk about a lot of important issues. If we did, we might decide to redefine comfort with a value we might call “comfearth.”  Comfearth would be the quantity and quality of comfort that’s consistent with the comfort of a planet with a biosphere.  In the short run, we might have to wear more layers in the winter.  We might have to sweat in the summer.  We might have to use our legs for walking or biking.  We might need to pay more for more efficient houses and cars and appliances.  We might vote for a politicians who ask for sacrifice (a word well-known to religious people, but almost entirely absent from our political lexicon), and promise policies to enhance our comfearth.  We might lose some of our creature comforts, but in the long run, we might take more comfort in knowing that we can live harmoniously with the rest of Earth\'s creatures.','Comfort','','inherit','open','open','','185-autosave','','','2010-12-04 19:02:54','2010-12-04 19:02:54','',185,'http://natureofcollege.org/2010/12/185-autosave/',0,'revision','',0),(188,5,'2010-12-04 19:00:29','2010-12-04 19:00:29','In all cultures and in most people, there’s a difference between expressed values and operative values.  Expressed values are the ones the come from our mouths and minds.  Operative values are the ones that are expressed by the rest of our bodies.  Expressed values are the ones we <em>have</em>—we always say that we <em>have </em>values (as if they were a commodity of some sort).  Operative values are the ones we <em>do</em>, the ones we put to work.  The word “operative” comes from the Latin “opus,” which means work.  So our operative values are our working values, the ones we’re actually living in our everyday lives.\r\n\r\nBecause operative values are operationalized, they can be observed.  We can see them in action (and in inaction, because some of our values require our passivity).  We can look at our actual behavior, and consider the implicit values of common sense.\r\n\r\nSo what are some of the operative values of American culture?  If an alien anthropologist arrived tomorrow, and didn’t know what we <em>say</em> about our values, what values would she see in our behavior?\r\n\r\nOne of the most important values in American culture is comfort.  Americans expect to be comfortable.  From the time that we’re born in the hospital and wrapped in blankets, and placed on a soft mattress in a climate-controlled room, we expect to be comfortable.  Except for the homeless, almost all Americans live in houses that are climate-controlled (and also controlling the future climate of the planet), we enjoy the “comforts of home.”  We go to sleep in our SelectComfort beds, and we wake up under a blanket called a comforter.  We sit in furniture crafted for our comfort, and we eat “comfort foods.”  We drive cars that keep us from the discomfort of powering our own mobility.  And we apparently will do what it takes—including altering the biosphere of our planet and driving other creatures to extinction—to stay comfortable.\r\n\r\nUsually, as Bill McKibben suggests in <em>The Age of Missing Information</em>, we don’t really value our comfort because we take it for granted.  Indeed, he suggests, our comfort causes us discomfort because it screens us from pleasure.  Comfort is a low-key, steady-state condition.  But people are animals designed for sensory stimulation, and comfort doesn’t do that too well.  Pleasure, McKibben suggests, comes from a high-intensity, immediate shift from a situation of discomfort to a situation of stimulus.  This is why a hot shower after a week of backpacking is more pleasurable than the same shower on a normal day.\r\n\r\nIn addition to physical comfort, we also expect to be socially comfortable.  We expect to get along and get ahead.  We want to be agreeable companions for the people around us, and that means we don’t want to cause or experience discomfort.  And that means, sadly, that we don’t talk about a lot of important issues. If we did, we might decide to redefine comfort with a value we might call “comfearth.”  Comfearth would be the quantity and quality of comfort that’s consistent with the comfort of a planet with a biosphere.  In the short run, we might have to wear more layers in the winter.  We might have to sweat in the summer.  We might have to use our legs for walking or biking.  We might need to pay more for more efficient houses and cars and appliances.  We might vote for a politicians who ask for sacrifice (a word well-known to religious people, but almost entirely absent from our political lexicon), and promise policies to enhance our comfearth.  We might lose some of our creature comforts, but in the long run, we might take more comfort in knowing that we can live harmoniously with the rest of God’s creation.','Comfort','','inherit','open','open','','185-revision-2','','','2010-12-04 19:00:29','2010-12-04 19:00:29','',185,'http://natureofcollege.org/2010/12/185-revision-2/',0,'revision','',0),(189,5,'2010-12-04 19:04:28','2010-12-04 19:04:28','If somebody asked Dr. America to name his deepest values, convenience wouldn’t even be on the list.  It’s not one of his expressed values at all.  But it is an operative value that runs deeper than most of the values he does avow.  In fact, convenience is a core American value, and one of our most important environmental values as well.  According to the dictionary, a convenience is something that increases comfort or decreases work.  It’s also something that saves time at work or elsewhere.  When Dr. and Mrs. America stop at “convenience stores,” we buy gas for the car that’s a convenience and we buy foods that are processed and packaged for quick and convenient consumption.\r\n\r\nThe value of convenience is related to two other American values, busyness and speed.  Americans are religious about busyness because, as we know, “an idle mind is the devil’s workshop.”  American business worships busyness too, and the recent trend of corporate downsizing means that fewer people are busily doing more work at the office.  To cope with the long-hour jobs imposed by our employers, we need to shorten hours elsewhere—and that’s what convenience is for.  Sadly, however, we’re not really saved by the time we save.\r\n\r\nSpeed is how we do more things in less time, even if the quality of our experience suffers.  Driven by the time pressures of our employers—or of advertisers promising to relieve our stress—we speed, for example, to America’s many fast-food franchises.  When we drive through the fast-food outlet—or even when we eat in—the fastness of the food is the mark of its convenience, but not its quality.  In most cases, we sacrifice the quality of cuisine to the pressures of time.  Instead of eating good food in good company, we conveniently consume our calories quickly.  In fact, researchers find that 19 percent of American meals are conveniently eaten in the car.\r\n\r\nConvenience is a way of saving time by spending money, and we do it all the time.  It’s a way of getting someone else to do our work for us.  Often, that someone else is a multinational corporation with international supply lines maintained by fossil fuels.  When we choose convenience, therefore, we generally elect the social (and environmental) values of corporate America.  We opt for industrial agriculture (with its immense environmental impacts, including erosion of the topsoil that supports life on earth).  We opt for time-saving devices cheaply made in China (with environmental impacts all along the supply chain).  We opt for cars instead of time-consuming public transit. Without intending to, we generally opt to use more natural resources minimize our time.  Saving time, therefore, does little to save the planet, and all of our conveniences add up to one big “inconvenient truth.”\r\n\r\nAs a substitute for convenience as a value, Americans might consider “timeliness.”  Instead of saving time, we might try to <em>savor</em> it.  Timeliness would mean spending more time on more important things, and less time on less important things.  It would mean having time for things that are now inconvenient—like family time, or slow food with friends, or time in nature, or time for the arts and culture, or even time to do a job right.  Timeliness would help us to calculate the cost of our <em>things</em> in terms of time, as Thoreau did.  “The cost of a thing,” he calculated, “is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.”  If we included the long run in our calculations of convenience, timeliness could keep us connected to future time too.  In a culture of timeliness, we would not consider ourselves “on time” unless we were making time for both present and future generations.  In farming, for example, we wouldn’t be on time unless we were making topsoil as fast as we use it.  Timeliness is not the same as time management, because time management represents the individualization of responsibility, only asking us to save time within the parameters of corporate culture.  Real timeliness would require <em>a politics of time</em>, in which Americans organized to set limits on the time that could be extracted from us at work.  We’ve done this before.  Organized in unions, American workers in the early 20<sup>th</sup> century organized politically for the 8-hour day that gave Americans leisure to actually enjoy their productivity and prosperity.\r\n\r\nNow, in the economic crisis of the early 20<sup>th</sup> century, many of us worry less about the time we spend at work, and more about whether there will be work for us at all.  But, as Rahm Emanuel says, a crisis should never go to waste.  It’s an opportunity for us to aim not just for economic recovery, but for the recovery of work that’s convenient for the whole creation and for the time that would make life really worth living.','Convenience','','publish','closed','open','','convenience','','','2018-07-09 14:32:20','2018-07-09 19:32:20','',182,'http://natureofcollege.org/',0,'page','',0),(190,5,'2010-12-04 19:04:06','2010-12-04 19:04:06','If somebody asked Dr. America to name his deepest values, convenience wouldn’t even be on the list.  It’s not one of his expressed values at all.  But it is an operative value that runs deeper than most of the values he does avow.  In fact, convenience is a core American value, and one of our most important environmental values as well.  According to the dictionary, a convenience is something that increases comfort or decreases work.  It’s also something that saves time at work or elsewhere.  When Dr. and Mrs. America stop at “convenience stores,” we buy gas for the car that’s a convenience and we buy foods that are processed and packaged for quick and convenient consumption.\n\nThe value of convenience is related to two other American values, busyness and speed.  Americans are religious about busyness because, as we know, “an idle mind is the devil’s workshop.”  American business worships busyness too, and the recent trend of corporate downsizing means that fewer people are busily doing more work at the office.  To cope with the long-hour jobs imposed by our employers, we need to shorten hours elsewhere—and that’s what convenience is for.  Sadly, however, we’re not really saved by the time we save.\n\nSpeed is how we do more things in less time, even if the quality of our experience suffers.  Driven by the time pressures of our employers—or of advertisers promising to relieve our stress—we speed, for example, to America’s many fast-food franchises.  When we drive through the fast-food outlet—or even when we eat in—the fastness of the food is the mark of its convenience, but not its quality.  In most cases, we sacrifice the quality of cuisine to the pressures of time.  Instead of eating good food in good company, we conveniently consume our calories quickly.  In fact, researchers find that 19 percent of American meals are conveniently eaten in the car.\n\nConvenience is a way of saving time by spending money, and we do it all the time.  It’s a way of getting someone else to do our work for us.  Often, that someone else is a multinational corporation with international supply lines maintained by fossil fuels.  When we choose convenience, therefore, we generally elect the social (and environmental) values of corporate America.  We opt for industrial agriculture (with its immense environmental impacts, including erosion of the topsoil that supports life on earth).  We opt for time-saving devices cheaply made in China (with environmental impacts all along the supply chain).  We opt for cars instead of time-consuming public transit. Without intending to, we generally opt to use more natural resources minimize our time.  Saving time, therefore, does little to save the planet, and all of our conveniences add up to one big “inconvenient truth.”\n\nAs a substitute for convenience as a value, Americans might consider “timeliness.”  Instead of saving time, we might try to <em>savor</em> it.  Timeliness would mean spending more time on more important things, and less time on less important things.  It would mean having time for things that are now inconvenient—like family time, or slow food with friends, or time in nature, or time for the arts and culture, or even time to do a job right.  Timeliness would help us to calculate the cost of our <em>things</em> in terms of time, as Thoreau did.  “The cost of a thing,” he calculated, “is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.”  If we included the long run in our calculations of convenience, timeliness could keep us connected to future time too.  In a culture of timeliness, we would not consider ourselves “on time” unless we were making time for both present and future generations.  In farming, for example, we wouldn’t be on time unless we were making topsoil as fast as we use it.  Timeliness is not the same as time management, because time management represents the individualization of responsibility, only asking us to save time within the parameters of corporate culture.  Real timeliness would require <em>a politics of time</em>, in which Americans organized to set limits on the time that could be extracted from us at work.  We’ve done this before.  Organized in unions, American workers in the early 20<sup>th</sup> century organized politically for the 8-hour day that gave Americans leisure to actually enjoy their productivity and prosperity.\n\nNow, in the economic crisis of the early 20<sup>th</sup> century, many of us worry less about the time we spend at work, and more about whether there will be work for us at all.  But, as Rahm Emanuel says, a crisis should never go to waste.  It’s an opportunity for us to aim not just for economic recovery, but for the recovery of work that’s convenient for God’s creation and for the time that would make life really worth living.','Convenience','','inherit','open','open','','189-revision','','','2010-12-04 19:04:06','2010-12-04 19:04:06','',189,'http://natureofcollege.org/2010/12/189-revision/',0,'revision','',0),(191,5,'2010-12-04 19:04:28','2010-12-04 19:04:28','If somebody asked Dr. America to name his deepest values, convenience wouldn’t even be on the list.  It’s not one of his expressed values at all.  But it is an operative value that runs deeper than most of the values he does avow.  In fact, convenience is a core American value, and one of our most important environmental values as well.  According to the dictionary, a convenience is something that increases comfort or decreases work.  It’s also something that saves time at work or elsewhere.  When Dr. and Mrs. America stop at “convenience stores,” we buy gas for the car that’s a convenience and we buy foods that are processed and packaged for quick and convenient consumption.\r\n\r\nThe value of convenience is related to two other American values, busyness and speed.  Americans are religious about busyness because, as we know, “an idle mind is the devil’s workshop.”  American business worships busyness too, and the recent trend of corporate downsizing means that fewer people are busily doing more work at the office.  To cope with the long-hour jobs imposed by our employers, we need to shorten hours elsewhere—and that’s what convenience is for.  Sadly, however, we’re not really saved by the time we save.\r\n\r\nSpeed is how we do more things in less time, even if the quality of our experience suffers.  Driven by the time pressures of our employers—or of advertisers promising to relieve our stress—we speed, for example, to America’s many fast-food franchises.  When we drive through the fast-food outlet—or even when we eat in—the fastness of the food is the mark of its convenience, but not its quality.  In most cases, we sacrifice the quality of cuisine to the pressures of time.  Instead of eating good food in good company, we conveniently consume our calories quickly.  In fact, researchers find that 19 percent of American meals are conveniently eaten in the car.\r\n\r\nConvenience is a way of saving time by spending money, and we do it all the time.  It’s a way of getting someone else to do our work for us.  Often, that someone else is a multinational corporation with international supply lines maintained by fossil fuels.  When we choose convenience, therefore, we generally elect the social (and environmental) values of corporate America.  We opt for industrial agriculture (with its immense environmental impacts, including erosion of the topsoil that supports life on earth).  We opt for time-saving devices cheaply made in China (with environmental impacts all along the supply chain).  We opt for cars instead of time-consuming public transit. Without intending to, we generally opt to use more natural resources minimize our time.  Saving time, therefore, does little to save the planet, and all of our conveniences add up to one big “inconvenient truth.”\r\n\r\nAs a substitute for convenience as a value, Americans might consider “timeliness.”  Instead of saving time, we might try to <em>savor</em> it.  Timeliness would mean spending more time on more important things, and less time on less important things.  It would mean having time for things that are now inconvenient—like family time, or slow food with friends, or time in nature, or time for the arts and culture, or even time to do a job right.  Timeliness would help us to calculate the cost of our <em>things</em> in terms of time, as Thoreau did.  “The cost of a thing,” he calculated, “is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.”  If we included the long run in our calculations of convenience, timeliness could keep us connected to future time too.  In a culture of timeliness, we would not consider ourselves “on time” unless we were making time for both present and future generations.  In farming, for example, we wouldn’t be on time unless we were making topsoil as fast as we use it.  Timeliness is not the same as time management, because time management represents the individualization of responsibility, only asking us to save time within the parameters of corporate culture.  Real timeliness would require <em>a politics of time</em>, in which Americans organized to set limits on the time that could be extracted from us at work.  We’ve done this before.  Organized in unions, American workers in the early 20<sup>th</sup> century organized politically for the 8-hour day that gave Americans leisure to actually enjoy their productivity and prosperity.\r\n\r\nNow, in the economic crisis of the early 20<sup>th</sup> century, many of us worry less about the time we spend at work, and more about whether there will be work for us at all.  But, as Rahm Emanuel says, a crisis should never go to waste.  It’s an opportunity for us to aim not just for economic recovery, but for the recovery of work that’s convenient for the whole creation and for the time that would make life really worth living.','Convenience','','inherit','open','open','','189-revision-2','','','2010-12-04 19:04:28','2010-12-04 19:04:28','',189,'http://natureofcollege.org/2010/12/189-revision-2/',0,'revision','',0),(192,5,'2010-12-04 19:05:45','2010-12-04 19:05:45','If somebody asked Dr. America to name his deepest values, convenience wouldn’t even be on the list.  It’s not one of his expressed values at all.  But it is an operative value that runs deeper than most of the values he does avow.  In fact, convenience is a core American value, and one of our most important environmental values as well.  According to the dictionary, a convenience is something that increases comfort or decreases work.  It’s also something that saves time at work or elsewhere.  When Dr. and Mrs. America stop at “convenience stores,” we buy gas for the car that’s a convenience and we buy foods that are processed and packaged for quick and convenient consumption.\n\nThe value of convenience is related to two other American values, busyness and speed.  Americans are religious about busyness because, as we know, “an idle mind is the devil’s workshop.”  American business worships busyness too, and the recent trend of corporate downsizing means that fewer people are busily doing more work at the office.  To cope with the long-hour jobs imposed by our employers, we need to shorten hours elsewhere—and that’s what convenience is for.  Sadly, however, we’re not really saved by the time we save.\n\nSpeed is how we do more things in less time, even if the quality of our experience suffers.  Driven by the time pressures of our employers—or of advertisers promising to relieve our stress—we speed, for example, to America’s many fast-food franchises.  When we drive through the fast-food outlet—or even when we eat in—the fastness of the food is the mark of its convenience, but not its quality.  In most cases, we sacrifice the quality of cuisine to the pressures of time.  Instead of eating good food in good company, we conveniently consume our calories quickly.  In fact, researchers find that 19 percent of American meals are conveniently eaten in the car.\n\nConvenience is a way of saving time by spending money, and we do it all the time.  It’s a way of getting someone else to do our work for us.  Often, that someone else is a multinational corporation with international supply lines maintained by fossil fuels.  When we choose convenience, therefore, we generally elect the social (and environmental) values of corporate America.  We opt for industrial agriculture (with its immense environmental impacts, including erosion of the topsoil that supports life on earth).  We opt for time-saving devices cheaply made in China (with environmental impacts all along the supply chain).  We opt for cars instead of time-consuming public transit. Without intending to, we generally opt to use more natural resources minimize our time.  Saving time, therefore, does little to save the planet, and all of our conveniences add up to one big “inconvenient truth.”\n\nAs a substitute for convenience as a value, Americans might consider “timeliness.”  Instead of saving time, we might try to <em>savor</em> it.  Timeliness would mean spending more time on more important things, and less time on less important things.  It would mean having time for things that are now inconvenient—like family time, or slow food with friends, or time in nature, or time for the arts and culture, or even time to do a job right.  Timeliness would help us to calculate the cost of our <em>things</em> in terms of time, as Thoreau did.  “The cost of a thing,” he calculated, “is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.”  If we included the long run in our calculations of convenience, timeliness could keep us connected to future time too.  In a culture of timeliness, we would not consider ourselves “on time” unless we were making time for both present and future generations.  In farming, for example, we wouldn’t be on time unless we were making topsoil as fast as we use it.  Timeliness is not the same as time management, because time management represents the individualization of responsibility, only asking us to save time within the parameters of corporate culture.  Real timeliness would require <em>a politics of time</em>, in which Americans organized to set limits on the time that could be extracted from us at work.  We’ve done this before.  Organized in unions, American workers in the early 20<sup>th</sup> century organized politically for the 8-hour day that gave Americans leisure to actually enjoy their productivity and prosperity.\n\nNow, in the economic crisis of the early 20<sup>th</sup> century, many of us worry less about the time we spend at work, and more about whether there will be work for us at all.  But, as Rahm Emanuel says, a crisis should never go to waste.  It’s an opportunity for us to aim not just for economic recovery, but for the recovery of work that’s convenient for the whole creation and for the time that would make life really worth living.','Convenience','','inherit','open','open','','189-autosave','','','2010-12-04 19:05:45','2010-12-04 19:05:45','',189,'http://natureofcollege.org/2010/12/189-autosave/',0,'revision','',0),(193,5,'2010-12-04 19:07:08','2010-12-04 19:07:08','Cheapness is an essential value of Americans and, therefore, it’s also one of our most important environmental values.  How we price the world, assigning value to resources (natural and human), affects our environmental impacts immeasurably.\r\n\r\nIn a materialistic culture like ours, we like stuff, and we can buy more stuff if it’s cheap.  So we’re very conscious of price: we love bargains and we love to get things “on sale.”  To some extent, this is a good thing.  As Daniel Miller says, it’s part of “making love in supermarkets,” the way we love our families by making our money stretch.\r\n\r\nBut our price fixation helps us forget about cost—the real cost, social and environmental and spiritual, of the cheap stuff we buy.  In Wal-Mart America, when we mindlessly prefer low, low prices to high, high standards, we buy into a world that devalues God’s creation, a world that exploits people in other countries, pollutes the air and the countryside, and ravages the earth for raw materials. In the long run, our cheap stuff can be really expensive.  Twenty years from now, in a time of intense global weirding, today’s two-dollar T-shirt won’t seem like such a good bargain.\r\n\r\nCheapness can have spiritual costs as well, both because it affects our sense of human being, and because it affects our stewardship of God’s creation.  Sometimes our consumer choices actually change who we are, warping our personalities to conform to our purchasing preferences.  When this happens, our cheap purchases have a potential not only to satisfy our preferences, but to <em>transform </em>our preferences, so that we gradually find ourselves becoming persons we never wanted to be—people who can be satisfied by cheap stuff and easy pleasures, and who won’t strive for more substantial satisfactions.  We generally think of consumption as what we get, but sometimes a consumer mentality gets us.  And when that happens, God’s creation groans, because cheap prices are a spur to increased consumption, which ransacks ecosystems for the resources that go into our clothes and cars and food and fantasies.\r\n\r\nWhen we opt for cheap stuff, we often overlook more conscientious possibilities.  To replace the value of cheapness, therefore, we might consider the value of value itself.  In a culture of consumption, we already talk about a good value.  But in a culture of conscience, a good value would mean more than mere cheapness.  A good value would be one that reinforced the values we really care about.  A good value would add value—and not just money—to the lives of the people who produced it.  And it would add value to the ecosystems that provided the energy and materials to produce the product.  A good value would help us sustain the natural systems that are, as God said in Genesis, “very good.”','Cheapness','','publish','closed','open','','cheapness','','','2018-07-09 14:32:20','2018-07-09 19:32:20','',182,'http://natureofcollege.org/',0,'page','',0),(194,5,'2010-12-04 19:06:29','2010-12-04 19:06:29','','Cheapness','','inherit','open','open','','193-revision','','','2010-12-04 19:06:29','2010-12-04 19:06:29','',193,'http://natureofcollege.org/2010/12/193-revision/',0,'revision','',0),(195,5,'2010-12-04 19:09:55','2010-12-04 19:09:55','One of America’s most important environmental values is ignorance. Even though we routinely send our kids to public schools and to college, Americans seem to value ignorance, in three ways.  First is the ignorance of not knowing much.  Because of our values of comfort and convenience, and because we box ourselves in the great indoors, most of us don’t know much about nature.  We study biology in school, but it doesn’t actually inform our relationships with the biosphere.  We learn a little chemistry in classes, but it doesn’t keep us from the proliferation of toxic chemicals in our air and water, and eventually in ourselves.\r\n\r\nWe also value a second form of ignorance, knowing a lot about a little.  In a culture of specialization, many of us learn a lot about the stuff that helps us make a living, at the cost of learning about the stuff that helps us make a life, or about the stuff that would help us sustain the teeming life of the planet.  We’re good members of the professional associations of doctors and lawyers, professors and accountants, plumbers and carpenters, but we’re not very good members of the ecological community because it doesn’t pay to think about those issues.\r\n\r\nThe third kind of American ignorance is intentional.  It’s when we know something, and actively choose to ignore it.  Global weirding is a good example.  We know it’s happening—although most of us are ignorant about the precise processes—but we’d rather ignore it, because it is, as Al Gore says, an <em>inconvenient</em> truth.  For the sake of comfort and convenience—values we’ve already discussed—we ignore the evidence that our lifestyles demand a new kind of care for creation.\r\n\r\nA culture’s common knowledge is a mark of its priorities, and American common knowledge is no exception.  As Alan Durning says in his book <em>This Place on Earth</em>, \"we are a heavily schooled bunch—which is not to say we are truly educated. Like most [Americans], we are better trained in consumption than in nature.  We can confidently navigate any shopping center in the bioregion, but can still name few of the local plants and animals.\"  Or as David Orr suggests, Americans are a people who know the price of everything but the cost of nothing.”  We know the price of gas, but we don’t know—or don’t care—about the real costs of driving our cars 6 trillion miles a year.  We know what we can afford, but we don’t know whether the planet can afford what we can afford.  In terms of common knowledge and the care of the planet, we are more ignorant than almost any human beings in history.  We live in an information age, but it hasn’t done much to make us wiser.\r\n\r\nMost people think that the remedy for ignorance is information, and it is—but not in the way we normally think.  Mere knowledge is not enough because it’s inert; it doesn’t do anything.  What we need is information that in-forms us, that forms us within, that reaches our hearts as well as our heads.  For that, we need a different notion of knowing, a sense that we don’t really know something until we live it (or love it).  And that requires a virtue that’s as old as all religion, compassion.  When we approach the news of the day (even the bad news) with a heart open to fellow-feeling, including a fellowship with other creatures in Creation, then we’ll understand ignorance not just as a failure of mind or will, but as a failure of imagination.  And we’ll see that we can’t be ignorant without violating God’s call to stewardship, because knowing the other is the first step to genuine care.','Ignorance','','publish','closed','open','','ignorance','','','2018-07-09 14:32:20','2018-07-09 19:32:20','',182,'http://natureofcollege.org/',0,'page','',0),(196,5,'2010-12-04 19:09:05','2010-12-04 19:09:05','One of America’s most important environmental values is ignorance. Even though we routinely send our kids to public schools and to college, Americans seem to value ignorance, in three ways.  First is the ignorance of not knowing much.  Because of our values of comfort and convenience, and because we box ourselves in the great indoors, most of us don’t know much about nature.  We study biology in school, but it doesn’t actually inform our relationships with the biosphere.  We learn a little chemistry in classes, but it doesn’t keep us from the proliferation of toxic chemicals in our air and water, and eventually in ourselves.\n\nWe also value a second form of ignorance, knowing a lot about a little.  In a culture of specialization, many of us learn a lot about the stuff that helps us make a living, at the cost of learning about the stuff that helps us make a life, or about the stuff that would help us sustain the teeming life of the planet.  We’re good members of the professional associations of doctors and lawyers, professors and accountants, plumbers and carpenters, but we’re not very good members of the ecological community because it doesn’t pay to think about those issues.\n\nThe third kind of American ignorance is intentional.  It’s when we know something, and actively choose to ignore it.  Global weirding is a good example.  We know it’s happening—although most of us are ignorant about the precise processes—but we’d rather ignore it, because it is, as Al Gore says, an <em>inconvenient</em> truth.  For the sake of comfort and convenience—values we’ve already discussed—we ignore the evidence that our lifestyles demand a new kind of care for creation.\n\nA culture’s common knowledge is a mark of its priorities, and American common knowledge is no exception.  As Alan Durning says in his book <em>This Place on Earth</em>, \"we are a heavily schooled bunch—which is not to say we are truly educated. Like most [Americans], we are better trained in consumption than in nature.  We can confidently navigate any shopping center in the bioregion, but can still name few of the local plants and animals.\"  Or as David Orr suggests, Americans are a people who know the price of everything but the cost of nothing.”  We know the price of gas, but we don’t know—or don’t care—about the real costs of driving our cars 6 trillion miles a year.  We know what we can afford, but we don’t know whether the planet can afford what we can afford.  In terms of common knowledge and the care of the planet, we are more ignorant than almost any human beings in history.  We live in an information age, but it hasn’t done much to make us wiser.\n\nMost people think that the remedy for ignorance is information, and it is—but not in the way we normally think.  Mere knowledge is not enough because it’s inert; it doesn’t do anything.  What we need is information that in-forms us, that forms us within, that reaches our hearts as well as our heads.  For that, we need a different notion of knowing, a sense that we don’t really know something until we live it (or love it).  And that requires a virtue that’s as old as all religion, compassion.  When we approach the news of the day (even the bad news) with a heart open to fellow-feeling, including a fellowship with other creatures in Creation, then we’ll understand ignorance not just as a failure of mind or will, but as a failure of imagination.  And we’ll see that we can’t be ignorant without violating God’s call to stewardship, because knowing the other is the first step to genuine care.','Ignorance','','inherit','open','open','','195-revision','','','2010-12-04 19:09:05','2010-12-04 19:09:05','',195,'http://natureofcollege.org/2010/12/195-revision/',0,'revision','',0),(197,5,'2010-12-04 18:56:10','2010-12-04 18:56:10','One of the essential contentions of <em>The Nature of College</em> is that most of us don’t know what our environmental values really are. We think that environmental values are the ones that value the health of the environment, but we forget that all of our values have environmental implications, and that most of them aren’t necessarily healthy. As David Orr says, “All values are environmental values.” And as the chart on page 8 of <em>The Nature of College </em>suggests<em>, </em>the primary environmental values of college culture aren’t that good for the environment.\r\n\r\nDr. America has also contemplated the nature of our values, and the ways that our values affect nature, including human nature. In this set of essays, Dr. America explores some of the common-sense American environmental values, with sometimes surprising results.','American (Environmental) Values','','inherit','open','open','','182-revision-2','','','2010-12-04 18:56:10','2010-12-04 18:56:10','',182,'http://natureofcollege.org/2010/12/182-revision-2/',0,'revision','',0),(198,5,'2010-12-04 19:10:52','2010-12-04 19:10:52','One of the essential contentions of <em>The Nature of College</em> is that most of us don’t know what our environmental values really are. We think that environmental values are the ones that value the health of the environment, but we forget that all of our values have environmental implications, and that most of them aren’t necessarily healthy. As David Orr says, “All values are environmental values.” And as the chart on page 8 of <em>The Nature of College </em>suggests<em>, </em>the primary environmental values of college culture aren’t that good for the environment.\r\n\r\nDr. America has also contemplated the nature of our values, and the ways that our values affect nature, including human nature. In this set of essays, some of which appeared in <em>Clergy Journal, </em>Dr. America explores some of the common-sense American environmental values, with sometimes surprising results.','American (Environmental) Values','','inherit','open','open','','182-revision-3','','','2010-12-04 19:10:52','2010-12-04 19:10:52','',182,'http://natureofcollege.org/2010/12/182-revision-3/',0,'revision','',0),(199,5,'2010-12-04 19:14:59','2010-12-04 19:14:59','In an earlier age, Americans might have been known for the endurance, their persistence in pursuing happiness or the public good.  These days, however, indoorness has become one of our most enduring environmental values.  Even though most Americans regularly express our love for the great outdoors, we spend almost all our time in the great indoors.  This is absolutely unprecedented in human history.  Most people in the world have lived in shelters, but they almost always worked and played outside. On the average, Americans endure more than 90 percent of our lives inside.  We live in the “little boxes” called single-family homes (although many of them now are quite large), and we drive little boxes to and from our cubicle boxes at work.  We watch a box in the living room, which helps establish a box in the brain.  And we stay “connected,” as we put it, by watching the screens of other boxes and electronic devices and fiddling with buttons.  Sometimes, we <em>play </em>outside, but most of our time outside is just going from one inside to another.\r\n\r\nWe even bring the outside in.  The best example of this—or the worst, depending on your point of view—was THE AMERICAN WILDERNESS EXPERIENCE in the Ontario Mills shopping center in California.  Outside the mall, signs beckoned visitors to “Come inside the Great Outdoors” and the brochure for the attraction invited shoppers \"go wild in the mall!\"  There, after a simulator ride that let customers experience the world from the point of view of a fish, an eagle, and a cougar, visitors could enter five \"indoor recreations of . . . natural ecosystems.\"  In the first one, the Redwood  Forest, \"the spirit of the wilderness\"—a hologram that looked a good deal like John Muir—tells us \"there\'s nothing like the wilderness to calm your soul.\"  Within minutes, visitors could also \"trek the high Sierras,\" \"explore the harsh [Mojave] desert,\" \"stroll along the Pacific shore,\" and \"venture into Yosemite Valley\" by looking at animals displayed in small dioramas painted to evoke the sublimity of nature.  Ironically, three of these five indoor ecosystems were located within an hour’s drive of the mall\'s simulations.  And thankfully, the attraction didn’t generate enough traffic to stay in business.\r\n\r\nMore commonly, we bring nature inside as pets and houseplants, where, for once, we serve nature’s needs.  In evolutionary terms, dogs and cats (and other denizens of the household menagerie) are outdoor animals, designed to hunt for their food and survival.  But we’ve domesticated them, and brought them into our territory, the great indoors.  At the same time, we’ve domesticated ourselves, training ourselves to take care of this nature we love.  We feed them kibbles and bits, tempt them with toys, and pamper them like royalty.  If we cared for all of creation the way we care for pets, we might not be in the fix we’re in.\r\n\r\nBut on the whole, our affection for our pets doesn’t transfer to other species.  American indoor-ance begets ignorance of the millions of species that don’t grow indoors, the plants and animals that aren’t houseplants or pets or household pests.  Many of Dr. America’s students don’t even know the seasonality of foods.  Compared to our ancestors, most of them farmers, we are idiots about the natural life around us because it doesn’t seem to matter in the same way.  Ironically, however, now it matters even more than ever before.  What modern men and women do indoors—especially the burning of fossil fuels for indoor climate control—has more effect on the outdoors than most of the things people actually do outside.  Indoor living is, oddly enough, a threat to life outside our doors.\r\n\r\nIn some ways, therefore, we’re a culture that needs to turn things inside out—at least metaphorically.  We need to note the indoorness of our lives, and its environmental impacts.  We need to live inside our places with a window open to the other places on the planet.  And, more radically, we need to experience nature on nature’s terms, and not just in the controlled environments of what we quaintly call the developed world.\r\n\r\nOne guide for such a transformation is the Bible, the most popular book about outdoor life in the history of the world.  The Bible begins in a garden, and it’s full of plants and animals (including people), and mountains and rivers and deserts.  The people of the Bible aren’t exactly environmentalists, but they understand the gift of good land and the promise of the land.  From the very beginning, they have a sense of stewardship that flows from an understanding of interdependence.  When the deluge begins, therefore, Noah doesn’t just build a boat for his family.  He builds an ark for all creation, which is one way of seeing the human project now.  As our indoorness threatens the survival of creation, we need to redesign our lives to be regenerative, so that the bountiful biodiversity of God’s gracious creation can thrive on Planet Ark.','Indoorness','','publish','closed','open','','indoorness','','','2018-07-09 14:32:20','2018-07-09 19:32:20','',182,'http://natureofcollege.org/',0,'page','',0),(200,5,'2010-12-04 19:14:29','2010-12-04 19:14:29','In an earlier age, Americans might have been known for the endurance, their persistence in pursuing happiness or the public good.  These days, however, indoorness has become one of our most enduring environmental values.  Even though most Americans regularly express our love for the great outdoors, we spend almost all our time in the great indoors.  This is absolutely unprecedented in human history.  Most people in the world have lived in shelters, but they almost always worked and played outside. On the average, Americans endure more than 90 percent of our lives inside.  We live in the “little boxes” called single-family homes (although many of them now are quite large), and we drive little boxes to and from our cubicle boxes at work.  We watch a box in the living room, which helps establish a box in the brain.  And we stay “connected,” as we put it, by watching the screens of other boxes and electronic devices and fiddling with buttons.  Sometimes, we <em>play </em>outside, but most of our time outside is just going from one inside to another.\n\nWe even bring the outside in.  The best example of this—or the worst, depending on your point of view—was THE AMERICAN WILDERNESS EXPERIENCE in the Ontario Mills shopping center in California.  Outside the mall, signs beckoned visitors to “Come inside the Great Outdoors” and the brochure for the attraction invited shoppers \"go wild in the mall!\"  There, after a simulator ride that let customers experience the world from the point of view of a fish, an eagle, and a cougar, visitors could enter five \"indoor recreations of . . . natural ecosystems.\"  In the first one, the Redwood  Forest, \"the spirit of the wilderness\"—a hologram that looked a good deal like John Muir—tells us \"there\'s nothing like the wilderness to calm your soul.\"  Within minutes, visitors could also \"trek the high Sierras,\" \"explore the harsh [Mojave] desert,\" \"stroll along the Pacific shore,\" and \"venture into Yosemite Valley\" by looking at animals displayed in small dioramas painted to evoke the sublimity of nature.  Ironically, three of these five indoor ecosystems were located within an hour’s drive of the mall\'s simulations.  And thankfully, the attraction didn’t generate enough traffic to stay in business.\n\nMore commonly, we bring nature inside as pets and houseplants, where, for once, we serve nature’s needs.  In evolutionary terms, dogs and cats (and other denizens of the household menagerie) are outdoor animals, designed to hunt for their food and survival.  But we’ve domesticated them, and brought them into our territory, the great indoors.  At the same time, we’ve domesticated ourselves, training ourselves to take care of this nature we love.  We feed them kibbles and bits, tempt them with toys, and pamper them like royalty.  If we cared for all of creation the way we care for pets, we might not be in the fix we’re in.\n\nBut on the whole, our affection for our pets doesn’t transfer to other species.  American indoor-ance begets ignorance of the millions of species that don’t grow indoors, the plants and animals that aren’t houseplants or pets or household pests.  Many of Dr. America’s students don’t even know the seasonality of foods.  Compared to our ancestors, most of them farmers, we are idiots about the natural life around us because it doesn’t seem to matter in the same way.  Ironically, however, now it matters even more than ever before.  What modern men and women do indoors—especially the burning of fossil fuels for indoor climate control—has more effect on the outdoors than most of the things people actually do outside.  Indoor living is, oddly enough, a threat to life outside our doors.\n\nIn some ways, therefore, we’re a culture that needs to turn things inside out—at least metaphorically.  We need to note the indoorness of our lives, and its environmental impacts.  We need to live inside our places with a window open to the other places on the planet.  And, more radically, we need to experience nature on nature’s terms, and not just in the controlled environments of what we quaintly call the developed world.\n\nOne guide for such a transformation is the Bible, the most popular book about outdoor life in the history of the world.  The Bible begins in a garden, and it’s full of plants and animals (including people), and mountains and rivers and deserts.  The people of the Bible aren’t exactly environmentalists, but they understand the gift of good land and the promise of the land.  From the very beginning, they have a sense of stewardship that flows from an understanding of interdependence.  When the deluge begins, therefore, Noah doesn’t just build a boat for his family.  He builds an ark for all creation, which is one way of seeing the human project now.  As our indoorness threatens the survival of creation, we need to redesign our lives to be regenerative, so that the bountiful biodiversity of God’s gracious creation can thrive on Planet Ark.','Indoorness','','inherit','open','open','','199-revision','','','2010-12-04 19:14:29','2010-12-04 19:14:29','',199,'http://natureofcollege.org/2010/12/199-revision/',0,'revision','',0),(201,5,'2010-12-04 19:14:59','2010-12-04 19:14:59','In an earlier age, Americans might have been known for the endurance, their persistence in pursuing happiness or the public good.  These days, however, indoorness has become one of our most enduring environmental values.  Even though most Americans regularly express our love for the great outdoors, we spend almost all our time in the great indoors.  This is absolutely unprecedented in human history.  Most people in the world have lived in shelters, but they almost always worked and played outside. On the average, Americans endure more than 90 percent of our lives inside.  We live in the “little boxes” called single-family homes (although many of them now are quite large), and we drive little boxes to and from our cubicle boxes at work.  We watch a box in the living room, which helps establish a box in the brain.  And we stay “connected,” as we put it, by watching the screens of other boxes and electronic devices and fiddling with buttons.  Sometimes, we <em>play </em>outside, but most of our time outside is just going from one inside to another.\r\n\r\nWe even bring the outside in.  The best example of this—or the worst, depending on your point of view—was THE AMERICAN WILDERNESS EXPERIENCE in the Ontario Mills shopping center in California.  Outside the mall, signs beckoned visitors to “Come inside the Great Outdoors” and the brochure for the attraction invited shoppers \"go wild in the mall!\"  There, after a simulator ride that let customers experience the world from the point of view of a fish, an eagle, and a cougar, visitors could enter five \"indoor recreations of . . . natural ecosystems.\"  In the first one, the Redwood  Forest, \"the spirit of the wilderness\"—a hologram that looked a good deal like John Muir—tells us \"there\'s nothing like the wilderness to calm your soul.\"  Within minutes, visitors could also \"trek the high Sierras,\" \"explore the harsh [Mojave] desert,\" \"stroll along the Pacific shore,\" and \"venture into Yosemite Valley\" by looking at animals displayed in small dioramas painted to evoke the sublimity of nature.  Ironically, three of these five indoor ecosystems were located within an hour’s drive of the mall\'s simulations.  And thankfully, the attraction didn’t generate enough traffic to stay in business.\r\n\r\nMore commonly, we bring nature inside as pets and houseplants, where, for once, we serve nature’s needs.  In evolutionary terms, dogs and cats (and other denizens of the household menagerie) are outdoor animals, designed to hunt for their food and survival.  But we’ve domesticated them, and brought them into our territory, the great indoors.  At the same time, we’ve domesticated ourselves, training ourselves to take care of this nature we love.  We feed them kibbles and bits, tempt them with toys, and pamper them like royalty.  If we cared for all of creation the way we care for pets, we might not be in the fix we’re in.\r\n\r\nBut on the whole, our affection for our pets doesn’t transfer to other species.  American indoor-ance begets ignorance of the millions of species that don’t grow indoors, the plants and animals that aren’t houseplants or pets or household pests.  Many of Dr. America’s students don’t even know the seasonality of foods.  Compared to our ancestors, most of them farmers, we are idiots about the natural life around us because it doesn’t seem to matter in the same way.  Ironically, however, now it matters even more than ever before.  What modern men and women do indoors—especially the burning of fossil fuels for indoor climate control—has more effect on the outdoors than most of the things people actually do outside.  Indoor living is, oddly enough, a threat to life outside our doors.\r\n\r\nIn some ways, therefore, we’re a culture that needs to turn things inside out—at least metaphorically.  We need to note the indoorness of our lives, and its environmental impacts.  We need to live inside our places with a window open to the other places on the planet.  And, more radically, we need to experience nature on nature’s terms, and not just in the controlled environments of what we quaintly call the developed world.\r\n\r\nOne guide for such a transformation is the Bible, the most popular book about outdoor life in the history of the world.  The Bible begins in a garden, and it’s full of plants and animals (including people), and mountains and rivers and deserts.  The people of the Bible aren’t exactly environmentalists, but they understand the gift of good land and the promise of the land.  From the very beginning, they have a sense of stewardship that flows from an understanding of interdependence.  When the deluge begins, therefore, Noah doesn’t just build a boat for his family.  He builds an ark for all creation, which is one way of seeing the human project now.  As our indoorness threatens the survival of creation, we need to redesign our lives to be regenerative, so that the bountiful biodiversity of God’s gracious creation can thrive on Planet Ark.','Indoorness','','inherit','open','open','','199-revision-2','','','2010-12-04 19:14:59','2010-12-04 19:14:59','',199,'http://natureofcollege.org/2010/12/199-revision-2/',0,'revision','',0),(202,5,'2010-12-04 19:15:21','2010-12-04 19:15:21','In an earlier age, Americans might have been known for the endurance, their persistence in pursuing happiness or the public good.  These days, however, indoorness has become one of our most enduring environmental values.  Even though most Americans regularly express our love for the great outdoors, we spend almost all our time in the great indoors.  This is absolutely unprecedented in human history.  Most people in the world have lived in shelters, but they almost always worked and played outside. On the average, Americans endure more than 90 percent of our lives inside.  We live in the “little boxes” called single-family homes (although many of them now are quite large), and we drive little boxes to and from our cubicle boxes at work.  We watch a box in the living room, which helps establish a box in the brain.  And we stay “connected,” as we put it, by watching the screens of other boxes and electronic devices and fiddling with buttons.  Sometimes, we <em>play </em>outside, but most of our time outside is just going from one inside to another.\r\n\r\nWe even bring the outside in.  The best example of this—or the worst, depending on your point of view—was THE AMERICAN WILDERNESS EXPERIENCE in the Ontario Mills shopping center in California.  Outside the mall, signs beckoned visitors to “Come inside the Great Outdoors” and the brochure for the attraction invited shoppers \"go wild in the mall!\"  There, after a simulator ride that let customers experience the world from the point of view of a fish, an eagle, and a cougar, visitors could enter five \"indoor recreations of . . . natural ecosystems.\"  In the first one, the Redwood  Forest, \"the spirit of the wilderness\"—a hologram that looked a good deal like John Muir—tells us \"there\'s nothing like the wilderness to calm your soul.\"  Within minutes, visitors could also \"trek the high Sierras,\" \"explore the harsh [Mojave] desert,\" \"stroll along the Pacific shore,\" and \"venture into Yosemite Valley\" by looking at animals displayed in small dioramas painted to evoke the sublimity of nature.  Ironically, three of these five indoor ecosystems were located within an hour’s drive of the mall\'s simulations.  And thankfully, the attraction didn’t generate enough traffic to stay in business.\r\n\r\nMore commonly, we bring nature inside as pets and houseplants, where, for once, we serve nature’s needs.  In evolutionary terms, dogs and cats (and other denizens of the household menagerie) are outdoor animals, designed to hunt for their food and survival.  But we’ve domesticated them, and brought them into our territory, the great indoors.  At the same time, we’ve domesticated ourselves, training ourselves to take care of this nature we love.  We feed them kibbles and bits, tempt them with toys, and pamper them like royalty.  If we cared for all of creation the way we care for pets, we might not be in the fix we’re in.\r\n\r\nBut on the whole, our affection for our pets doesn’t transfer to other species.  American indoor-ance begets ignorance of the millions of species that don’t grow indoors, the plants and animals that aren’t houseplants or pets or household pests.  Many of Dr. America’s students don’t even know the seasonality of foods.  Compared to our ancestors, most of them farmers, we are idiots about the natural life around us because it doesn’t seem to matter in the same way.  Ironically, however, now it matters even more than ever before.  What modern men and women do indoors—especially the burning of fossil fuels for indoor climate control—has more effect on the outdoors than most of the things people actually do outside.  Indoor living is, oddly enough, a threat to life outside our doors.\r\n\r\nIn some ways, therefore, we’re a culture that needs to turn things inside out—at least metaphorically.  We need to note the indoorness of our lives, and its environmental impacts.  We need to live inside our places with a window open to the other places on the planet.  And, more radically, we need to experience nature on nature’s terms, and not just in the controlled environments of what we quaintly call the developed world.\r\n\r\nOne guide for such a transformation is the Bible, the most popular book about outdoor life in the history of the world.  The Bible begins in a garden, and it’s full of plants and animals (including people), and mountains and rivers and deserts.  The people of the Bible aren’t exactly environmentalists, but they understand the gift of good land and the promise of the land.  From the very beginning, they have a sense of stewardship that flows from an understanding of interdependence.  When the deluge begins, therefore, Noah doesn’t just build a boat for his family.  He builds an ark for all creation, which is one way of seeing the human project now.  As our indoorness threatens the survival of creation, we need to redesign our lives to be regenerative, so that the bountiful biodiversity of God’s gracious creation can thrive on Planet Ark.','Indoorness','','inherit','open','open','','199-revision-3','','','2010-12-04 19:15:21','2010-12-04 19:15:21','',199,'http://natureofcollege.org/2010/12/199-revision-3/',0,'revision','',0),(203,5,'2010-12-04 19:17:05','2010-12-04 19:17:05','In an earlier age, Americans might have been known for the endurance, their persistence in pursuing happiness or the public good.  These days, however, indoorness has become one of our most enduring environmental values.  Even though most Americans regularly express our love for the great outdoors, we spend almost all our time in the great indoors.  This is absolutely unprecedented in human history.  Most people in the world have lived in shelters, but they almost always worked and played outside. On the average, Americans endure more than 90 percent of our lives inside.  We live in the “little boxes” called single-family homes (although many of them now are quite large), and we drive little boxes to and from our cubicle boxes at work.  We watch a box in the living room, which helps establish a box in the brain.  And we stay “connected,” as we put it, by watching the screens of other boxes and electronic devices and fiddling with buttons.  Sometimes, we <em>play </em>outside, but most of our time outside is just going from one inside to another.\n\nWe even bring the outside in.  The best example of this—or the worst, depending on your point of view—was THE AMERICAN WILDERNESS EXPERIENCE in the Ontario Mills shopping center in California.  Outside the mall, signs beckoned visitors to “Come inside the Great Outdoors” and the brochure for the attraction invited shoppers \"go wild in the mall!\"  There, after a simulator ride that let customers experience the world from the point of view of a fish, an eagle, and a cougar, visitors could enter five \"indoor recreations of . . . natural ecosystems.\"  In the first one, the Redwood  Forest, \"the spirit of the wilderness\"—a hologram that looked a good deal like John Muir—tells us \"there\'s nothing like the wilderness to calm your soul.\"  Within minutes, visitors could also \"trek the high Sierras,\" \"explore the harsh [Mojave] desert,\" \"stroll along the Pacific shore,\" and \"venture into Yosemite Valley\" by looking at animals displayed in small dioramas painted to evoke the sublimity of nature.  Ironically, three of these five indoor ecosystems were located within an hour’s drive of the mall\'s simulations.  And thankfully, the attraction didn’t generate enough traffic to stay in business.\n\nMore commonly, we bring nature inside as pets and houseplants, where, for once, we serve nature’s needs.  In evolutionary terms, dogs and cats (and other denizens of the household menagerie) are outdoor animals, designed to hunt for their food and survival.  But we’ve domesticated them, and brought them into our territory, the great indoors.  At the same time, we’ve domesticated ourselves, training ourselves to take care of this nature we love.  We feed them kibbles and bits, tempt them with toys, and pamper them like royalty.  If we cared for all of creation the way we care for pets, we might not be in the fix we’re in.\n\nBut on the whole, our affection for our pets doesn’t transfer to other species.  American indoor-ance begets ignorance of the millions of species that don’t grow indoors, the plants and animals that aren’t houseplants or pets or household pests.  Many of Dr. America’s students don’t even know the seasonality of foods.  Compared to our ancestors, most of them farmers, we are idiots about the natural life around us because it doesn’t seem to matter in the same way.  Ironically, however, now it matters even more than ever before.  What modern men and women do indoors—especially the burning of fossil fuels for indoor climate control—has more effect on the outdoors than most of the things people actually do outside.  Indoor living is, oddly enough, a threat to life outside our doors.\n\nIn some ways, therefore, we’re a culture that needs to turn things inside out—at least metaphorically.  We need to note the indoorness of our lives, and its environmental impacts.  We need to live inside our places with a window open to the other places on the planet.  And, more radically, we need to experience nature on nature’s terms, and not just in the controlled environments of what we quaintly call the developed world.\n\nOne guide for such a transformation is the Bible, the most popular book about outdoor life in the history of the world.  The Bible begins in a garden, and it’s full of plants and animals (including people), and mountains and rivers and deserts.  The people of the Bible aren’t exactly environmentalists, but they understand the gift of good land and the promise of the land.  From the very beginning, they have a sense of stewardship that flows from an understanding of interdependence.  When the deluge begins, therefore, Noah doesn’t just build a boat for his family.  He builds an ark for all creation, which is one way of seeing the human project now.  As our indoorness threatens the survival of creation, we need to redesign our lives to be regenerative, so that the bountiful biodiversity of God’s gracious creation can thrive on Planet Ark.','Indoorness','','inherit','open','open','','199-autosave','','','2010-12-04 19:17:05','2010-12-04 19:17:05','',199,'http://natureofcollege.org/2010/12/199-autosave/',0,'revision','',0),(204,5,'2010-12-04 19:18:12','2010-12-04 19:18:12','In Proverbs 29:12, we learn that “Without vision, the people perish.”  That may have been good enough for the Old Testament, but for the new and improved Testament of modern times, Americans have substituted television for vision.  Recent surveys show that Americans average 151 hours a month of television, and an hour of ads each day.  An American who lives to a ripe old age will watch about nine nonstop years of television in a lifetime.  Television, therefore, is an American value.  It’s a religious value, although it might be idolatry.  And it’s an environmental value.\r\n\r\nIn the ongoing creation, human beings have evolved to have binocular stereoscopic color vision; we have amazing eyes that help us to see and manipulate and express the nature of the world.  In America, however, we focus those eyes relentlessly on flat-screen, high-definition, pixilated color panels that that screen out deeper visions of nature and human nature.  In one of his American Studies classes, Dr. America asked his students to consider what TV tells us about our relationship with nature.\r\n\r\nMostly, we noticed, TV tells us nothing about nature, unless it’s human nature.  When we thought carefully about our watching, we noted that TV reinforces the problematic dichotomy between people and nature, and a definition of nature as remote and scenic and sublime.  Nature shows like <em>Planet Earth</em>, for example, show us a nature that’s not much connected to our everyday lives.  In fact, as one student said, nature on TV is most beautiful when it’s uninhabited.  Or as another suggested “nature is where people are not”—except, of course, for film crews.  In other instances, scenic nature is just the backdrop for human action, the stage set for the human drama.  Sometimes, too, nature can be used to reflect human emotions and experience, in the same way that violins on the soundtrack signal love and emotion.\r\n\r\nWe noticed, too, how often nature is used in ads to sell us something else.  It’s what we might call “the commercial sublime,” and it dates back to 19<sup>th</sup> century Romanticism.  In this commodified naturalism, we get back to nature by buying manufactured goods.  TV ads often connect the Romantic sublime to the technological sublime, in forms like the SUV sublime, where motorized monsters cavort in remote natural settings.  Other ads draw on the picturesque or pastoralism.  The serenity of nature, for example, is often the backdrop for perfume ads, so you can (apparently) get the serenity in a bottle.\r\n\r\nAt the same time, we are taught very well by what we’re not taught—by the de-natured character of most ads and programs.  For the vast majority of props and products on TV, we learn nothing at all about their natural origins or environmental impacts.  For the most part, TV reinforces American resourcism—the devout belief that nature is primarily a source of natural resources, the raw material for the stuff we stuff our lives with.  On TV, products are decontextualized from their earthly origins and impacts and recontextualized in fantasies of human satisfaction and happiness.\r\n\r\nIn any case, except for the weather, it seems like nature’s optional.  It might be there on our favorite shows, but it doesn’t really matter if it’s not.  You can watch nature shows or the news, or you can change the channel.  Except for the weather, too, there’s not much local nature on TV.  TV shows us nature everywhere in the world, but nothing local or bioregional.  If you wanted to know about your own habitat—unless you lived in a wilderness—you’d probably need to read a book or go outside.\r\n\r\nWhen it comes to our own habitats, in fact, TV mostly teaches us that nature should be controlled.  We learn about lawn care and landscaping, about bug sprays and biocides.  We learn about the domesticated nature of cats and dogs, and how to keep them happy with kibbles and bits.  We learn about pharmaceuticals that can overcome nature, and cosmetics that can cover up nature.  Commercial culture, it seems, is designed to combat the effects of nature.\r\n\r\nTelevision programming, therefore, contributes to a “normal-world syndrome,” suggesting that—despite the dire warnings we occasionally hear on the news—our planet can still support the normal activities of Americans. Both dramas and comedies show people with normal environmental consciousness (which is negligible) engaged in the routine behaviors of Americans, without ever showing the environmental complexities behind the social interactions.  People on TV eat food, drive cars, breathe air, and use resources.  They seldom deal with wastes, especially their own, and they virtually never think about their environmental impacts.  In general, television characters don’t do politics—and they don’t do environmental politics, because it’s too controversial.  Even though the climate is changing, even though we’re de-creating God’s Earth, most of television tells us that the main changes we need to make in life are to buy better products than the ones we have now.  The “new and improved” will improve our lives, and that’s all that counts.  The default setting of TV, it seems, is <em>unvironmentalism</em>, and it’s more pervasive and influential than the anti-environmentalism of recent American politics.  In general, that’s what we value.  It’s the value of television—and the nature of American life.','Television','','publish','closed','open','','television','','','2018-07-09 14:32:20','2018-07-09 19:32:20','',182,'http://natureofcollege.org/',0,'page','',0),(205,5,'2010-12-04 19:17:32','2010-12-04 19:17:32','','Television','','inherit','open','open','','204-revision','','','2010-12-04 19:17:32','2010-12-04 19:17:32','',204,'http://natureofcollege.org/2010/12/204-revision/',0,'revision','',0),(227,5,'2011-01-13 15:02:06','2011-01-13 15:02:06','The January 17 issue of <em>Time </em>has an article on \"<a href=\"http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2041116,00.html\">Green Jeans</a>,\" recounting Levi\'s attempt to make its jeans more sustainable, especially in terms of water use. A 2007 assessment showed that each pair of jeans used more than 800 gallons of water, the equivalent of running a garden hose for an hour and forty minutes. Using new techniques of stonewashing (to soften the fabric for consumers consumed by comfort), Levi\'s reduced their water usage by 28 percent. Cool! And a good example of what\'s already happening in business every day.\r\n\r\nNear the end of the article, a professor of fashion design and sustainability suggests that \"The waste can\'t be more important than the aesthetics. It should still be about designing beautiful things.\" But another possibility, mentioned in <em>The Nature of College, </em>is that sustainability might become an element of aesthetics. In the long run, it might be possible to create a culture in which pants wouldn\'t be considered beautiful if they weren\'t sustainable. As a character in the movie <em>Gandhi </em>says, \"There is no beauty in the finest cloth if it makes hunger or unhappiness.\" Or environmental degradation.','Green Jeans','','publish','closed','closed','','green-jeans','','','2018-07-09 14:31:59','2018-07-09 19:31:59','',0,'http://natureofcollege.org/?p=227',0,'post','',0),(207,5,'2010-12-04 19:18:12','2010-12-04 19:18:12','In Proverbs 29:12, we learn that “Without vision, the people perish.”  That may have been good enough for the Old Testament, but for the new and improved Testament of modern times, Americans have substituted television for vision.  Recent surveys show that Americans average 151 hours a month of television, and an hour of ads each day.  An American who lives to a ripe old age will watch about nine nonstop years of television in a lifetime.  Television, therefore, is an American value.  It’s a religious value, although it might be idolatry.  And it’s an environmental value.\r\n\r\nIn the ongoing creation, human beings have evolved to have binocular stereoscopic color vision; we have amazing eyes that help us to see and manipulate and express the nature of the world.  In America, however, we focus those eyes relentlessly on flat-screen, high-definition, pixilated color panels that that screen out deeper visions of nature and human nature.  In one of his American Studies classes, Dr. America asked his students to consider what TV tells us about our relationship with nature.\r\n\r\nMostly, we noticed, TV tells us nothing about nature, unless it’s human nature.  When we thought carefully about our watching, we noted that TV reinforces the problematic dichotomy between people and nature, and a definition of nature as remote and scenic and sublime.  Nature shows like <em>Planet Earth</em>, for example, show us a nature that’s not much connected to our everyday lives.  In fact, as one student said, nature on TV is most beautiful when it’s uninhabited.  Or as another suggested “nature is where people are not”—except, of course, for film crews.  In other instances, scenic nature is just the backdrop for human action, the stage set for the human drama.  Sometimes, too, nature can be used to reflect human emotions and experience, in the same way that violins on the soundtrack signal love and emotion.\r\n\r\nWe noticed, too, how often nature is used in ads to sell us something else.  It’s what we might call “the commercial sublime,” and it dates back to 19<sup>th</sup> century Romanticism.  In this commodified naturalism, we get back to nature by buying manufactured goods.  TV ads often connect the Romantic sublime to the technological sublime, in forms like the SUV sublime, where motorized monsters cavort in remote natural settings.  Other ads draw on the picturesque or pastoralism.  The serenity of nature, for example, is often the backdrop for perfume ads, so you can (apparently) get the serenity in a bottle.\r\n\r\nAt the same time, we are taught very well by what we’re not taught—by the de-natured character of most ads and programs.  For the vast majority of props and products on TV, we learn nothing at all about their natural origins or environmental impacts.  For the most part, TV reinforces American resourcism—the devout belief that nature is primarily a source of natural resources, the raw material for the stuff we stuff our lives with.  On TV, products are decontextualized from their earthly origins and impacts and recontextualized in fantasies of human satisfaction and happiness.\r\n\r\nIn any case, except for the weather, it seems like nature’s optional.  It might be there on our favorite shows, but it doesn’t really matter if it’s not.  You can watch nature shows or the news, or you can change the channel.  Except for the weather, too, there’s not much local nature on TV.  TV shows us nature everywhere in the world, but nothing local or bioregional.  If you wanted to know about your own habitat—unless you lived in a wilderness—you’d probably need to read a book or go outside.\r\n\r\nWhen it comes to our own habitats, in fact, TV mostly teaches us that nature should be controlled.  We learn about lawn care and landscaping, about bug sprays and biocides.  We learn about the domesticated nature of cats and dogs, and how to keep them happy with kibbles and bits.  We learn about pharmaceuticals that can overcome nature, and cosmetics that can cover up nature.  Commercial culture, it seems, is designed to combat the effects of nature.\r\n\r\nTelevision programming, therefore, contributes to a “normal-world syndrome,” suggesting that—despite the dire warnings we occasionally hear on the news—our planet can still support the normal activities of Americans. Both dramas and comedies show people with normal environmental consciousness (which is negligible) engaged in the routine behaviors of Americans, without ever showing the environmental complexities behind the social interactions.  People on TV eat food, drive cars, breathe air, and use resources.  They seldom deal with wastes, especially their own, and they virtually never think about their environmental impacts.  In general, television characters don’t do politics—and they don’t do environmental politics, because it’s too controversial.  Even though the climate is changing, even though we’re de-creating God’s Earth, most of television tells us that the main changes we need to make in life are to buy better products than the ones we have now.  The “new and improved” will improve our lives, and that’s all that counts.  The default setting of TV, it seems, is <em>unvironmentalism</em>, and it’s more pervasive and influential than the anti-environmentalism of recent American politics.  In general, that’s what we value.  It’s the value of television—and the nature of American','Television','','inherit','open','open','','204-revision-2','','','2010-12-04 19:18:12','2010-12-04 19:18:12','',204,'http://natureofcollege.org/2010/12/204-revision-2/',0,'revision','',0),(209,5,'2010-12-04 19:25:36','2010-12-04 19:25:36','At the New Year, Americans always think about parties and resolutions, and then we forget about them until the next new year.  But this New Year, Dr. America is thinking about newness itself, and its impact on American culture (and on the environment).  Americans, he thinks, have an overwhelming affiliation with newness, which goes along with our cultural predilection for <em>now</em>ness. Each day, we watch or read “the news,” which is the systematic answer to the question we ask each other all the time: “What’s new?”  In itself, our interest in the new and the now is not a new thing.  We are, after all, the people of the New World, a New Deal, a New Frontier, and the “new and improved” gadgets advertised incessantly on TV.  But in the 21<sup>st</sup> century, our newdity seems to be affecting both the quality of life (human and otherwise) and the quality of the future.\r\n\r\nHuman beings, almost alone among the animals, have the capability of thinking in time.  We have memory, which allows us to bring the past to mind, and we have language, which allows us to pass on the past in history, literature, and oral traditions.  Human beings are also gifted with imagination, which permits us to bring the future to mind.  In America in the 21<sup>st</sup> century, however, we systematically pay more attention to the present than to the past or future.  And our failure to think carefully in time is one cause for many of our current crises.\r\n\r\nIn a beautiful poem “<a href=\"http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=178177\">At a Country Funeral</a>,” Wendell Berry reminds us that\r\n\r\n<em>. . . . our memory of ourselves, hard earned,</em>\r\n\r\n<em>is one of the land\'s seeds, as a seed</em>\r\n\r\n<em>is the memory of the life of its kind in its place,</em>\r\n\r\n<em>to pass on into life the knowledge</em>\r\n\r\n<em>of what has died.  What we owe the future</em>\r\n\r\n<em>is not a new start, for we can only begin </em>\r\n\r\n<em>with what has happened.  We owe the future </em>\r\n\r\n<em>the past, the long knowledge</em>\r\n\r\n<em>that is the potency of time to come.</em>\r\n\r\nBerry suggests that our “long knowledge” of the past is essential to our long vision of the future.  In a similar way, in <em>Habits of the Heart, </em>Robert Bellah suggests that the best human communities are communities of memory <em>and</em> communities of hope.  Communities of memory remember their past, and celebrate the richness of their tradition.  The stories of their past constitute their identity, and offer them a framework for facing the future.  Rooted in their pasts, communities of hope know how to live a tradition without becoming traditionalists, adapting the essential character and commitments of the community to new conditions.\r\n\r\nBoth Berry and Bellah juxtapose the short-term thinking that’s so characteristic of modern America with a more extensive “thinking in time” that was, in fact, a part of American tradition.  In the eighteenth century, the Founding Fathers depended on the wisdom of older political theorists like John Locke and Montesquieu, but they used the past to forge a future of promise.  They had short-term concerns, but they also had long-term vision—and they had a name for it: posterity.  They knew that they would be judged by posterity, so they lived as if the future really mattered.  Once, John Adams was asked why he was involved in politics, when he might have been doing more “practical” things.  He replied, \"I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy.  My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history and naval architecture, navigation, commerce, and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry and porcelain.\"\r\n\r\nAdams understood that the fate of future generations depends on the willingness of their ancestors (us) to make sacrifices that will not be reciprocated.  Americans today don’t care about the unborn, and so we have bumperstickers that announce proudly that “I’m spending my children’s inheritance” or that ask “What has the future ever done for me?”  In an era of immediate gratification and instant everything, our vision is mainly television, with its relentless promise of more consumption. As a result, we’re shaping a future (and a planet) that’s not promising for our progeny.\r\n\r\nBut we could become visionaries again. In politics, for example, we might force our representatives to represent not just our immediate desires and special interests but the general welfare (as it says in the Constitution) of the people and posterity. In business, we might free corporations from the fetish of quarterly earnings reports and go back to a concern for sustained (and sustainable) growth.  In our everyday lives, we might love our children (and their children) by indulging ourselves less. And in our religious communities, we might make more effort to keep the care of Creation (our first responsibility) connected to the “world without end. Amen.”','Presentism','','publish','closed','open','','presentism','','','2018-07-09 14:32:20','2018-07-09 19:32:20','',182,'http://natureofcollege.org/',0,'page','',0),(210,5,'2010-12-04 19:23:55','2010-12-04 19:23:55','At the New Year, Americans always think about parties and resolutions, and then we forget about them until the next new year.  But this New Year, Dr. America is thinking about newness itself, and its impact on American culture (and on the environment).  Americans, he thinks, have an overwhelming affiliation with newness, which goes along with our cultural predilection for <em>now</em>ness. Each day, we watch or read “the news,” which is the systematic answer to the question we ask each other all the time: “What’s new?”  In itself, our interest in the new and the now is not a new thing.  We are, after all, the people of the New World, a New Deal, a New Frontier, and the “new and improved” gadgets advertised incessantly on TV.  But in the 21<sup>st</sup> century, our newdity seems to be affecting both the quality of life (human and otherwise) and the quality of the future.\n\nHuman beings, almost alone among the animals, have the capability of thinking in time.  We have memory, which allows us to bring the past to mind, and we have language, which allows us to pass on the past in history, literature, and oral traditions.  Human beings are also gifted with imagination, which permits us to bring the future to mind.  In America in the 21<sup>st</sup> century, however, we systematically pay more attention to the present than to the past or future.  And our failure to think carefully in time is one cause for many of our current crises.\n\nIn a beautiful poem “At a Country Funeral,” Wendell Berry reminds us that\n\n<em>. . . . our memory of ourselves, hard earned,</em>\n\n<em>is one of the land\'s seeds, as a seed</em>\n\n<em>is the memory of the life of its kind in its place,</em>\n\n<em>to pass on into life the knowledge</em>\n\n<em>of what has died.  What we owe the future</em>\n\n<em>is not a new start, for we can only begin </em>\n\n<em>with what has happened.  We owe the future </em>\n\n<em>the past, the long knowledge</em>\n\n<em>that is the potency of time to come.</em>\n\nBerry suggests that our “long knowledge” of the past is essential to our long vision of the future.  In a similar way, in <em>Habits of the Heart, </em>Robert Bellah suggests that the best human communities are communities of memory <em>and</em> communities of hope.  Communities of memory remember their past, and celebrate the richness of their tradition.  The stories of their past constitute their identity, and offer them a framework for facing the future.  Rooted in their pasts, communities of hope know how to live a tradition without becoming traditionalists, adapting the essential character and commitments of the community to new conditions.\n\nBoth Berry and Bellah juxtapose the short-term thinking that’s so characteristic of modern America with a more extensive “thinking in time” that was, in fact, a part of American tradition.  In the eighteenth century, the Founding Fathers depended on the wisdom of older political theorists like John Locke and Montesquieu, but they used the past to forge a future of promise.  They had short-term concerns, but they also had long-term vision—and they had a name for it: posterity.  They knew that they would be judged by posterity, so they lived as if the future really mattered.  Once, John Adams was asked why he was involved in politics, when he might have been doing more “practical” things.  He replied, \"I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy.  My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history and naval architecture, navigation, commerce, and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry and porcelain.\"\n\nAdams understood that the fate of future generations depends on the willingness of their ancestors (us) to make sacrifices that will not be reciprocated.  Americans today don’t care about the unborn, and so we have bumperstickers that announce proudly that “I’m spending my children’s inheritance” or that ask “What has the future ever done for me?”  In an era of immediate gratification and instant everything, our vision is mainly television, with its relentless promise of more consumption. As a result, we’re shaping a future (and a planet) that’s not promising for our progeny.\n\nBut we could become visionaries again. In politics, for example, we might force our representatives to represent not just our immediate desires and special interests but the general welfare (as it says in the Constitution) of the people and posterity. In business, we might free corporations from the fetish of quarterly earnings reports and go back to a concern for sustained (and sustainable) growth.  In our everyday lives, we might love our children (and their children) by indulging ourselves less. And in our religious communities, we might make more effort to keep the care of Creation (our first responsibility) connected to the “world without end. Amen.”','Presentism','','inherit','open','open','','209-revision','','','2010-12-04 19:23:55','2010-12-04 19:23:55','',209,'http://natureofcollege.org/2010/12/209-revision/',0,'revision','',0),(211,5,'2010-12-04 19:27:22','2010-12-04 19:27:22','A few years ago, in a class on college consumer culture, Dr. America’s students taught him the power of silence. I simply asked my students to tell me (anonymously) their deepest values.  Then I asked them for similar lists of the values of college culture, and of American consumer culture.  It turned out that their deepest values differ greatly from the values of their culture(s).  We live, in fact, in a culture that’s hostile to many of our deepest values, and—here’s the hard part—<em>we think that’s normal! </em>\r\n\r\nBy chance, I also asked students who else <em>knew</em> their deepest values.  For most students, the number of people was very small—usually Mom, sometimes Dad, and then one or two best friends.  I asked why so few people knew, since a better world won’t happen without a lively discussion of the goodness of the good life.  The answer was instructive: we don’t share our deepest values because we’re afraid that people will laugh at us, because we’re afraid our peers will think us weird, because we’d rather be “not too bad” than “too good.”  This is peer pressure at its most powerful—the pressure to keep us silent about what we really care about.  The result is an impoverished discourse of virtue, and a mindset that keeps us from acting out our best intentions.  When our deepest values are private, they have almost no public consequence.  If we don’t speak <em>our </em>values, the culture conforms to somebody else’s—the people who value money more than values, goods more than goodness, sex more than love, fun more than fulfillment, environmental degradation more than sustainability. Politically, for example, we’re governed by the loudmouths on either side.\r\n\r\nHere’s the kicker.  All the lists of our deepest values were very similar.  Our peers <em>won’t </em>laugh at us.  They <em>won’t </em>think we’re weird.  We’re not really constrained by actual others.  We’re constrained by the imaginary others in our heads.  This misperception of others is not unique to college students.  In <em>Yearning for Balance</em> <em>Views of Americans on Consumption, Materialism, and the Environment</em>, researchers found that most Americans espouse values of responsibility, family life, and friendship, but they don’t think other Americans do.  Most Americans cite religious faith and generosity as guiding values in their lives, but only a few think that other Americans share those values.  We have a broad consensus on values, but we don’t realize it because we don’t talk about them.<em></em>\r\n\r\nThe same is true of our values concerning consumption and the environment.  Eighty-two percent of Americans believe that most of us are wasteful, buying and consuming more than we need.  Eighty-six percent of us are concerned for the environment, and 51 percent of Americans believe that their own consumption has a negative effect on the environment.  As a result, 88 percent of us believe that “protecting the environment will require most of us to make major changes in the way we live.”  But we don’t think that other people feel this way. If we ever discussed our deepest values, we might learn that almost all of us espouse values that could lead to an ecological revolution.\r\n\r\nOccasionally, of course, other people <em>will</em> mock us for our convictions.  Sometimes our peers will apply pressure to act against our deepest values.  Sometimes peer pressure really is a problem for us.  But the upside of down is that <em>we get to pick our peers.</em> If we hang out with people who are cynical and hopeless, we’ll be affected.  If we pal around with people who are only thinking about getting ahead and getting stuff, we’ll begin to accept that behavior as normal.  But we don’t have to stay with the cynics or the sybarites.  We can find friends who share our deepest values, and who will help us to practice what we preach—and, just as importantly in a culture of silence, preach what we practice.  We can, if we choose, use peer pressure to fuel the ecological revolution of the 21<sup>st</sup> century.  In <em>Biologic</em>, for example, David Wann suggests that once we get the design right, “our society can be powered by peer pressure alone.”\r\n\r\nSo it’s time, right now, to silence our silence, and speak up for the values—religious, social, environmental—that we really believe in.','Silence','','publish','closed','open','','silence','','','2018-07-09 14:32:20','2018-07-09 19:32:20','',182,'http://natureofcollege.org/',0,'page','',0),(212,5,'2010-12-04 19:26:45','2010-12-04 19:26:45','','Silence','','inherit','open','open','','211-revision','','','2010-12-04 19:26:45','2010-12-04 19:26:45','',211,'http://natureofcollege.org/2010/12/211-revision/',0,'revision','',0),(213,5,'2010-12-04 19:30:25','2010-12-04 19:30:25','When the Pew Research Center asked members of “Generation Next” (18-25-year-olds) to describe their generation, they used labels like “lazy” and “crazy” and “fun.” Fifty percent of teens told Teenage Research Unlimited that their generation is “about fun,” and 69 percent claimed that “I always try to have as much fun as possible.”  Anthropologists who have studied contemporary college students note that fun is a primary purpose of college life.  In <em>Coming of Age in New Jersey, </em>his 1989 study of college life, Michael Moffatt described student perceptions of the purpose of college—and “fun” was one of their primary goals. It still is.  In her 2005 book <em>My Freshman Year, </em>anthropologist Rebekah Nathan found that fun is “one of the most ubiquitous words in college discourse.”\r\n\r\nFun is part of the rhythm of work and rewards at college; it’s almost as natural to Joe College as the rhythm of day and night.  But students don’t learn this fun morality in school; they learn it from us. Defining classwork and homework as work, students interpret work as most other Americans do—the alienating stuff that we do to justify (and pay for) the pleasurable parts of our life.  In American culture, we say \"I have to go to work,\" not \"I get to go to work.\"  And we pray the great American interdenominational prayer, \"Thank God it\'s Friday.\"  We like Friday because it precedes the weekend, a two-day interval that might be given the single name “Funday,” because the Sabbath of fun is, for many (if not most) Americans, more important than the religious observance of the Sabbath.\r\n\r\nThat’s why, Dr. America thinks, so many American congregations are turning to the cultures of entertainment and consumption to spice up their Sunday services.  In doing so, they may still be preaching the gospel, but they’re also implicitly preaching the gospel of fun. In church and out of it, this kind of <em>fun</em>damentalism is more important than all other fundamentalisms combined. It’s the one religion we practice not just weekly, but daily, with our liturgical observance of TV and movies and video games and internet attractions.\r\n\r\nSuch <em>fun</em>damentalism is one of America’s deepest values, a way of thinking (and not thinking) that’s an essential part of our culture of distraction.  The problem with this <em>fun</em>damentalism, if there is one, is that the perpetual craving for diversion diverts Americans from the social and environmental imagination that might help us craft a society that’s more fulfilling than fun.  Waiting for the weekend, anticipating the Big Game, planning Saturday’s party, going out for dinner and a movie, we get engaged in fun—but not as engaged with the intellectual play that might lead to a just or sustainable society.  The quest for fun sometimes crowds out the kind of quests that used to make coming of age more meaningful.  We may be, as Neil Postman argues, “amusing ourselves to death”—or, even worse, amusing ourselves to extinctions.\r\n\r\nIf our primary educational systems (TV and commercial culture and peer pressure) can convince us that one of the primary purposes of life is to have fun, the powers that be don’t have to worry about an ecological revolution.  As Thomas Pynchon says in <em>Gravity’s Rainbow</em>, \"If they can get you asking the wrong <em>questions</em>, they don\'t have to worry about <em>answers</em>.”    If we focus our lives on the question “What can we do for fun?” instead of “What can we do for fulfillment? or “What can we do for our communities (human and otherwise)?” we’ll enjoy our pleasures while the world around us worsens. What’s on our minds eventually makes its way into the world—and into our character.\r\n\r\nThat’s because fun doesn’t just affect what we do; it affects who we are.  When we absorb the fun morality of American culture, we’re <em>fun</em>damentally different people than we were before.  We see life differently (and more superficially).  We focus on parties and games and entertainments that, on reflection, aren’t all that important to our lives (or the life of the planet).  An ethic of fun complicates a deeper ethics. An ethic of fun isn’t particularly Biblical—there’s a lot of sacrifice and sharing in the Bible, but not a lot of fun.\r\n\r\nBut it doesn’t have to be this way. There’s also a lot of joy in the Bible, and a lot of fulfillment. So if our churches traded an ethic of fun for an ethic of joy and fulfillment, a celebration of the good earth and the good news of the gospel, it might be fun to see the result.','Fundamentalism','','publish','closed','open','','fundamentalism','','','2018-07-09 14:32:20','2018-07-09 19:32:20','',182,'http://natureofcollege.org/',0,'page','',0),(214,5,'2010-12-04 19:29:54','2010-12-04 19:29:54','','Fundamentalism','','inherit','open','open','','213-revision','','','2010-12-04 19:29:54','2010-12-04 19:29:54','',213,'http://natureofcollege.org/2010/12/213-revision/',0,'revision','',0),(215,5,'2010-12-04 19:31:41','2010-12-04 19:31:41','The other day, Dr. America was searching the America home in search of a widget.  He knew it was in one of the closets, but he couldn’t remember which one.  And in each closet, there was so much stuff that he had difficulty digging through it. In the process, it occurred to the good doctor that his closets are a museum of American material culture, and all his stuff is a manifestation of American materialism.  Each item we own expresses the way we make meanings with the material world.  And what we have shapes what we do and who we are (and vice versa). Perhaps, he thought, it’s time to bring materialism out of the closet.\r\n\r\nIn the past fifty years, the size of American homes has doubled—and closets have become more commodious—while the number of occupants per home has declined. Still, one of the fastest growing industries in America is self-storage, where Americans rent closets for all the stuff that doesn’t fit in the house. Houses and closets and storage bins—along with shopping centers and discount stores—are particular evidence of a <em>system</em> of stuff and its associated social practices.  Materialism is the way that Americans manage their resource flows, both intentionally and unintentionally.  When a mother buys her daughter a computer, for example, she’s thinking about internet access and word processing, not world processing.  She’s not thinking about her laptop as a material witness to the resource flows of her culture and her planet, even though it takes several hundred pounds of materials to make a computer.  In our common-sense materialist mindset, we can ignore the environmental impacts of our purchases, because it’s the nature of American consuming to let us focus on our stuff and our desires, and not on the material consequences of our lives. In a provocative book called <em>Stuff: The Secret Lives of Everyday Things, </em>John Ryan and Alan Durning contend that Americans use more than 100 pounds of resources a day—mostly in the processes that produce all the things we buy.  But even though most of us pay attention to the weight of our bodies, most of us ignore the substantial weight of our lives.\r\n\r\nThe odd thing about American materialism is that we’re stuffed with stuff, not because we want materials, but because we want functionality, and we want meanings.  We don’t really want a hundred pounds of refrigerator; we just want our food preserved.  We don’t really want a ton of car, but we do want the access to places that it provides, and the symbolic sizzle that comes with it.  We don’t need all the clothes in our closets to stay warm, but we do want the expressive possibilities that accompany all our different outfits.  We don’t plan to provide a pound of material to our parents, but the gift is a way of showing we love them. In many ways, our materialism is essentially in our minds—until we make our meanings material, cluttering up our closets and filling our landfills.\r\n\r\nWe’re embodied beings in a material world, so materialism isn’t optional.  We will be materialists, but we can choose the shape of our materialism. Right now, most of us practice a materialism that shows little regard for the materials we use in our lives, or for the deep satisfactions that our stuff offers (or not).  We need a new materialism, based on a reverence for the material world, and committed to using it only for our essential human needs (including those that are social, environmental, aesthetic, and spiritual).  This new materialism will let us de-materialize some of the satisfactions of our lives, and find more fulfillment with a smaller ecological footprint. Etymologically, thrift and thriving are related, and they’ll be related again in our commons sense, as we practice a restraint that increases our prosperity and our human flourishing—for all time. Giving up, after all, is a form of giving.  It’s a gift to posterity, because our restraint is somebody else’s reprieve.  Our sufficiency provides for the future’s sufficiency too.\r\n\r\nIf we continue to stuff our homes with stuff without thinking about the consequences, we’ll eventually inhabit a world that has less room for other species, and a hostile climate and fewer resources for us.  But if we begin to develop a new and improved materialism--an ecological materialism—we might promote a reverence for materials and for the stuff of creation. This new materialism might revive pre-materialist ideals of thrift, frugality and sufficiency, and it might encourage us to design products for repair and re-use, and to consume materials fully before discarding them.  If we practice a materialism that takes materials seriously—both individually and institutionally—we’ll have a better chance of creating a culture in which we have more human satisfaction with less stuff. It will be easier to find the widget we were looking for, and whatever the size of our homes, we’ll feel more at home in the cosmos.','Materialism','','publish','closed','open','','materialism','','','2018-07-09 14:32:20','2018-07-09 19:32:20','',182,'http://natureofcollege.org/',0,'page','',0),(216,5,'2010-12-04 19:31:22','2010-12-04 19:31:22','','Materialism','','inherit','open','open','','215-revision','','','2010-12-04 19:31:22','2010-12-04 19:31:22','',215,'http://natureofcollege.org/2010/12/215-revision/',0,'revision','',0),(217,5,'2010-12-04 19:33:14','2010-12-04 19:33:14','When the alarm clock buzzes in the morning, Dr. America rolls over, taps the snooze button, and buries his brain in the pillow. Eventually he rises, visits the bathroom, brews the coffee, and looks over the morning paper. In this groggy state, he’s not thinking much about morality: he <em>might</em> be conscious, but he’s not yet conscientious. And yet, if he’s like most of us, he’s made several ethical choices before breakfast, and most of them are related to the American value of resourcism, the simple idea that nature is primarily a resource for human consumption.\r\n\r\nAmerican resourcism is Biblical, but it’s more historical than religious. In Genesis, God told Adam and Eve that they would have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and all living things that move upon the earth. But he didn’t give them a market economy, and that changes everything. By the time that Europeans “discovered” the New World, they had already learned to see the American Eden in terms of commodities that could be sold on world markets. That was the purpose of colonialism, after all. So when the English saw the tall pines of New England, they couldn’t see the forest or the trees: they saw(ed) ships’ masts and lots of lumber. When they saw prairies, they saw farm fields. When they saw nature, they saw products—and they saw profits.\r\n\r\nThese dead men still rule our lives. For example, when Dr. America thinks that he is just lighting up a room, he’s also burning coal and generating greenhouse gases. If the good doctor thought about it, he might think that it’s “no big deal”—and that would be true, if he only lived today. But Americans live a long time, so all of our “no big deals” add up to major environmental impacts. As Eric Sorenson points out in his <em>Seven Wonders for a Cool Planet, </em>“If the average North American life expectancy holds at seventy-eight years, each person can expect to produce 1,630 tons of carbon dioxide over his or her lifetime.” The everyday actions of Americans are choices camouflaged as routines, but each of our habits is, in fact, a moral choice. Things are better or worse because of what we do, from our personal appearance to planetary health.\r\n\r\nBut we don’t <em>feel</em> like ethical actors because we’re just doing what comes culturally. We’ve made these choices not by our active options but by our passive participation in <em>systems</em> of choice.  As this suggests, one of the most powerful things we do is to define normality for each other, because we generally think that normal is moral.  If it’s normal to flip on the lights in the bathroom, we normally think it’s OK.  But it could be more complicated than that. And we might need a new normal.\r\n\r\nResourcism is connected to economism, the assumption that the value of things is primarily economic.  Few of us would proudly proclaim our adherence to a purely economic valuation of the world, but it’s embedded in almost all our daily practices, from early morning to late at night. And those practices have practical consequences.  When we look at the world through an econoscope, it becomes an econoscape—a landscape designed mainly to make money, or to make the making of money easier (as with roads and parking lots).  An econoscape is a radical simplification of nature, a version of buy-o-diversity that cheapens the richness of creation by trading tomorrow’s fertility for today’s consumption.   In a resourcist view of the world, the green of photosynthesis is converted to the green of money.\r\n\r\nResourcism “worked” when populations were small and the earth seemed infinitely resilient. And people will always depend on resources: that’s how we’re constituted.  We know now, however, that the earth is small and fragile and finite, especially under the assault of six billion people who increasingly want to consume like Americans. So unless we use our imaginative resources to manage our natural resources and our consumption, we’ll continue to find ourselves destroying God’s creation. Unless we create a culture that’s truly resourceful—as committed to the regeneration of nature as to its depletion—we won’t be fulfilling the other Biblical command for the care of creation.','Resourcism','','publish','closed','open','','resourcism','','','2018-07-09 14:32:20','2018-07-09 19:32:20','',182,'http://natureofcollege.org/',0,'page','',0),(218,5,'2010-12-04 19:32:34','2010-12-04 19:32:34','','Resourcism','','inherit','open','open','','217-revision','','','2010-12-04 19:32:34','2010-12-04 19:32:34','',217,'http://natureofcollege.org/2010/12/217-revision/',0,'revision','',0),(219,5,'2010-12-04 19:33:14','2010-12-04 19:33:14','When the alarm clock buzzes in the morning, Dr. America rolls over, taps the snooze button, and buries his brain in the pillow. Eventually he rises, visits the bathroom, brews the coffee, and looks over the morning paper. In this groggy state, he’s not thinking much about morality: he <em>might</em> be conscious, but he’s not yet conscientious. And yet, if he’s like most of us, he’s made several ethical choices before breakfast, and most of them are related to the American value of resourcism, the simple idea that nature is primarily a resource for human consumption.\r\n\r\nAmerican resourcism is Biblical, but it’s more historical than religious. In Genesis, God told Adam and Eve that they would have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and all living things that move upon the earth. But he didn’t give them a market economy, and that changes everything. By the time that Europeans “discovered” the New World, they had already learned to see the American Eden in terms of commodities that could be sold on world markets. That was the purpose of colonialism, after all. So when the English saw the tall pines of New England, they couldn’t see the forest or the trees: they saw(ed) ships’ masts and lots of lumber. When they saw prairies, they saw farm fields. When they saw nature, they saw products—and they saw profits.\r\n\r\nThese dead men still rule our lives. For example, when Dr. America thinks that he is just lighting up a room, he’s also burning coal and generating greenhouse gases. If the good doctor thought about it, he might think that it’s “no big deal”—and that would be true, if he only lived today. But Americans live a long time, so all of our “no big deals” add up to major environmental impacts. As Eric Sorenson points out in his <em>Seven Wonders for a Cool Planet, </em>“If the average North American life expectancy holds at seventy-eight years, each person can expect to produce 1,630 tons of carbon dioxide over his or her lifetime.” The everyday actions of Americans are choices camouflaged as routines, but each of our habits is, in fact, a moral choice. Things are better or worse because of what we do, from our personal appearance to planetary health.\r\n\r\nBut we don’t <em>feel</em> like ethical actors because we’re just doing what comes culturally. We’ve made these choices not by our active options but by our passive participation in <em>systems</em> of choice.  As this suggests, one of the most powerful things we do is to define normality for each other, because we generally think that normal is moral.  If it’s normal to flip on the lights in the bathroom, we normally think it’s OK.  But it could be more complicated than that. And we might need a new normal.\r\n\r\nResourcism is connected to economism, the assumption that the value of things is primarily economic.  Few of us would proudly proclaim our adherence to a purely economic valuation of the world, but it’s embedded in almost all our daily practices, from early morning to late at night. And those practices have practical consequences.  When we look at the world through an econoscope, it becomes an econoscape—a landscape designed mainly to make money, or to make the making of money easier (as with roads and parking lots).  An econoscape is a radical simplification of nature, a version of buy-o-diversity that cheapens the richness of creation by trading tomorrow’s fertility for today’s consumption.   In a resourcist view of the world, the green of photosynthesis is converted to the green of money.\r\n\r\nResourcism “worked” when populations were small and the earth seemed infinitely resilient. And people will always depend on resources: that’s how we’re constituted.  We know now, however, that the earth is small and fragile and finite, especially under the assault of six billion people who increasingly want to consume like Americans. So unless we use our imaginative resources to manage our natural resources and our consumption, we’ll continue to find ourselves destroying God’s creation. Unless we create a culture that’s truly resourceful—as committed to the regeneration of nature as to its depletion—we won’t be fulfilling the other Biblical command for the care of creation.','Resourcism','','inherit','open','open','','217-revision-2','','','2010-12-04 19:33:14','2010-12-04 19:33:14','',217,'http://natureofcollege.org/2010/12/217-revision-2/',0,'revision','',0),(220,5,'2010-12-04 19:30:25','2010-12-04 19:30:25','When the Pew Research Center asked members of “Generation Next” (18-25-year-olds) to describe their generation, they used labels like “lazy” and “crazy” and “fun.” Fifty percent of teens told Teenage Research Unlimited that their generation is “about fun,” and 69 percent claimed that “I always try to have as much fun as possible.”  Anthropologists who have studied contemporary college students note that fun is a primary purpose of college life.  In <em>Coming of Age in New Jersey, </em>his 1989 study of college life, Michael Moffatt described student perceptions of the purpose of college—and “fun” was one of their primary goals. It still is.  In her 2005 book <em>My Freshman Year, </em>anthropologist Rebekah Nathan found that fun is “one of the most ubiquitous words in college discourse.”\r\n\r\nFun is part of the rhythm of work and rewards at college; it’s almost as natural to Joe College as the rhythm of day and night.  But students don’t learn this fun morality in school; they learn it from us. Defining classwork and homework as work, students interpret work as most other Americans do—the alienating stuff that we do to justify (and pay for) the pleasurable parts of our life.  In American culture, we say \"I have to go to work,\" not \"I get to go to work.\"  And we pray the great American interdenominational prayer, \"Thank God it\'s Friday.\"  We like Friday because it precedes the weekend, a two-day interval that might be given the single name “Funday,” because the Sabbath of fun is, for many (if not most) Americans, more important than the religious observance of the Sabbath.\r\n\r\nThat’s why, Dr. America thinks, so many American congregations are turning to the cultures of entertainment and consumption to spice up their Sunday services.  In doing so, they may still be preaching the gospel, but they’re also implicitly preaching the gospel of fun. In church and out of it, this kind of <em>fun</em>damentalism is more important than all other fundamentalisms combined. It’s the one religion we practice not just weekly, but daily, with our liturgical observance of TV and movies and video games and internet attractions.\r\n\r\nSuch <em>fun</em>damentalism is one of America’s deepest values, a way of thinking (and not thinking) that’s an essential part of our culture of distraction.  The problem with this <em>fun</em>damentalism, if there is one, is that the perpetual craving for diversion diverts Americans from the social and environmental imagination that might help us craft a society that’s more fulfilling than fun.  Waiting for the weekend, anticipating the Big Game, planning Saturday’s party, going out for dinner and a movie, we get engaged in fun—but not as engaged with the intellectual play that might lead to a just or sustainable society.  The quest for fun sometimes crowds out the kind of quests that used to make coming of age more meaningful.  We may be, as Neil Postman argues, “amusing ourselves to death”—or, even worse, amusing ourselves to extinctions.\r\n\r\nIf our primary educational systems (TV and commercial culture and peer pressure) can convince us that one of the primary purposes of life is to have fun, the powers that be don’t have to worry about an ecological revolution.  As Thomas Pynchon says in <em>Gravity’s Rainbow</em>, \"If they can get you asking the wrong <em>questions</em>, they don\'t have to worry about <em>answers</em>.”    If we focus our lives on the question “What can we do for fun?” instead of “What can we do for fulfillment? or “What can we do for our communities (human and otherwise)?” we’ll enjoy our pleasures while the world around us worsens. What’s on our minds eventually makes its way into the world—and into our character.\r\n\r\nThat’s because fun doesn’t just affect what we do; it affects who we are.  When we absorb the fun morality of American culture, we’re <em>fun</em>damentally different people than we were before.  We see life differently (and more superficially).  We focus on parties and games and entertainments that, on reflection, aren’t all that important to our lives (or the life of the planet).  An ethic of fun complicates a deeper ethics. An ethic of fun isn’t particularly Biblical—there’s a lot of sacrifice and sharing in the Bible, but not a lot of fun.\r\n\r\nBut it doesn’t have to be this way. There’s also a lot of joy in the Bible, and a lot of fulfillment. So if our churches traded an ethic of fun for an ethic of joy and fulfillment, a celebration of the good earth and the good news of the gospel, it might be fun to see the result.','Fundamentalism','','inherit','open','open','','213-revision-2','','','2010-12-04 19:30:25','2010-12-04 19:30:25','',213,'http://natureofcollege.org/2010/12/213-revision-2/',0,'revision','',0),(221,5,'2010-12-08 23:00:27','2010-12-08 23:00:27','For a quick sample of the writing and analysis in <em>The Nature of College, </em>here\'s a pdf of Chapter One, in which Joe and Jo College wake up in their respective rooms, and get ready for the day ahead.\r\n\r\n[button]<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/Farrell-Waking-up-to-Nature.pdf\">Waking Up to Nature</a>[/button]','Chapter One: Waking Up to Nature','','publish','closed','open','','chapter-one-waking-up-to-nature','','','2018-07-09 14:32:19','2018-07-09 19:32:19','',2,'http://natureofcollege.org/',0,'page','',0),(222,5,'2010-12-08 22:59:31','2010-12-08 22:59:31','For a quick sample of the writing an analysis in <em>The Nature of College, </em>here','Chapter One: Waking Up to Nature','','inherit','open','open','','221-revision','','','2010-12-08 22:59:31','2010-12-08 22:59:31','',221,'http://natureofcollege.org/2010/12/221-revision/',0,'revision','',0),(223,5,'2010-12-08 23:01:34','2010-12-08 23:01:34','For a quick sample of the writing an analysis in <em>The Nature of College, </em>here\'s a pdf of Chapter One, in which Joe and Jo College wake up in their respective rooms, and get read for the day ahead.','Chapter One: Waking Up to Nature','','inherit','open','open','','221-autosave','','','2010-12-08 23:01:34','2010-12-08 23:01:34','',221,'http://natureofcollege.org/2010/12/221-autosave/',0,'revision','',0),(224,5,'2010-12-08 23:00:27','2010-12-08 23:00:27','For a quick sample of the writing an analysis in <em>The Nature of College, </em>here\'s a pdf of Chapter One, in which Joe and Jo College wake up in their respective rooms, and get read for the day ahead.','Chapter One: Waking Up to Nature','','inherit','open','open','','221-revision-2','','','2010-12-08 23:00:27','2010-12-08 23:00:27','',221,'http://natureofcollege.org/2010/12/221-revision-2/',0,'revision','',0),(225,5,'2010-12-08 23:05:05','2010-12-08 23:05:05','','Farrell--Waking up to Nature','','inherit','open','open','','farrell-waking-up-to-nature','','','2010-12-08 23:05:05','2010-12-08 23:05:05','',0,'http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/Farrell-Waking-up-to-Nature.pdf',0,'attachment','application/pdf',0),(226,5,'2010-12-08 23:04:10','2010-12-08 23:04:10','For a quick sample of the writing an analysis in <em>The Nature of College, </em>here\'s a pdf of Chapter One, in which Joe and Jo College wake up in their respective rooms, and get read for the day ahead.\r\n\r\n[button]Waking Up to Nature[/button]','Chapter One: Waking Up to Nature','','inherit','open','open','','221-revision-3','','','2010-12-08 23:04:10','2010-12-08 23:04:10','',221,'http://natureofcollege.org/2010/12/221-revision-3/',0,'revision','',0),(228,5,'2011-01-13 15:02:01','2011-01-13 15:02:01','The January 17 issue of <em>Time </em>has an article on \"Green Jeans,\" recounting Levi\'s attempt to make its jeans more sustainable, especially in terms of water use. A 2007 assessment showed that each pair of jeans used more than 800 gallons of water, the equivalent of running a garden hose for an hour and forty minutes. Using new techniques of stonewashing (to soften the fabric for consumers consumed by comfort), Levi\'s reduced their water usage by 28 percent. Cool! And a good example of what\'s already happening in business every day.\n\nNear the end of the article, a professor of fashion design and sustainability suggests that \"The waste can\'t be more important than the aesthetics. It should still be about designing beautiful things.\" But another possibility, mentioned in <em>The Nature of College, </em>is that sustainability might become an element of aesthetics. In the long run, it might be possible to create a culture in which pants wouldn\'t be considered beautiful if they weren\'t sustainable. As a character in the movie <em>Gandhi </em>says, \"There is no beauty in the finest cloth if it makes hunger or unhappiness.\" Or environmental degradation.','Green Jeans','','inherit','open','open','','227-revision','','','2011-01-13 15:02:01','2011-01-13 15:02:01','',227,'http://natureofcollege.org/2011/01/227-revision/',0,'revision','',0),(229,5,'2011-01-13 15:03:11','2011-01-13 15:03:11','The January 17 issue of <em>Time </em>has an article on \"Green Jeans,\" recounting Levi\'s attempt to make its jeans more sustainable, especially in terms of water use. A 2007 assessment showed that each pair of jeans used more than 800 gallons of water, the equivalent of running a garden hose for an hour and forty minutes. Using new techniques of stonewashing (to soften the fabric for consumers consumed by comfort), Levi\'s reduced their water usage by 28 percent. Cool! And a good example of what\'s already happening in business every day.\n\nNear the end of the article, a professor of fashion design and sustainability suggests that \"The waste can\'t be more important than the aesthetics. It should still be about designing beautiful things.\" But another possibility, mentioned in <em>The Nature of College, </em>is that sustainability might become an element of aesthetics. In the long run, it might be possible to create a culture in which pants wouldn\'t be considered beautiful if they weren\'t sustainable. As a character in the movie <em>Gandhi </em>says, \"There is no beauty in the finest cloth if it makes hunger or unhappiness.\" Or environmental degradation.','Green Jeans','','inherit','open','open','','227-autosave','','','2011-01-13 15:03:11','2011-01-13 15:03:11','',227,'http://natureofcollege.org/2011/01/227-autosave/',0,'revision','',0),(230,5,'2011-01-13 15:02:06','2011-01-13 15:02:06','The January 17 issue of <em>Time </em>has an article on \"Green Jeans,\" recounting Levi\'s attempt to make its jeans more sustainable, especially in terms of water use. A 2007 assessment showed that each pair of jeans used more than 800 gallons of water, the equivalent of running a garden hose for an hour and forty minutes. Using new techniques of stonewashing (to soften the fabric for consumers consumed by comfort), Levi\'s reduced their water usage by 28 percent. Cool! And a good example of what\'s already happening in business every day.\r\n\r\nNear the end of the article, a professor of fashion design and sustainability suggests that \"The waste can\'t be more important than the aesthetics. It should still be about designing beautiful things.\" But another possibility, mentioned in <em>The Nature of College, </em>is that sustainability might become an element of aesthetics. In the long run, it might be possible to create a culture in which pants wouldn\'t be considered beautiful if they weren\'t sustainable. As a character in the movie <em>Gandhi </em>says, \"There is no beauty in the finest cloth if it makes hunger or unhappiness.\" Or environmental degradation.','Green Jeans','','inherit','open','open','','227-revision-2','','','2011-01-13 15:02:06','2011-01-13 15:02:06','',227,'http://natureofcollege.org/2011/01/227-revision-2/',0,'revision','',0),(238,5,'2011-01-29 12:39:15','2011-01-29 12:39:15','What do we need to know to live sustainably? There are mountains of books that answer that question, and many of them quite intelligently. But fewer books wonder how we need to <em>feel </em>to live sustainably, and fewer yet address the <em>skills </em>we\'ll need for the ecological revolution of the 21st century. <em>The Handbook of Sustainability Literacy </em>does all three--and, even better, it\'s available both in book form and online--and the mulimedia edition is available right <a href=\"http://www.sustainability-literacy.org/index.html\">here</a>! \"The starting point for the book is not the environmental problems which are undermining the ability of the earth to support life, but instead the social, cultural and economic systems that give rise to these problems. And instead of featuring essays on green tech and/or green consumption, the handbook offers instead short meditations on skills like ecological intelligence, commons thinking, systems thinking, carbon capability, materials awareness, finding meaning without consuming, and beauty as a way of knowing. And it concludes with four short chapters on the educational transformation needed for genuine sustainability literacy.\r\n\r\n<a rel=\"attachment wp-att-239\" href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/2011/01/the-handbook-of-sustainability-literacy/covern-handbook-of-sustainability-literacy/\"><img class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-239\" title=\"Covern--Handbook of Sustainability Literacy\" src=\"http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/Covern-Handbook-of-Sustainability-Literacy-216x320.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"216\" height=\"320\" /></a>It begins with Greg Garrard\'s essay on ecocriticism, which he defines not merely as a theoretical perspective for English majors, but as a survival technique for everyday people. Ecocriticism is, he says, \"the ability to critique existing discourses, cultural artefacts, forms and genres, and explore alternatives.\" And he suggests ways to investigate both the \"infosphere\"--our semantic environment, including TV, music, ads, pop-ups, webpages, social media, etc.--and the biosphere so that we finally arrive at an understanding of how the one <em>really </em>relates to the other--and how we\'re responsible for the relationship.\r\n\r\nThis handbook is a challenge to our thinking--and a challenge to <em>just thinking</em>. If offers perspectives that include the whole person, and skills that can engage us in the good work ahead. You\'ll hear more about it here.','The Handbook of Sustainability Literacy','','publish','closed','closed','','the-handbook-of-sustainability-literacy','','','2018-07-09 14:31:59','2018-07-09 19:31:59','',0,'http://natureofcollege.org/?p=238',0,'post','',1),(232,5,'2011-01-16 12:54:57','2011-01-16 12:54:57','In December, Bill Sammons, managing editor of Fox News in Washington, sent the following memo to staff:\r\n\r\n<strong><em>From</em></strong><em>: Sammon, Bill\r\n<strong>To</strong>: 169 -SPECIAL REPORT; 036 -FOX.WHU; 054 -FNSunday; 030 -Root (FoxNews.Com); 050 -Senior Producers; 051 -Producers; 069 -Politics; 005 -Washington\r\n<strong>Cc</strong>: Clemente, Michael; Stack, John; Wallace, Jay; Smith, Sean\r\n<strong>Sent</strong>: Tue Dec 08 12:49:51 2009\r\n<strong>Subject</strong>: Given the controversy over the veracity of climate change data...<strong> </strong></em>\r\n\r\n<em>...we should refrain from asserting that the planet has warmed (or cooled) in any given period without IMMEDIATELY pointing out that such theories are based upon data that critics have called into question. It is not our place as journalists to assert such notions as facts, especially as this debate intensifies.</em>\r\n\r\nThis fits perfectly with the observations made by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway in <em><a href=\"http://www.amazon.com/Merchants-Doubt-Handful-Scientists-Obscured/dp/1596916109/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1295182691&amp;sr=1-1\">Merchants of Doubt</a>, </em>which shows how scientists (well-funded by conservative organizations) obscured the truth about tobacco, ozone, acid rain and global warming.\r\n\r\nBut it also suggests another possibility, a memo, perhaps, suggesting that people might refrain from using the phrase “Fox News” without IMMEDIATELY pointing out that critics have called into question whether the channel broadcasts news, or just notions compatible with the success of the Republican Party and the profits of corporate America.','All the News That\'s Fit to Fox','','publish','closed','closed','','all-the-news-thats-fit-to-fox','','','2018-07-09 14:31:59','2018-07-09 19:31:59','',0,'http://natureofcollege.org/?p=232',0,'post','',0),(233,5,'2011-01-16 12:53:53','2011-01-16 12:53:53','','All the News That\'s Fit to Fox','','inherit','open','open','','232-revision','','','2011-01-16 12:53:53','2011-01-16 12:53:53','',232,'http://natureofcollege.org/2011/01/232-revision/',0,'revision','',0),(234,5,'2011-01-16 17:23:27','2011-01-16 17:23:27','In December, Bill Sammons, managing editor of Fox News in Washington, sent the following memo to staff:\n\n<strong><em>From</em></strong><em>: Sammon, Bill\n<strong>To</strong>: 169 -SPECIAL REPORT; 036 -FOX.WHU; 054 -FNSunday; 030 -Root (FoxNews.Com); 050 -Senior Producers; 051 -Producers; 069 -Politics; 005 -Washington\n<strong>Cc</strong>: Clemente, Michael; Stack, John; Wallace, Jay; Smith, Sean\n<strong>Sent</strong>: Tue Dec 08 12:49:51 2009\n<strong>Subject</strong>: Given the controversy over the veracity of climate change data...<strong> </strong></em>\n\n<em>...we should refrain from asserting that the planet has warmed (or cooled) in any given period without IMMEDIATELY pointing out that such theories are based upon data that critics have called into question. It is not our place as journalists to assert such notions as facts, especially as this debate intensifies.</em>\n\nThis fits perfectly with the observations made by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway in <em><a href=\"http://www.amazon.com/Merchants-Doubt-Handful-Scientists-Obscured/dp/1596916109/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1295182691&amp;sr=1-1\">Merchants of Doubt</a>, </em>which shows how scientists (well-funded by conservative organizations) obscured the truth about tobacco, ozone, acid rain and global warming.\n\nBut it also suggests another possibility, a memo, perhaps, suggesting that people might refrain from using the phrase “Fox News” without IMMEDIATELY pointing out that critics have called into question whether the channel broadcasts news, or just notions compatible with the success of the Republican Party and the profits of corporate America.','All the News That\'s Fit to Fox','','inherit','open','open','','232-autosave','','','2011-01-16 17:23:27','2011-01-16 17:23:27','',232,'http://natureofcollege.org/2011/01/232-autosave/',0,'revision','',0),(235,5,'2011-01-16 12:54:57','2011-01-16 12:54:57','In December, Bill Sammons, managing editor of Fox News in Washington, sent the following memo to staff:\r\n\r\n<strong><em>From</em></strong><em>: Sammon, Bill\r\n<strong>To</strong>: 169 -SPECIAL REPORT; 036 -FOX.WHU; 054 -FNSunday; 030 -Root (FoxNews.Com); 050 -Senior Producers; 051 -Producers; 069 -Politics; 005 -Washington\r\n<strong>Cc</strong>: Clemente, Michael; Stack, John; Wallace, Jay; Smith, Sean\r\n<strong>Sent</strong>: Tue Dec 08 12:49:51 2009\r\n<strong>Subject</strong>: Given the controversy over the veracity of climate change data...<strong> </strong></em>\r\n\r\n<em>...we should refrain from asserting that the planet has warmed (or cooled) in any given period without IMMEDIATELY pointing out that such theories are based upon data that critics have called into question. It is not our place as journalists to assert such notions as facts, especially as this debate intensifies.</em>\r\n\r\nThis fits perfectly with the observations made by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway in <em>Merchants of Doubt, </em>which shows how scientists (well-funded by conservative organizations) obscured the truth about tobacco, ozone, acid rain and global warming.\r\n\r\nBut it also suggests another possibility, a memo, perhaps, suggesting that people might refrain from using the phrase “Fox News” without IMMEDIATELY pointing out that critics have called into question whether the channel broadcasts news, or just notions compatible with the success of the Republican Party and the profits of corporate America.','All the News That\'s Fit to Fox','','inherit','open','open','','232-revision-2','','','2011-01-16 12:54:57','2011-01-16 12:54:57','',232,'http://natureofcollege.org/2011/01/232-revision-2/',0,'revision','',0),(236,5,'2010-12-08 23:06:29','2010-12-08 23:06:29','For a quick sample of the writing an analysis in <em>The Nature of College, </em>here\'s a pdf of Chapter One, in which Joe and Jo College wake up in their respective rooms, and get read for the day ahead.\r\n\r\n[button]<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/Farrell-Waking-up-to-Nature.pdf\">Waking Up to Nature</a>[/button]','Chapter One: Waking Up to Nature','','inherit','open','open','','221-revision-4','','','2010-12-08 23:06:29','2010-12-08 23:06:29','',221,'http://natureofcollege.org/2010/12/221-revision-4/',0,'revision','',0),(237,5,'2011-01-21 04:36:50','2011-01-21 04:36:50','For a quick sample of the writing an analysis in <em>The Nature of College, </em>here\'s a pdf of Chapter One, in which Joe and Jo College wake up in their respective rooms, and get ready for the day ahead.\r\n\r\n[button]<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/Farrell-Waking-up-to-Nature.pdf\">Waking Up to Nature</a>[/button]','Chapter One: Waking Up to Nature','','inherit','open','open','','221-revision-5','','','2011-01-21 04:36:50','2011-01-21 04:36:50','',221,'http://natureofcollege.org/2011/01/221-revision-5/',0,'revision','',0),(239,5,'2011-01-29 12:38:12','2011-01-29 12:38:12','','Covern--Handbook of Sustainability Literacy','','inherit','open','open','','covern-handbook-of-sustainability-literacy','','','2011-01-29 12:38:12','2011-01-29 12:38:12','',238,'http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/Covern-Handbook-of-Sustainability-Literacy.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(240,5,'2011-01-29 12:38:52','2011-01-29 12:38:52','What do we need to know to live sustainably? There are mountains of books that answer that question, and many of them quite intelligently. But fewer books wonder how we need to <em>feel </em>to live sustainably, and fewer yet address the <em>skills </em>we\'ll need for the ecological revolution of the 21st century. <em>The Handbook of Sustainability Literacy </em>does all three--and, even better, it\'s available both in book form and online--and the mulimedia edition is available right <a href=\"http://www.sustainability-literacy.org/index.html\">here</a>! \"The starting point for the book is not the environmental problems which are undermining the ability of the earth to support life, but instead the social, cultural and economic systems that give rise to these problems. And instead of featuring essays on green tech and/or green consumption, the handbook offers instead short meditations on skills like ecological intelligence, commons thinking, systems thinking, carbon capability, materials awareness, finding meaning without consuming, and beauty as a way of knowing. And it concludes with four short chapters on the educational transformation needed for genuine sustainability literacy.\n\n<a rel=\"attachment wp-att-239\" href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/?attachment_id=239\"><img class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-239\" title=\"Covern--Handbook of Sustainability Literacy\" src=\"http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/Covern-Handbook-of-Sustainability-Literacy-216x320.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"216\" height=\"320\" /></a>It begins with Greg Garrard\'s essay on ecocriticism, which he defines not merely as a theoretical perspective for English majors, but as a survival technique for everyday people. Ecocriticism is, he says, \"the ability to critique existing discourses, cultural artefacts, forms and genres, and explore alternatives.\" And he suggests ways to investigate both the \"infosphere\"--our semantic environment, including TV, music, ads, pop-ups, webpages, social media, etc.--and the biosphere so that we finally arrive at an understanding of how the one <em>really </em>relates to the other--and how we\'re responsible for the relationship.\n\nThis handbook is a challenge to our thinking--and a challenge to <em>just thinking</em>. If offers perspectives that include the whole person, and skills that can engage us in the good work ahead. You\'ll hear more about it here.','The Handbook of Sustainability Literacy','','inherit','open','open','','238-revision','','','2011-01-29 12:38:52','2011-01-29 12:38:52','',238,'http://natureofcollege.org/2011/01/238-revision/',0,'revision','',0),(241,5,'2011-01-29 12:39:15','2011-01-29 12:39:15','What do we need to know to live sustainably? There are mountains of books that answer that question, and many of them quite intelligently. But fewer books wonder how we need to <em>feel </em>to live sustainably, and fewer yet address the <em>skills </em>we\'ll need for the ecological revolution of the 21st century. <em>The Handbook of Sustainability Literacy </em>does all three--and, even better, it\'s available both in book form and online--and the mulimedia edition is available right <a href=\"http://www.sustainability-literacy.org/index.html\">here</a>! \"The starting point for the book is not the environmental problems which are undermining the ability of the earth to support life, but instead the social, cultural and economic systems that give rise to these problems. And instead of featuring essays on green tech and/or green consumption, the handbook offers instead short meditations on skills like ecological intelligence, commons thinking, systems thinking, carbon capability, materials awareness, finding meaning without consuming, and beauty as a way of knowing. And it concludes with four short chapters on the educational transformation needed for genuine sustainability literacy.\r\n\r\n<a rel=\"attachment wp-att-239\" href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/?attachment_id=239\"><img class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-239\" title=\"Covern--Handbook of Sustainability Literacy\" src=\"http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/Covern-Handbook-of-Sustainability-Literacy-216x320.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"216\" height=\"320\" /></a>It begins with Greg Garrard\'s essay on ecocriticism, which he defines not merely as a theoretical perspective for English majors, but as a survival technique for everyday people. Ecocriticism is, he says, \"the ability to critique existing discourses, cultural artefacts, forms and genres, and explore alternatives.\" And he suggests ways to investigate both the \"infosphere\"--our semantic environment, including TV, music, ads, pop-ups, webpages, social media, etc.--and the biosphere so that we finally arrive at an understanding of how the one <em>really </em>relates to the other--and how we\'re responsible for the relationship.\r\n\r\nThis handbook is a challenge to our thinking--and a challenge to <em>just thinking</em>. If offers perspectives that include the whole person, and skills that can engage us in the good work ahead. You\'ll hear more about it here.','The Handbook of Sustainability Literacy','','inherit','open','open','','238-revision-2','','','2011-01-29 12:39:15','2011-01-29 12:39:15','',238,'http://natureofcollege.org/2011/01/238-revision-2/',0,'revision','',0),(247,5,'2011-03-13 02:05:59','2011-03-13 02:05:59','<strong><em>Action/information ratio: </em>The amount of action that comes from each unit of information; the practices that come from knowledge; thus, the practical consequences of learning.  TV news, in general, has a ratio of zero.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Activist</em></strong>: <strong>A person who does something about environmental (and other) problems, instead of just bitching about them.  Synonym: citizen.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Air conditioning:</em></strong> <strong>A way of warming the planet by cooling the air.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Appeerances:</em> The way that peer pressure looks in our lives.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Apposite sex: </em></strong><strong>The appropriate sex for sexuality.  For heterosexuals, the apposite sex is the opposite sex, but for homosexuals it’s not.  “Apposite” means “fitting, suitable, appropriate,”so the term “apposite sex” helps us to remember that we’re not all heterosexual.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Asceticism: </em>The art of getting more life with less stuff, a practice of restraint which is increasingly rare in a consumer society that promotes self-indulgence more than self-discipline. </strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Automobility: </em>The combination of ideas, assumptions, institutions and technologies that have driven Americans (in cars) since the early 20<sup>th</sup> century.  See <em>Car culture.</em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Bearthday: </em>1) The day on which a person is born; 2) The day on which the elements of the earth combine to produce a human being, whose being is, in fact, inextricable connected to the nurturing of people and the planet’s ecosystem services; 3) A day that might be ritualized not just as a celebration of one life, but as a celebration of the many lives involved in one life.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Beer: </em>The elixir of college life, the fermented beverage that foments fellowship and fun and fantasy and audacity and hook-ups and unconsciousness and hangovers, among other things. </strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Bitching</em>: A characteristic conversational mode in the college culture of complaint, an expression of cynicism, learned helplessness, and quiet desperation.  Antonym: <em>hope.</em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Boredom: </em>1) Mindless, listless tedium, brought on by a lack of stimulation or a lack of imagination; 2) The primary social disease of college life, often cured by TV or video games or pharmaceuticals or fun.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Boycott:</em> A way of putting our money where our values are, a protest withdrawing business from merchants who have withdrawn from the moral economy of the culture.  \"We boycott,\" said Martin Luther King, \"not to put people out of business, but to put justice into business.\"</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Buycott: </em>A way of putting our money where our values are by buying goods that are good for people and the planet.  If you believe that sustainability is a good thing, you can buycott manufacturers by purchasing organic foods or textiles, by looking for energy-efficient appliances and cars, and by preferring recycled products.  In this way, consumers get to make the market work for the good life instead of just for profits.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Carcass: The body of a person who drives a car.</em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Comfearth:</em> The amount of comfort that’s consistent with sustainability.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Comfort:</em> One of the most important American environmental values.  See <em>comfearth.</em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Commodity: </em>A thing, specifically a thing that can be bought and sold; thus, everything in a capitalist economy, including the labor (and sometimes the bodies) of human beings.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Commodity fetishism:</em> A fetish is, in primitive societies like ours, an object believed to have magical qualities—like toothpaste, which effectively cleans teeth and magically attracts the opposite sex.  Fetishism is the belief in such fetishes.  For Marx, one of the magical things about such fetishes is the way they work in disappearing acts.  When people focus on money and stuff, the social and environmental consequences of money and stuff magically disappear. </strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Commodity self:</em> The identity of a person expressed by the things a person owns.  If you are what you own, what are you?  A commodity self.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Common sense: </em>The ordinary and everyday interpretation of reality, a social construction of a community for the convenience of its members.  The sense that we don’t need to think more deeply about the reasons for our lives. Antonym: <em>Uncommon sense.</em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Commons sense: The common sense of the 21<sup>st</sup> century, in which “everybody knows” that human life depends on other lives in the biosphere—and the health of the biosphere itself.</em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Compartmentalization</em>: The cultural sport of boxing, sorting ourselves into the boxes we call specialization—or, in academia, departments.  See <em>myopia.</em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Consumer forgetfulness: </em>Ignorance of, or intentional ignoring, the implications of our consumption and materialism.  In writing about 19<sup>th</sup> century transformations in the making of meat, historian William Cronon reminds us that “The packing plants distanced their customers most of all from the act of killing. . . . The more people became accustomed to the attractively cut, carefully wrapped, cunningly displayed packages that Swift had introduced to the trade, the more they could fail to remember that their purchase had once pulsed and breathed with a life much like their own. . . . In the packers’ world, it was easy not to remember that eating was a moral act inextricably bound to killing.  Such was the second nature that a corporate order had imposed on the American landscape.  Forgetfulness was among the least noticed and most important of its by-products.” </strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Convenience: </em>One of the core values of American consumer culture, the idea that saving time is a saving grace, even when it reduces the amount of care and cooperation and sustainability in the society.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Cultural work: </em> The work performed by actions and artifacts that reinforces (or challenges) cultural values, assumptions and expectations.  Grades, for example, tell us how we did on papers and exams, but they also do cultural work, reinforcing patterns of authority, hierarchy, quantification, and the reification of values. Bananas are good food, but they also do cultural work, reinforcing patterns of globalization, free trade, resourcism, and underdevelopment (they weren’t called “banana republics” for nothing.)</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Cynicism: </em>Despairing doubtfulness, a defense against the challenges of hopefulness and idealism.  A common reflex of college students; as Mark Edmundson says, “Cynicism became their habitual mode.  They are the progeny of Bart Simpson and David Letterman, and the hyper-cool ethos of the box.”  See <em>realism.</em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Dense fact: </em>A cultural act or artifact, as seen by a person with a connecting mind. </strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Designing minds:</em> Minds designed to see the designs of nature and culture, <em>and </em>to design a society that harmonizes them happily ever after.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong> </strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Distraction: </em>The act of paying attention to the wrong thing.  In the early 21<sup>st</sup> century, Americans live in a culture of distraction, designed to keep us thinking about white teeth and white  laundry, about beer and big breasts, about junk food and giant cars, about fun and fashion, instead of liberty and justice for all. </strong>\r\n\r\n<strong> </strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Ecologician:</em> 1) A student of ecology, including the moral ecology of everyday life; 2) a magician who practices the arts of regenerative design; 3) us, if we choose to be.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Ecosystem services: </em>what nature does to nurture us, producing such things as the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat, the fibers we wear, the bacteria that help to digest our food, and the instincts that drive us when we’re not driving ourselves.  In addition, nature supplies habitat, produces soil, supplies lumber, manufactures medicines, prevents floods, controls pests, regulates climate, develops genes, maintains biodiversity, and absorbs wastes—all without cost to people.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Enchantment of goods:</em> Making magic with materialism. <em> </em>In a scientific, semi-secular society, most of us don’t believe that there’s magic in the world—except in our products, which routinely cause magical transformations in people and their places.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Enough: </em> An obsolete word that used to connote a sufficiency.  In modern America, enough is not enough, because there\'s still more, and it\'s new and improved.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Ethicurean: </em>A person who seeks out tasty things that are also <em>s</em>ustainable, organic, local, and/or ethical — SOLE food, for short.  See <a href=\"http://www.ethicurean.com/\">www.ethicurean.com</a>. </strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Expressed values: </em>The values we say we love and live, as opposed to the ones we actually practice.  Many Americans express environmental values, but they live as if environmental impacts occurred only in other places—which, often, they do. See <em>operative values.</em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Extensive pleasure: </em>The pleasure derived from living in right relation to the world.  Eating is a good example. According to Wendell Berry, good food tastes good, but when you know that food has been carefully and conscientiously prepared (from farm to fork), it tastes better.  See <em>intensive pleasure.</em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Extinction:</em> The death of dying for a species, the transformation from life to obliteration</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Extrospection: </em>The practice of looking outside the self to understand the self.  When we see the consequences of our lives, we get a better idea of who we are.  Ant.: <em>introspection</em></strong>\r\n\r\n<em> </em>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Facebook:</em> An online social network that substitutes profiles, poking and writing on walls for face-to-face conversation, which is so old-fashioned.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Familyism: </em>The focus on the family of American culture, in which we sometimes sacrifice the public good and environmental health for the good of our families.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Flow: </em>A state of satisfaction more fulfilling than fun, an active engagement in work or play in which a person loses themselves in the intrinsic interest of the activity.  The deep pleasure that comes from intense engagement in play, in the play of work, in a problem, in a quest or a question, or in another person. The goal of a good society.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Food: </em>Nature converted to culture converted, by cooking and preparation and dining, to human nature.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Fun morality: </em>The idea that people ought to have fun in the socially accepted ways that people in beer commercials do.  The idea that leisure is our duty allows merchants to sell us our own leisure time.  See <em>free time.</em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Fundamentalism: </em>The primary religion of American life, the idea that people are created to have fun. Fundamentalism explains why the great American interdenominational prayer is “Thank God it’s Friday.” </strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Freakological era</em>: The freakish time period between 1800 and 2000 in which human beings seemingly expected that they could live well by compromising other lives on the planet.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong> </strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Global warming:</em></strong> A euphemism for the climate changes that are occurring as people heat up the planet.  See <strong><em>global weirding</em>.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Global weirding:</em> A phrase coined by Amory Lovins to emphasize the catastrophic climate changes that accompany global warming, including drought, heat waves, thunderstorms, hurricanes, blizzards, dust storms, plant and animal extinctions and population explosions, spreading pests and diseases, human starvation and social upheaval.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Habitat: </em>1. In nature, the environment in which an organism or biological population normally lives; 2. In culture, the sum total of our habits, the way we inhabit our habitat. One of the most important questions of ecology is how well human habits are adapted to the habitats that <em>homo sapiens</em> occupies, all of which are on a planet with a beleaguered biosphere.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Hope:</em> 1) The practice of possibility; 2) the art of making the good life a better life—and not just for people.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Hoping mechanism:</em> A person, community, institution, text, image, performance or artwork that sustains our hope for sustainability. Ant: <em> coping mechanism</em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Ignorance:</em> 1. Lack of knowledge. 2. Avoidance of knowledge, as when we actively ignore the signs of global weirding in order to preserve a culture of comfort and materialism.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Ignorant knowledge:</em> (from David Orr)  Decontextualized knowledge, knowledge that ignores the bigger pictures of human fulfillment and environmental health.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>In<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">car</span>ceration:</em> The voluntary process of imprisonment in cars, a process carried out over the course of the 20<sup>th</sup> century. </strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Industrial lawn:</em> A form of industrial agriculture, the application of industrial processes (chemical fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, fossil-fueled mowers) to the growth of a crop which is harvested weekly and thrown out.  See also <em>freedom lawn</em>.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Inhabitant:</em> A person whose habits are in synch with their environment, a human being who fits within nature’s regenerative cycles, a person who makes a habit of harmony. </strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Insight:</em> The sight you get when you think about what you see, and about the cultural norms that frame perception. </strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Interbeing: </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Interdependence: </em></strong>The only kind of independence there is, xxxxxx.  See interbeing.\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Invisible technology: </em>A tool so familiar that we forget that we’re using it and it’s using us. Grades are an invisible technology, a tool designed to communicate quality to students, but a tool which also naturalizes such ideas as the standardization of excellence, the importance of hierarchy, and the identity of the self (“a B student.”)</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>The Joneses:</em> The mythical other, responsible for motivating the real us to consume.  The family next door (figuratively) who put pressure on us to keep up with their appearance of wealth by buying things.  Synonym: us. See <em>peer socialization</em>.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Know-how: </em>Instrumental knowledge, often technological.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Know-why: </em>Instrumental wisdom, often philosophical.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Latent function: </em>The unintended function of an action or artifact.  Sometimes, ironically, a function at odds with the manifest function.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Lifestyle: </em>1) The complexity of life, reduced to the simplicity of consumption and commercial style; 2) A life, conceived as a collection of commodities.  See <em>commodity self</em>.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Manifest function:</em> The expressed or intended function of an action or artifact.  The manifest function of this class is to help students learn American Studies.  The latent functions are something else.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Mindfulness:</em> The quality of attention and care that keeps earth in mind, so that we can mind our own social and environmental behavior. Antonym: mindlessness.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Mining: </em>1) Extraction of minerals from the earth’s crust for human benefit; 2) Making things mine by buying them; 3) Making people, plants and animals mine by appreciating them and taking responsibility for them.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Moral amnesia: </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Moral drift:</em></strong> In “Bad Politics and Silly Literature,” Carol Bly\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Moral ecology: </em>According to <em>Habits of the Heart</em>, moral ecology is \"the web of moral understandings and commitments that tie people together in community.\"  In this book, moral ecology is the web of moral understandings and commitments that tie people together with each other and with nature.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong>Moral economy: The underlying sense of fairness that makes markets work not just for the benefit of capitalists and consumers, but for all people and the planet.  In the past, when manufacturers violated the moral economy of a culture, they paid for it with strikes, boycotts, riots, etc.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Murketing:</em> 1) Promoting consumption by converting human hopes into commercial fantasies, half-truths, and lies; 2) the process of making complexity invisible. </strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Necessity: </em>Something we need, or something that everybody else has.  Necessities are always cultural and (in this culture) usually commercial.  In his trenchant essay “A Sad Heart at the Supermarket,” poet Randall Jarrell noted that in American “the frontier of necessity” always moves forward.  And in <em>The Overspent American</em>, Juliet Schor shows how many things are now “necessities” in American life.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Need: </em>A verb with expansive meanings.  When Americans say they \"need\" something, most often it means that they \"want\" it.  And in a capitalist society, invention is often the mother of necessity as advertisers try to create a demand for what they can supply.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Noah principle:</em> 1. According to David Ehrenfield, the idea that all species have a right to exist (and by extension, to be protected); 2. The <em>precautionary principle</em>: in the face of the deluge, it’s prudent to build an ark.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Operative values: </em> The values we really live by.  Few people—even politicians—espouse the value of convenience, but almost all of us live by it.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Ordinary consumption: </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Opportunity costs:</em> The cost of missed opportunities; what you might have purchased instead of the things you did.  On the personal level, I might have purchased a co-op membership instead of an iPhone.  On a national level, Americans might have purchased renewable energy or increased energy efficiency instead of a war in Iraq.   Opportunity costs do not include the costs of missed opportunities, like the global climate change that’s coming from the missed opportunities for reducing our use of fossil fuels.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Overshoot:</em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Peer pressure: </em>One form of peer socialization, in which your friends and fellow students exert their influence to get you to conform to social expectations of a culture or subculture, even when those expectations are environmentally disastrous.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Peer socialization: </em>The way we teach each other how to think and act in a consumer culture.  Usually peer socialization works to help us live up to the low expectations of a consumer society.  But it can also be a force for creating a life that’s better than “a good life.”</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Perfect standard: </em></strong>(Paul Loeb)\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Permaculture: </em>1) The agriculture of forever, cultivating plants and animals in perennial, closed-loop systems; 2) The culture of permanence, cultivating human beings in cultures rooted in the land and in an ethic of ever after, practicing regenerative design in all aspects of living. </strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Photosynthesis:</em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Planned obsolescence: </em>The art of designing products that don’t last, either functionally or fashionably, so that manufacturers can increase sales. Disposable products are good examples of functional obsolescence, while fashion trends and the annual model change in cars are good examples of stylish obsolescence. On college campuses, new textbook editions speed obsolescence as well.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Politics:</em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Practical idealism:</em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Precautionary principle: </em>A canon of carefulness, the idea that people proposing risky behavior must prove the benefit of the risks before proceeding.  Environmentally, it means that people shouldn’t conduct experiments with the planet; instead we should conduct experiments in the lab <em>before</em> we pollute the planet or alter the atmosphere.  Although the term is relatively new, the idea is old, an essential part of folk wisdom.  “Better safe than sorry” and “look before you leap” are the common sense of the precautionary principle.  The precautionary principle is also a way of reminding ourselves that the bottom line of business doesn’t go deep enough—a better bottom line considers the health of people and the planet.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Product chain: </em>The sequence of events by which nature becomes culture, as a natural resource is produced, processed, packaged, shipped, distributed, sold, consumed and discarded. </strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Professor: </em>1) The chairman of the bored; 2) Any person who professes values, either academically or actually; 3) Us.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Progress: </em></strong>1) xxxxxxxxxxxxx; 2) Regress.\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Ratcheting: </em>A process of rising expectations whereby today’s luxuries become tomorrow’s necessities.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Real world:</em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Remote control: </em>1) The device we use to control our TVs and other electronics; 2) the designs we use to control the world, socially and environmentally. Eating, for example, is a form of remote control.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Republicanism</em>: From the Latin “res publica” (the public things), the quaint idea that private virtue is necessary for the public good. </strong>\r\n\r\n<strong> </strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Republican Party: </em>The quaint idea that private enterprise is the same thing as private virtue and the public good, even though corporations are legally bound to serve the interests of shareholders before any public purposes.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Responsibility: </em>(also spelled response-ability) The human ability to respond carefully and comprehensively to one’s environment</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Reverse adaptation: </em>The process by which people become tools of their tools.  When Americans began to adapt their culture to cars—or other technologies—they practiced reverse adaptation.  When college students worry more about their grades—an invisible technology—than their learning, they practice reverse adaptation.  When people do things for the sake of the economy—instead of the other way around—it’s reverse adaptation.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Road kill: </em>A popular form of animal sacrifice, in which we take life (including human life) to drive wherever we please. </strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Sabbath:</em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Sacramentality: </em>The radical idea that we all live in the Holy Land.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Sacrifice:</em> (obs.) The idea that a person who can have it all might prefer to give some of it to somebody else.  In a culture of individualism, this is a crazy idea.  In a culture of the common good, it’s common sense.  Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King believed in redemptive sacrifice.  George W. Bush was afraid to use the word, except for soldiers who are sacrificing their lives for oil and other national interests..  See <em>virtue.</em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Scenery:</em> The predominant way that nature is seen (and scene) in American culture, the way that land becomes landscape.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Seeing:</em> 1. The act of perception. 2. The art of perception, honed by practices of attentive mindfulness.  See Annie Dillard on “Seeing” in <em>Pilgrim at Tinker Creek</em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Silence: </em>One way we make environmental history, the sound that most of us make in response to the degradation of natural systems.  “<em>All </em>of us are collaborators in this silence,” says Sallie McFague.  “We enjoy the consumer lifestyle; in fact, most of us are addicted to it, and, like addicts, we cheerfully live in a state of denial.”</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Sitizen:</em> A person whose civic engagement consists of sitting around and bitching about the state of the world, the gridlock in Washington, the environmental crisis, and the bias of the media, without ever doing a damn thing about it. Antonym: <em>Citizen </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Social capital:</em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Spirituality:</em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Sustainability:</em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Television:</em> 1) a technology for transmitting sound and images, and for transforming culture by distracting people from big questions; 2) a way of seeing the world, a vision of the world that focuses on the bottom line and the lowest common denominator.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Time poverty: </em>Part of the price we pay for affluence, because we generally have to spend too much time working to make the money we spend.  In <em>Walden</em>, Thoreau calculated that the price of a thing was the time it took to acquire it.  But even though most college students read Thoreau, most of us still ignore him.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Totem: </em>1) An animal, plant or object that serves as the emblem of a clan or tribe or family because of common ancestry.  Many Indian tribes identified with animals which looked over or helped them.  2) An animal, plant or object that serves as the emblem of an object like a car: the Ford Mustang, the Chevy Volt, Dodge Ram, etc.  Such totems capture the “spirit” of the car, and transfer those spiritual powers to the driver.   3) The natural symbol of a college or university, especially its sports teams.  Such symbols, originally called totems but now called mascots, most often represent predators, perhaps because college teaches students practices of predation. </strong>\r\n\r\n<strong> </strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Virtue: </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Waste:</em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Water cycle:</em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Wisdom:</em> The goal of education, almost never discussed, because people become wise by asking whys. </strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Wonder: </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Wor(l)dplay:</em> The art of using words to challenge worldviews, and change the world.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Zen affluence: </em>The art of having much by wanting little, the art of having your heart’s desire by restraining your desire.  For people who live in what William Leach calls “the land of desire,” this is not an easy trick.  See <em>desire.</em> </strong>','The Ecologician\'s Dictionary: Coming to Terms','','publish','closed','closed','','the-ecologicians-dictionary-2','','','2018-07-09 14:32:20','2018-07-09 19:32:20','',75,'http://natureofcollege.org/',0,'page','',0),(243,5,'2011-02-19 12:32:44','2011-02-19 12:32:44','In his 1992 book <em>Earth in Mind, </em>David Orr lamented that\r\n\r\n<em> </em>\r\n\r\n<em>We are currently preparing to launch yet another of our periodic national crusades to improve education. I am in favor of improving education, but what does it mean to improve education and what great ends will that improved education serve? The answer now offered from high places is that we must equip our youths to compete in the world economy. The great fear is that we will not be able to produce as many automobiles, VCRs, digital TVs, or supercomputers as the Japanese or Europeans. In contrast, I worry that we <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">will</span></em> <em>compete all too effectively on an earth already seriously overstressed by the production of things economists count and too little production of things that are not easily countable such as well-loved children, good cities, healthy forests, stable climate, healthy rural communities, sustainable family farms, and diversity of all sorts. Many of the educational reforms now being proposed have little to do with the goals of personal wholeness, or the pursuit of truth and understanding, and even less to do with the great issues of how we might live within the limits of the earth.  The reformers aim to produce people whose purposes and outlook are narrowly economic, not to educate citizens and certainly not “citizens of the biotic community.”</em>\r\n\r\n<em> </em>\r\n\r\nTwenty years later, the rhetoric of education is much the same. President Obama asks for innovative education to “win the future” for the United States. The President knows, of course, that the future includes green technology and ecological design, and his administration is nudging the American people, including resistant Republicans, in the direction of a sustainable society. But what’s notable, as Orr suggests, how little we address the deeper issues of culture, including the critical question of “how much is too much?” What about the things that really count (but aren’t counted) like healthy children and families, cities with pedestrian neighborhoods, a healthy rural economy, and the personal fulfillment that comes from sacrifice for something larger than the self and the nuclear family? What about civic engagement, and the practice of citizenship, which presumes that “we, the people” can use our government not just to reduce taxes but to nudge us toward a better world? And what about educating students who know how to live within the limits of the earth? That would be educational reform worth working for.','The Dangers of Education','','publish','closed','closed','','the-dangers-of-education','','','2018-07-09 14:31:59','2018-07-09 19:31:59','',0,'http://natureofcollege.org/?p=243',0,'post','',0),(244,5,'2011-02-19 12:19:21','2011-02-19 12:19:21','','The Dangers of Education','','inherit','open','open','','243-revision','','','2011-02-19 12:19:21','2011-02-19 12:19:21','',243,'http://natureofcollege.org/2011/02/243-revision/',0,'revision','',0),(245,5,'2011-02-19 12:33:49','2011-02-19 12:33:49','In his 1992 book <em>Earth in Mind, </em>David Orr lamented that\n\n<em> </em>\n\n<em>We are currently preparing to launch yet another of our periodic national crusades to improve education. I am in favor of improving education, but what does it mean to improve education and what great ends will that improved education serve? The answer now offered from high places is that we must equip our youths to compete in the world economy. The great fear is that we will not be able to produce as many automobiles, VCRs, digital TVs, or supercomputers as the Japanese or Europeans. In contrast, I worry that we <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">will</span></em> <em>compete all too effectively on an earth already seriously overstressed by the production of things economists count and too little production of things that are not easily countable such as well-loved children, good cities, healthy forests, stable climate, healthy rural communities, sustainable family farms, and diversity of all sorts. Many of the educational reforms now being proposed have little to do with the goals of personal wholeness, or the pursuit of truth and understanding, and even less to do with the great issues of how we might live within the limits of the earth.  The reformers aim to produce people whose purposes and outlook are narrowly economic, not to educate citizens and certainly not “citizens of the biotic community.”</em>\n\n<em> </em>\n\nTwenty years later, the rhetoric of education is much the same. President Obama asks for innovative education to “win the future” for the United States. The President knows, of course, that the future includes green technology and ecological design, and his administration is nudging the American people, including resistant Republicans, in the direction of a sustainable society. But what’s notable, as Orr suggests, how little we address the deeper issues of culture, including the critical question of “how much is too much?” What about the things that really count (but aren’t counted) like healthy children and families, cities with pedestrian neighborhoods, a healthy rural economy, and the personal fulfillment that comes from sacrifice for something larger than the self and the nuclear family? What about civic engagement, and the practice of citizenship, which presumes that “we, the people” can use our government not just to reduce taxes but to nudge us toward a better world? And what about educating students who know how to live within the limits of the earth? That would be educational reform worth working for.','The Dangers of Education','','inherit','open','open','','243-autosave','','','2011-02-19 12:33:49','2011-02-19 12:33:49','',243,'http://natureofcollege.org/2011/02/243-autosave/',0,'revision','',0),(810,5,'2012-06-28 22:50:24','2012-06-28 22:50:24','Many of the illustrations in the book come from the pen of Jens Matson, a 2010 St. Olaf graduate. They are pointed, witty and whimsical, and they add a whole new dimension to the book. Here they are without the distractions of the text. Enjoy!\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','Illustrations','','publish','closed','open','','illustrations','','','2018-07-09 14:32:19','2018-07-09 19:32:19','',2,'http://natureofcollege.org/?page_id=810',0,'page','',0),(806,5,'2012-04-10 15:44:37','2012-04-10 15:44:37','<strong>Valparaiso University, Valparaiso, Indiana, January 26, 2006</strong>\r\n\r\n<em>“Consuming U: How We Consume (at) College—and Why”</em>\r\n\r\n<strong>Spring Hill College, Mobile, Alabama, October 20, 2009</strong>\r\n\r\n<em>The Nature of Our Lives: Environmental Histories of College Culture”</em>\r\n\r\n2009 selection for the college’s Portier Lecture in History\r\n\r\n<strong>St. John’s University and College of St. Benedict, August 18-19, 2010</strong>\r\n\r\n<em>“The Nature of Our Lives: Sustainability and College Culture”</em>\r\n\r\nOpening Faculty and Staff Meeting, workshop on sustainability across the curriculum\r\n\r\n<strong>St. John’s University, September 9-10, 2010</strong>\r\n\r\n<em>“College Fun and the Moral Ecology of Everyday Life”</em>\r\n\r\n<strong>St. John’s University and College of St. Benedict, November 18, 2010</strong>\r\n\r\nReading groups on <em>The Nature of College</em>\r\n\r\n<strong>University of Wisconsin, River Falls, March 23-24, 2011</strong>\r\n\r\nSpeaker and co-facilitator for “`Big Idea:’ a workshop promoting faculty leadership in sustainability, co-sponsored by AASHE\r\n\r\n<strong>Luther College, April 3-4, 2011</strong>\r\n\r\nKeynote Speaker and co-facilitator for conference sponsored by the Associated Colleges of the Midwest on “Integrating Sustainability into the Undergraduate Curriculum\r\n\r\n<strong>University of Minnesota, Morris, April 20-21, 2011</strong>\r\n\r\nLecture on <em>The Nature of Our Lives” </em>and faculty workshop in Environmental Studies\r\n\r\n<strong>Macalester College, St. Paul, May 17, 2011</strong>\r\n\r\n<em>“The Nature of Our Lives” and faculty workshop on sustainability across the curriculum</em>\r\n\r\n<strong>University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, September 22, 2011</strong>\r\n\r\n<em>“College Culture and the Imagination of America”</em>\r\n\r\nKeynote for undergraduate participants at the Imagining America Conference\r\n\r\n<strong>University of Minnesota, Morris, September 23-24, 2011</strong>\r\n\r\n<em>“Social Networks and Ecological Communities”</em>\r\n\r\nUpper Midwest Association for Campus Sustainability Conference\r\n\r\n<strong>Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, Pittsburgh, 2011</strong>\r\n\r\n<em>“Campus Ecology and the Nature of College”</em>\r\n\r\n<strong>St. Olaf College, Northfield, MN, November 16, 2011</strong>\r\n\r\n<em>“The Nature of Our Lives: St. Olaf’s Environmental Values”</em>\r\n\r\n<strong>Macalester College, St. Paul, November 17, 2011</strong>\r\n\r\nClass visit and EnviroThursday speaker\r\n\r\n<strong>Northland College, Ashland Wisconsin, January 18-19, 2012</strong>\r\n\r\nHulings Lecture, “The Nature of Our Lives: Sustainability and College Culture”\r\n\r\n<strong>University of Minnesota, Crookston, April 18-19, 2012</strong>\r\n\r\nEarth Week keynote speaker, faculty workshop on integrating sustainability into the curriculum\r\n\r\n<strong>Iowa State University, Ames, May 15-16</strong>\r\n\r\nFacilitator for Tallgrass Prairie faculty development workshop\r\n\r\n<strong>Concordia College, Moorhead, October 3-5, 2012</strong>\r\n\r\nVisiting Writers Festival (nonfiction)\r\n\r\n<strong>Central College, Pella, Iowa, November 15, 2012</strong>\r\n\r\nLecture for first-year Intersections program','Speaking Engagements and Workshops','','inherit','open','open','','775-revision-5','','','2012-04-10 15:44:37','2012-04-10 15:44:37','',775,'http://natureofcollege.org/2012/04/775-revision-5/',0,'revision','',0),(800,5,'2012-04-10 15:39:07','2012-04-10 15:39:07','<strong><em></em></strong>With all the environmental problems facing Americans—including global weirding, biodiversity loss, ocean acidification, resource depletion, soil erosion, etc.—it’s time for the college curriculum to signal students that environmental issues are essential to their future. And students want such engagement. At St. Olaf, for example, 76 percent of our entering students consider themselves environmentalists. Eighty-five percent of first-year Oles think that environmental literacy is an important part of a college education, and 58 percent support a general education requirement for environmental literacy.  And their interest isn’t just informational or theoretical. Almost 71 percent of our students say that “one of the things I expect to learn in college is how to live an environmentally responsible life.” Your students are probably similar—they know that, for them, sustainability isn’t an abstract word. It’s their life—or not.\r\n\r\nSo plan to be a part of a workshop on Sustainability across the Curriculum to be held at St. Olaf College June 13-14 this year. Modeled on the faculty leadership workshops of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) and of the Upper Midwest Association for Campus Sustainability (UMACS), the gathering at St. Olaf will provide chances for individual faculty to re-think courses to see where the big ideas of their disciplines might intersect profitably with the big ideas of sustainability. And it will also provide suggestions for ways that faculty might be more involved in the sustainability initiatives on their diverse campuses.\r\n\r\nThe workshop will be facilitated by Jim Farrell and Jon Jensen from Luther College. Jon teaches courses in Philosophy and Environmental Studies at Luther College, where he’s been a leader in sustainability initiatives. Both Jon and Jim were invited to attend the AASHE curriculum workshop in San Diego in 2010, which resulted in the publication called <a href=\"http://www.campusresponsables.com/sites/default/files/RecommandationsDDdanscurriculum-AASHE.pdf\"><em>Sustainability Curriculum in Higher Education: A Call to Action</em></a>. Jon is also a board member of AASHE <em>and </em>UMACS, so he has finger firmly on the pulse of sustainability efforts in higher education.\r\n\r\nJim teaches courses in History, American Studies, and Environmental Studies at St. Olaf, including Environmental History, The Culture of Nature, Campus Ecology, and Imagining Environmentalism.  He’s  a member of the Sustainability Task Force at St. Olaf, and  the author of <a href=\"../\"><em>The Nature of College: How a New Understanding of Campus Life Can Change the World</em></a><em> </em>(Milkweed Editions, 2010), which explores the intersections of college culture, consumer culture and the environment.\r\n\r\nFor more on the workshop, click <a href=\"http://www.stolaf.edu/conferences/\">here</a>.\r\n\r\nPlease join us.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','Sustainability Across the Curriculum Workshop--St. Olaf College, June 13-14','','publish','closed','closed','','sustainability-across-the-curriculum-workshop-st-olaf-college-june-13-14','','','2018-07-09 14:31:58','2018-07-09 19:31:58','',0,'http://natureofcollege.org/?p=800',0,'post','',0),(801,5,'2012-04-10 15:38:38','2012-04-10 15:38:38','','Sustainability Across the Curriculum Workshop--St. Olaf College, June 13-14','','inherit','open','open','','800-revision','','','2012-04-10 15:38:38','2012-04-10 15:38:38','',800,'http://natureofcollege.org/2012/04/800-revision/',0,'revision','',0),(248,5,'2011-03-13 02:03:27','2011-03-13 02:03:27','<strong><em>Action/information ratio: </em>The amount of action that comes from each unit of information; the practices that come from knowledge; thus, the practical consequences of learning.  TV news, in general, has a ratio of zero.</strong>\n\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Activist</em></strong>: <strong>A person who does something about environmental (and other) problems, instead of just bitching about them.  Synonym: citizen.</strong>\n\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Air conditioning:</em></strong> <strong>A way of warming the planet by cooling the air.</strong>\n\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Appeerances:</em> The way that peer pressure looks in our lives.</strong>\n\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Apposite sex: </em></strong><strong>The appropriate sex for sexuality.  For heterosexuals, the apposite sex is the opposite sex, but for homosexuals it’s not.  “Apposite” means “fitting, suitable, appropriate,”so the term “apposite sex” helps us to remember that we’re not all heterosexual.</strong>\n\n<strong><em>Asceticism: </em>The art of getting more life with less stuff, a practice of restraint which is increasingly rare in a consumer society that promotes self-indulgence more than self-discipline. </strong>\n\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Automobility: </em>The combination of ideas, assumptions, institutions and technologies that have driven Americans (in cars) since the early 20<sup>th</sup> century.  See <em>Car culture.</em></strong>\n\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Bearthday: </em>1) The day on which a person is born; 2) The day on which the elements of the earth combine to produce a human being, whose being is, in fact, inextricable connected to the nurturing of people and the planet’s ecosystem services; 3) A day that might be ritualized not just as a celebration of one life, but as a celebration of the many lives involved in one life.</strong>\n\n<strong><em>Beer: </em>The elixir of college life, the fermented beverage that foments fellowship and fun and fantasy and audacity and hook-ups and unconsciousness and hangovers, among other things. </strong>\n\n<strong><em>Bitching</em>: A characteristic conversational mode in the college culture of complaint, an expression of cynicism, learned helplessness, and quiet desperation.  Antonym: <em>hope.</em></strong>\n\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Boredom: </em>1) Mindless, listless tedium, brought on by a lack of stimulation or a lack of imagination; 2) The primary social disease of college life, often cured by TV or video games or pharmaceuticals or fun.</strong>\n\n<strong><em>Boycott:</em> A way of putting our money where our values are, a protest withdrawing business from merchants who have withdrawn from the moral economy of the culture.  \"We boycott,\" said Martin Luther King, \"not to put people out of business, but to put justice into business.\"</strong>\n\n<strong><em>Buycott: </em>A way of putting our money where our values are by buying goods that are good for people and the planet.  If you believe that sustainability is a good thing, you can buycott manufacturers by purchasing organic foods or textiles, by looking for energy-efficient appliances and cars, and by preferring recycled products.  In this way, consumers get to make the market work for the good life instead of just for profits.</strong>\n\n<strong><em>Carcass: The body of a person who drives a car.</em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Comfearth:</em> The amount of comfort that’s consistent with sustainability.</strong>\n\n<em>Comfort:</em> One of the most important American environmental values.  See <em>comfearth.</em>\n\n<strong><em>Commodity: </em>A thing, specifically a thing that can be bought and sold; thus, everything in a capitalist economy, including the labor (and sometimes the bodies) of human beings.</strong>\n\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Commodity fetishism:</em> A fetish is, in primitive societies like ours, an object believed to have magical qualities—like toothpaste, which effectively cleans teeth and magically attracts the opposite sex.  Fetishism is the belief in such fetishes.  For Marx, one of the magical things about such fetishes is the way they work in disappearing acts.  When people focus on money and stuff, the social and environmental consequences of money and stuff magically disappear. </strong>\n\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Commodity self:</em> The identity of a person expressed by the things a person owns.  If you are what you own, what are you?  A commodity self.</strong>\n\n<strong><em>Common sense: </em>The ordinary and everyday interpretation of reality, a social construction of a community for the convenience of its members.  The sense that we don’t need to think more deeply about the reasons for our lives. Antonym: <em>Uncommon sense.</em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Commons sense: The common sense of the 21<sup>st</sup> century, in which “everybody knows” that human life depends on other lives in the biosphere—and the health of the biosphere itself.</em></strong>\n\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Compartmentalization</em>: The cultural sport of boxing, sorting ourselves into the boxes we call specialization—or, in academia, departments.  See <em>myopia.</em></strong>\n\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Consumer forgetfulness: </em>Ignorance of, or intentional ignoring, the implications of our consumption and materialism.  In writing about 19<sup>th</sup> century transformations in the making of meat, historian William Cronon reminds us that “The packing plants distanced their customers most of all from the act of killing. . . . The more people became accustomed to the attractively cut, carefully wrapped, cunningly displayed packages that Swift had introduced to the trade, the more they could fail to remember that their purchase had once pulsed and breathed with a life much like their own. . . . In the packers’ world, it was easy not to remember that eating was a moral act inextricably bound to killing.  Such was the second nature that a corporate order had imposed on the American landscape.  Forgetfulness was among the least noticed and most important of its by-products.” </strong>\n\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Convenience: </em>One of the core values of American consumer culture, the idea that saving time is a saving grace, even when it reduces the amount of care and cooperation and sustainability in the society.</strong>\n\n<strong><em>Cultural work: </em> The work performed by actions and artifacts that reinforces (or challenges) cultural values, assumptions and expectations.  Grades, for example, tell us how we did on papers and exams, but they also do cultural work, reinforcing patterns of authority, hierarchy, quantification, and the reification of values. Bananas are good food, but they also do cultural work, reinforcing patterns of globalization, free trade, resourcism, and underdevelopment (they weren’t called “banana republics” for nothing.)</strong>\n\n<strong><em>Cynicism: </em>Despairing doubtfulness, a defense against the challenges of hopefulness and idealism.  A common reflex of college students; as Mark Edmundson says, “Cynicism became their habitual mode.  They are the progeny of Bart Simpson and David Letterman, and the hyper-cool ethos of the box.”  See <em>realism.</em></strong>\n\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Dense fact: </em>A cultural act or artifact, as seen by a person with a connecting mind. </strong>\n\n<strong><em>Designing minds:</em> Minds designed to see the designs of nature and culture, <em>and </em>to design a society that harmonizes them happily ever after.</strong>\n\n<strong> </strong>\n\n<strong><em>Distraction: </em>The act of paying attention to the wrong thing.  In the early 21<sup>st</sup> century, Americans live in a culture of distraction, designed to keep us thinking about white teeth and white  laundry, about beer and big breasts, about junk food and giant cars, about fun and fashion, instead of liberty and justice for all. </strong>\n\n<strong> </strong>\n\n<strong><em>Ecologician:</em> 1) A student of ecology, including the moral ecology of everyday life; 2) a magician who practices the arts of regenerative design; 3) us, if we choose to be.</strong>\n\n<strong><em>Ecosystem services: </em>what nature does to nurture us, producing such things as the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat, the fibers we wear, the bacteria that help to digest our food, and the instincts that drive us when we’re not driving ourselves.  In addition, nature supplies habitat, produces soil, supplies lumber, manufactures medicines, prevents floods, controls pests, regulates climate, develops genes, maintains biodiversity, and absorbs wastes—all without cost to people.</strong>\n\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Enchantment of goods:</em> Making magic with materialism. <em> </em>In a scientific, semi-secular society, most of us don’t believe that there’s magic in the world—except in our products, which routinely cause magical transformations in people and their places.</strong>\n\n<strong><em>Enough: </em> An obsolete word that used to connote a sufficiency.  In modern America, enough is not enough, because there\'s still more, and it\'s new and improved.</strong>\n\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Ethicurean: </em>A person who seeks out tasty things that are also <em>s</em>ustainable, organic, local, and/or ethical — SOLE food, for short.  See <a href=\"http://www.ethicurean.com/\">www.ethicurean.com</a>. </strong>\n\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Expressed values: </em>The values we say we love and live, as opposed to the ones we actually practice.  Many Americans express environmental values, but they live as if environmental impacts occurred only in other places—which, often, they do. See <em>operative values.</em></strong>\n\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Extensive pleasure: </em>The pleasure derived from living in right relation to the world.  Eating is a good example. According to Wendell Berry, good food tastes good, but when you know that food has been carefully and conscientiously prepared (from farm to fork), it tastes better.  See <em>intensive pleasure.</em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Extinction:</em> The death of dying for a species, the transformation from life to obliteration</strong>\n\n<strong><em>Extrospection: </em>The practice of looking outside the self to understand the self.  When we see the consequences of our lives, we get a better idea of who we are.  Ant.: <em>introspection</em></strong>\n\n<em> </em>\n\n<strong><em>Facebook:</em> An online social network that substitutes profiles, poking and writing on walls for face-to-face conversation, which is so old-fashioned.</strong>\n\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Familyism: </em>The focus on the family of American culture, in which we sometimes sacrifice the public good and environmental health for the good of our families.</strong>\n\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Flow: </em>A state of satisfaction more fulfilling than fun, an active engagement in work or play in which a person loses themselves in the intrinsic interest of the activity.  The deep pleasure that comes from intense engagement in play, in the play of work, in a problem, in a quest or a question, or in another person. The goal of a good society.</strong>\n\n<strong><em>Food: </em>Nature converted to culture converted, by cooking and preparation and dining, to human nature.</strong>\n\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Fun morality: </em>The idea that people ought to have fun in the socially accepted ways that people in beer commercials do.  The idea that leisure is our duty allows merchants to sell us our own leisure time.  See <em>free time.</em></strong>\n\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Fundamentalism: </em>The primary religion of American life, the idea that people are created to have fun. Fundamentalism explains why the great American interdenominational prayer is “Thank God it’s Friday.” </strong>\n\n<strong><em>Freakological era</em>: The freakish time period between 1800 and 2000 in which human beings seemingly expected that they could live well by compromising other lives on the planet.</strong>\n\n<strong> </strong>\n\n<strong><em>Global warming:</em></strong> A euphemism for the climate changes that are occurring as people heat up the planet.  See <strong><em>global weirding</em>.</strong>\n\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Global weirding:</em> A phrase coined by Amory Lovins to emphasize the catastrophic climate changes that accompany global warming, including drought, heat waves, thunderstorms, hurricanes, blizzards, dust storms, plant and animal extinctions and population explosions, spreading pests and diseases, human starvation and social upheaval.</strong>\n\n<strong><em>Habitat: </em>1. In nature, the environment in which an organism or biological population normally lives; 2. In culture, the sum total of our habits, the way we inhabit our habitat. One of the most important questions of ecology is how well human habits are adapted to the habitats that <em>homo sapiens</em> occupies, all of which are on a planet with a beleaguered biosphere.</strong>\n\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Hope:</em> 1) The practice of possibility; 2) the art of making the good life a better life—and not just for people.</strong>\n\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Hoping mechanism:</em> A person, community, institution, text, image, performance or artwork that sustains our hope for sustainability. Ant: <em> coping mechanism</em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Ignorance:</em> 1. Lack of knowledge. 2. Avoidance of knowledge, as when we actively ignore the signs of global weirding in order to preserve a culture of comfort and materialism.</strong>\n\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Ignorant knowledge:</em> (from David Orr)  Decontextualized knowledge, knowledge that ignores the bigger pictures of human fulfillment and environmental health.</strong>\n\n<strong><em>In<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">car</span>ceration:</em> The voluntary process of imprisonment in cars, a process carried out over the course of the 20<sup>th</sup> century. </strong>\n\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Industrial lawn:</em> A form of industrial agriculture, the application of industrial processes (chemical fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, fossil-fueled mowers) to the growth of a crop which is harvested weekly and thrown out.  See also <em>freedom lawn</em>.</strong>\n\n<strong><em>Inhabitant:</em> A person whose habits are in synch with their environment, a human being who fits within nature’s regenerative cycles, a person who makes a habit of harmony. </strong>\n\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Insight:</em> The sight you get when you think about what you see, and about the cultural norms that frame perception. </strong>\n\n<strong><em>Interbeing: </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Interdependence: </em></strong>The only kind of independence there is, xxxxxx.  See interbeing.\n\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Invisible technology: </em>A tool so familiar that we forget that we’re using it and it’s using us. Grades are an invisible technology, a tool designed to communicate quality to students, but a tool which also naturalizes such ideas as the standardization of excellence, the importance of hierarchy, and the identity of the self (“a B student.”)</strong>\n\n<strong><em>The Joneses:</em> The mythical other, responsible for motivating the real us to consume.  The family next door (figuratively) who put pressure on us to keep up with their appearance of wealth by buying things.  Synonym: us. See <em>peer socialization</em>.</strong>\n\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Know-how: </em>Instrumental knowledge, often technological.</strong>\n\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Know-why: </em>Instrumental wisdom, often philosophical.</strong>\n\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Latent function: </em>The unintended function of an action or artifact.  Sometimes, ironically, a function at odds with the manifest function.</strong>\n\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Lifestyle: </em>1) The complexity of life, reduced to the simplicity of consumption and commercial style; 2) A life, conceived as a collection of commodities.  See <em>commodity self</em>.</strong>\n\n<strong><em>Manifest function:</em> The expressed or intended function of an action or artifact.  The manifest function of this class is to help students learn American Studies.  The latent functions are something else.</strong>\n\n<strong><em>Mindfulness:</em> The quality of attention and care that keeps earth in mind, so that we can mind our own social and environmental behavior. Antonym: mindlessness.</strong>\n\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Mining: </em>1) Extraction of minerals from the earth’s crust for human benefit; 2) Making things mine by buying them; 3) Making people, plants and animals mine by appreciating them and taking responsibility for them.</strong>\n\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Moral amnesia: </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Moral drift:</em></strong> In “Bad Politics and Silly Literature,” Carol Bly\n\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Moral ecology: </em>According to <em>Habits of the Heart</em>, moral ecology is \"the web of moral understandings and commitments that tie people together in community.\"  In this book, moral ecology is the web of moral understandings and commitments that tie people together with each other and with nature.</strong>\n\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\n\n<strong>Moral economy: The underlying sense of fairness that makes markets work not just for the benefit of capitalists and consumers, but for all people and the planet.  In the past, when manufacturers violated the moral economy of a culture, they paid for it with strikes, boycotts, riots, etc.</strong>\n\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Murketing:</em> 1) Promoting consumption by converting human hopes into commercial fantasies, half-truths, and lies; 2) the process of making complexity invisible. </strong>\n\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Necessity: </em>Something we need, or something that everybody else has.  Necessities are always cultural and (in this culture) usually commercial.  In his trenchant essay “A Sad Heart at the Supermarket,” poet Randall Jarrell noted that in American “the frontier of necessity” always moves forward.  And in <em>The Overspent American</em>, Juliet Schor shows how many things are now “necessities” in American life.</strong>\n\n<strong><em>Need: </em>A verb with expansive meanings.  When Americans say they \"need\" something, most often it means that they \"want\" it.  And in a capitalist society, invention is often the mother of necessity as advertisers try to create a demand for what they can supply.</strong>\n\n<strong><em>Noah principle:</em> 1. According to David Ehrenfield, the idea that all species have a right to exist (and by extension, to be protected); 2. The <em>precautionary principle</em>: in the face of the deluge, it’s prudent to build an ark.</strong>\n\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Operative values: </em> The values we really live by.  Few people—even politicians—espouse the value of convenience, but almost all of us live by it.</strong>\n\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Ordinary consumption: </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Opportunity costs:</em> The cost of missed opportunities; what you might have purchased instead of the things you did.  On the personal level, I might have purchased a co-op membership instead of an iPhone.  On a national level, Americans might have purchased renewable energy or increased energy efficiency instead of a war in Iraq.   Opportunity costs do not include the costs of missed opportunities, like the global climate change that’s coming from the missed opportunities for reducing our use of fossil fuels.</strong>\n\n<strong><em>Overshoot:</em></strong>\n\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Peer pressure: </em>One form of peer socialization, in which your friends and fellow students exert their influence to get you to conform to social expectations of a culture or subculture, even when those expectations are environmentally disastrous.</strong>\n\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Peer socialization: </em>The way we teach each other how to think and act in a consumer culture.  Usually peer socialization works to help us live up to the low expectations of a consumer society.  But it can also be a force for creating a life that’s better than “a good life.”</strong>\n\n<strong><em>Perfect standard: </em></strong>(Paul Loeb)\n\n<strong><em>Permaculture: </em>1) The agriculture of forever, cultivating plants and animals in perennial, closed-loop systems; 2) The culture of permanence, cultivating human beings in cultures rooted in the land and in an ethic of ever after, practicing regenerative design in all aspects of living. </strong>\n\n<strong><em>Photosynthesis:</em></strong>\n\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Planned obsolescence: </em>The art of designing products that don’t last, either functionally or fashionably, so that manufacturers can increase sales. Disposable products are good examples of functional obsolescence, while fashion trends and the annual model change in cars are good examples of stylish obsolescence. On college campuses, new textbook editions speed obsolescence as well.</strong>\n\n<strong><em>Politics:</em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Practical idealism:</em></strong>\n\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Precautionary principle: </em>A canon of carefulness, the idea that people proposing risky behavior must prove the benefit of the risks before proceeding.  Environmentally, it means that people shouldn’t conduct experiments with the planet; instead we should conduct experiments in the lab <em>before</em> we pollute the planet or alter the atmosphere.  Although the term is relatively new, the idea is old, an essential part of folk wisdom.  “Better safe than sorry” and “look before you leap” are the common sense of the precautionary principle.  The precautionary principle is also a way of reminding ourselves that the bottom line of business doesn’t go deep enough—a better bottom line considers the health of people and the planet.</strong>\n\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Product chain: </em>The sequence of events by which nature becomes culture, as a natural resource is produced, processed, packaged, shipped, distributed, sold, consumed and discarded. </strong>\n\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Professor: </em>1) The chairman of the bored; 2) Any person who professes values, either academically or actually; 3) Us.</strong>\n\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Progress: </em></strong>1) xxxxxxxxxxxxx; 2) Regress.\n\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Ratcheting: </em>A process of rising expectations whereby today’s luxuries become tomorrow’s necessities.</strong>\n\n<strong><em>Real world:</em></strong>\n\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Remote control: </em>1) The device we use to control our TVs and other electronics; 2) the designs we use to control the world, socially and environmentally. Eating, for example, is a form of remote control.</strong>\n\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Republicanism</em>: From the Latin “res publica” (the public things), the quaint idea that private virtue is necessary for the public good. </strong>\n\n<strong> </strong>\n\n<strong><em>Republican Party: </em>The quaint idea that private enterprise is the same thing as private virtue and the public good, even though corporations are legally bound to serve the interests of shareholders before any public purposes.</strong>\n\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Responsibility: </em>(also spelled response-ability) The human ability to respond carefully and comprehensively to one’s environment</strong>\n\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Reverse adaptation: </em>The process by which people become tools of their tools.  When Americans began to adapt their culture to cars—or other technologies—they practiced reverse adaptation.  When college students worry more about their grades—an invisible technology—than their learning, they practice reverse adaptation.  When people do things for the sake of the economy—instead of the other way around—it’s reverse adaptation.</strong>\n\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Road kill: </em>A popular form of animal sacrifice, in which we take life (including human life) to drive wherever we please. </strong>\n\n<strong><em>Sabbath:</em></strong>\n\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Sacramentality: </em>The radical idea that we all live in the Holy Land.</strong>\n\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Sacrifice:</em> (obs.) The idea that a person who can have it all might prefer to give some of it to somebody else.  In a culture of individualism, this is a crazy idea.  In a culture of the common good, it’s common sense.  Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King believed in redemptive sacrifice.  George W. Bush was afraid to use the word, except for soldiers who are sacrificing their lives for oil and other national interests..  See <em>virtue.</em></strong>\n\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Scenery:</em> The predominant way that nature is seen (and scene) in American culture, the way that land becomes landscape.</strong>\n\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Seeing:</em> 1. The act of perception. 2. The art of perception, honed by practices of attentive mindfulness.  See Annie Dillard on “Seeing” in <em>Pilgrim at Tinker Creek</em></strong>\n\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Silence: </em>One way we make environmental history, the sound that most of us make in response to the degradation of natural systems.  “<em>All </em>of us are collaborators in this silence,” says Sallie McFague.  “We enjoy the consumer lifestyle; in fact, most of us are addicted to it, and, like addicts, we cheerfully live in a state of denial.”</strong>\n\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Sitizen:</em> A person whose civic engagement consists of sitting around and bitching about the state of the world, the gridlock in Washington, the environmental crisis, and the bias of the media, without ever doing a damn thing about it. Antonym: <em>Citizen </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Social capital:</em></strong>\n\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Spirituality:</em></strong>\n\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Sustainability:</em></strong>\n\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Television:</em> 1) a technology for transmitting sound and images, and for transforming culture by distracting people from big questions; 2) a way of seeing the world, a vision of the world that focuses on the bottom line and the lowest common denominator.</strong>\n\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Time poverty: </em>Part of the price we pay for affluence, because we generally have to spend too much time working to make the money we spend.  In <em>Walden</em>, Thoreau calculated that the price of a thing was the time it took to acquire it.  But even though most college students read Thoreau, most of us still ignore him.</strong>\n\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Totem: </em>1) An animal, plant or object that serves as the emblem of a clan or tribe or family because of common ancestry.  Many Indian tribes identified with animals which looked over or helped them.  2) An animal, plant or object that serves as the emblem of an object like a car: the Ford Mustang, the Chevy Volt, Dodge Ram, etc.  Such totems capture the “spirit” of the car, and transfer those spiritual powers to the driver.   3) The natural symbol of a college or university, especially its sports teams.  Such symbols, originally called totems but now called mascots, most often represent predators, perhaps because college teaches students practices of predation. </strong>\n\n<strong> </strong>\n\n<strong><em>Virtue: </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Waste:</em></strong>\n\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Water cycle:</em></strong>\n\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Wisdom:</em> The goal of education, almost never discussed, because people become wise by asking whys. </strong>\n\n<strong><em>Wonder: </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Wor(l)dplay:</em> The art of using words to challenge worldviews, and change the world.</strong>\n\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Zen affluence: </em>The art of having much by wanting little, the art of having your heart’s desire by restraining your desire.  For people who live in what William Leach calls “the land of desire,” this is not an easy trick.  See <em>desire.</em> </strong>','The Ecologician\'s Dictionary','','inherit','open','open','','247-revision','','','2011-03-13 02:03:27','2011-03-13 02:03:27','',247,'http://natureofcollege.org/2011/03/247-revision/',0,'revision','',0),(249,5,'2011-10-04 16:58:44','2011-10-04 16:58:44','<strong><em>Action/information ratio: </em>The amount of action that comes from each unit of information; the practices that come from knowledge; thus, the practical consequences of learning.  TV news, in general, has a ratio of zero.</strong>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Activist</em></strong>: <strong>A person who does something about environmental (and other) problems, instead of just bitching about them.  Synonym: citizen.</strong>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Air conditioning:</em></strong> <strong>A way of warming the planet by cooling the air.</strong>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Appeerances:</em> The way that peer pressure looks in our lives.</strong>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Apposite sex: </em></strong><strong>The appropriate sex for sexuality.  For heterosexuals, the apposite sex is the opposite sex, but for homosexuals it’s not.  “Apposite” means “fitting, suitable, appropriate,”so the term “apposite sex” helps us to remember that we’re not all heterosexual.</strong>\n\n<strong><em>Asceticism: </em>The art of getting more life with less stuff, a practice of restraint which is increasingly rare in a consumer society that promotes self-indulgence more than self-discipline. </strong>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Automobility: </em>The combination of ideas, assumptions, institutions and technologies that have driven Americans (in cars) since the early 20<sup>th</sup> century.  See <em>Car culture.</em></strong>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Bearthday: </em>1) The day on which a person is born; 2) The day on which the elements of the earth combine to produce a human being, whose being is, in fact, inextricable connected to the nurturing of people and the planet’s ecosystem services; 3) A day that might be ritualized not just as a celebration of one life, but as a celebration of the many lives involved in one life.</strong>\n\n<strong><em>Beer: </em>The elixir of college life, the fermented beverage that foments fellowship and fun and fantasy and audacity and hook-ups and unconsciousness and hangovers, among other things. </strong>\n\n<strong><em>Bitching</em>: A characteristic conversational mode in the college culture of complaint, an expression of cynicism, learned helplessness, and quiet desperation.  Antonym: <em>hope.</em></strong>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Boredom: </em>1) Mindless, listless tedium, brought on by a lack of stimulation or a lack of imagination; 2) The primary social disease of college life, often cured by TV or video games or pharmaceuticals or fun.</strong>\n\n<strong><em>Boycott:</em> A way of putting our money where our values are, a protest withdrawing business from merchants who have withdrawn from the moral economy of the culture.  \"We boycott,\" said Martin Luther King, \"not to put people out of business, but to put justice into business.\"</strong>\n\n<strong><em>Buycott: </em>A way of putting our money where our values are by buying goods that are good for people and the planet.  If you believe that sustainability is a good thing, you can buycott manufacturers by purchasing organic foods or textiles, by looking for energy-efficient appliances and cars, and by preferring recycled products.  In this way, consumers get to make the market work for the good life instead of just for profits.</strong>\n\n<strong><em>Carcass: The body of a person who drives a car.</em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Comfearth:</em> The amount of comfort that’s consistent with sustainability.</strong>\n\n<strong><em>Comfort:</em> One of the most important American environmental values.  See <em>comfearth.</em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Commodity: </em>A thing, specifically a thing that can be bought and sold; thus, everything in a capitalist economy, including the labor (and sometimes the bodies) of human beings.</strong>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Commodity fetishism:</em> A fetish is, in primitive societies like ours, an object believed to have magical qualities—like toothpaste, which effectively cleans teeth and magically attracts the opposite sex.  Fetishism is the belief in such fetishes.  For Marx, one of the magical things about such fetishes is the way they work in disappearing acts.  When people focus on money and stuff, the social and environmental consequences of money and stuff magically disappear. </strong>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Commodity self:</em> The identity of a person expressed by the things a person owns.  If you are what you own, what are you?  A commodity self.</strong>\n\n<strong><em>Common sense: </em>The ordinary and everyday interpretation of reality, a social construction of a community for the convenience of its members.  The sense that we don’t need to think more deeply about the reasons for our lives. Antonym: <em>Uncommon sense.</em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Commons sense: The common sense of the 21<sup>st</sup> century, in which “everybody knows” that human life depends on other lives in the biosphere—and the health of the biosphere itself.</em></strong>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Compartmentalization</em>: The cultural sport of boxing, sorting ourselves into the boxes we call specialization—or, in academia, departments.  See <em>myopia.</em></strong>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Consumer forgetfulness: </em>Ignorance of, or intentional ignoring, the implications of our consumption and materialism.  In writing about 19<sup>th</sup> century transformations in the making of meat, historian William Cronon reminds us that “The packing plants distanced their customers most of all from the act of killing. . . . The more people became accustomed to the attractively cut, carefully wrapped, cunningly displayed packages that Swift had introduced to the trade, the more they could fail to remember that their purchase had once pulsed and breathed with a life much like their own. . . . In the packers’ world, it was easy not to remember that eating was a moral act inextricably bound to killing.  Such was the second nature that a corporate order had imposed on the American landscape.  Forgetfulness was among the least noticed and most important of its by-products.” </strong>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Convenience: </em>One of the core values of American consumer culture, the idea that saving time is a saving grace, even when it reduces the amount of care and cooperation and sustainability in the society.</strong>\n\n<strong><em>Cultural work: </em> The work performed by actions and artifacts that reinforces (or challenges) cultural values, assumptions and expectations.  Grades, for example, tell us how we did on papers and exams, but they also do cultural work, reinforcing patterns of authority, hierarchy, quantification, and the reification of values. Bananas are good food, but they also do cultural work, reinforcing patterns of globalization, free trade, resourcism, and underdevelopment (they weren’t called “banana republics” for nothing.)</strong>\n\n<strong><em>Cynicism: </em>Despairing doubtfulness, a defense against the challenges of hopefulness and idealism.  A common reflex of college students; as Mark Edmundson says, “Cynicism became their habitual mode.  They are the progeny of Bart Simpson and David Letterman, and the hyper-cool ethos of the box.”  See <em>realism.</em></strong>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Dense fact: </em>A cultural act or artifact, as seen by a person with a connecting mind. </strong>\n\n<strong><em>Designing minds:</em> Minds designed to see the designs of nature and culture, <em>and </em>to design a society that harmonizes them happily ever after.</strong>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Distraction: </em>The act of paying attention to the wrong thing.  In the early 21<sup>st</sup> century, Americans live in a culture of distraction, designed to keep us thinking about white teeth and white  laundry, about beer and big breasts, about junk food and giant cars, about fun and fashion, instead of liberty and justice for all. </strong>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Ecologician:</em> 1) A student of ecology, including the moral ecology of everyday life; 2) a magician who practices the arts of regenerative design; 3) us, if we choose to be.</strong>\n\n<strong><em>Ecosystem services: </em>what nature does to nurture us, producing such things as the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat, the fibers we wear, the bacteria that help to digest our food, and the instincts that drive us when we’re not driving ourselves.  In addition, nature supplies habitat, produces soil, supplies lumber, manufactures medicines, prevents floods, controls pests, regulates climate, develops genes, maintains biodiversity, and absorbs wastes—all without cost to people.</strong>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Enchantment of goods:</em> Making magic with materialism. <em> </em>In a scientific, semi-secular society, most of us don’t believe that there’s magic in the world—except in our products, which routinely cause magical transformations in people and their places.</strong>\n\n<strong><em>Enough: </em> An obsolete word that used to connote a sufficiency.  In modern America, enough is not enough, because there\'s still more, and it\'s new and improved.</strong>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Ethicurean: </em>A person who seeks out tasty things that are also <em>s</em>ustainable, organic, local, and/or ethical — SOLE food, for short.  See <a href=\"http://www.ethicurean.com/\">www.ethicurean.com</a>. </strong>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Expressed values: </em>The values we say we love and live, as opposed to the ones we actually practice.  Many Americans express environmental values, but they live as if environmental impacts occurred only in other places—which, often, they do. See <em>operative values.</em></strong>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Extensive pleasure: </em>The pleasure derived from living in right relation to the world.  Eating is a good example. According to Wendell Berry, good food tastes good, but when you know that food has been carefully and conscientiously prepared (from farm to fork), it tastes better.  See <em>intensive pleasure.</em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Extinction:</em> The death of dying for a species, the transformation from life to obliteration</strong>\n\n<strong><em>Extrospection: </em>The practice of looking outside the self to understand the self.  When we see the consequences of our lives, we get a better idea of who we are.  Ant.: <em>introspection</em></strong>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Facebook:</em> An online social network that substitutes profiles, poking and writing on walls for face-to-face conversation, which is so old-fashioned.</strong>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Familyism: </em>The focus on the family of American culture, in which we sometimes sacrifice the public good and environmental health for the good of our families.</strong>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Flow: </em>A state of satisfaction more fulfilling than fun, an active engagement in work or play in which a person loses themselves in the intrinsic interest of the activity.  The deep pleasure that comes from intense engagement in play, in the play of work, in a problem, in a quest or a question, or in another person. The goal of a good society.</strong>\n\n<strong><em>Food: </em>Nature converted to culture converted, by cooking and preparation and dining, to human nature.</strong>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Fun morality: </em>The idea that people ought to have fun in the socially accepted ways that people in beer commercials do.  The idea that leisure is our duty allows merchants to sell us our own leisure time.  See <em>free time.</em></strong>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Fundamentalism: </em>The primary religion of American life, the idea that people are created to have fun. Fundamentalism explains why the great American interdenominational prayer is “Thank God it’s Friday.” </strong>\n\n<strong><em>Freakological era</em>: The freakish time period between 1800 and 2000 in which human beings seemingly expected that they could live well by compromising other lives on the planet.</strong>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Global warming:</em></strong> A euphemism for the climate changes that are occurring as people heat up the planet.  See <strong><em>global weirding</em>.</strong>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Global weirding:</em> A phrase coined by Amory Lovins to emphasize the catastrophic climate changes that accompany global warming, including drought, heat waves, thunderstorms, hurricanes, blizzards, dust storms, plant and animal extinctions and population explosions, spreading pests and diseases, human starvation and social upheaval.</strong>\n\n<strong><em>Habitat: </em>1. In nature, the environment in which an organism or biological population normally lives; 2. In culture, the sum total of our habits, the way we inhabit our habitat. One of the most important questions of ecology is how well human habits are adapted to the habitats that <em>homo sapiens</em> occupies, all of which are on a planet with a beleaguered biosphere.</strong>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Hope:</em> 1) The practice of possibility; 2) the art of making the good life a better life—and not just for people.</strong>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Hoping mechanism:</em> A person, community, institution, text, image, performance or artwork that sustains our hope for sustainability. Ant: <em> coping mechanism</em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Ignorance:</em> 1. Lack of knowledge. 2. Avoidance of knowledge, as when we actively ignore the signs of global weirding in order to preserve a culture of comfort and materialism.</strong>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Ignorant knowledge:</em> (from David Orr)  Decontextualized knowledge, knowledge that ignores the bigger pictures of human fulfillment and environmental health.</strong>\n\n<strong><em>In<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">car</span>ceration:</em> The voluntary process of imprisonment in cars, a process carried out over the course of the 20<sup>th</sup> century. </strong>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Industrial lawn:</em> A form of industrial agriculture, the application of industrial processes (chemical fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, fossil-fueled mowers) to the growth of a crop which is harvested weekly and thrown out.  See also <em>freedom lawn</em>.</strong>\n\n<strong><em>Inhabitant:</em> A person whose habits are in synch with their environment, a human being who fits within nature’s regenerative cycles, a person who makes a habit of harmony. </strong>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Insight:</em> The sight you get when you think about what you see, and about the cultural norms that frame perception. </strong>\n\n<strong><em>Interbeing: </em></strong>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Interdependence: </em></strong>The only kind of independence there is, xxxxxx.  See interbeing.\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Invisible technology: </em>A tool so familiar that we forget that we’re using it and it’s using us. Grades are an invisible technology, a tool designed to communicate quality to students, but a tool which also naturalizes such ideas as the standardization of excellence, the importance of hierarchy, and the identity of the self (“a B student.”)</strong>\n\n<strong><em>The Joneses:</em> The mythical other, responsible for motivating the real us to consume.  The family next door (figuratively) who put pressure on us to keep up with their appearance of wealth by buying things.  Synonym: us. See <em>peer socialization</em>.</strong>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Know-how: </em>Instrumental knowledge, often technological.</strong>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Know-why: </em>Instrumental wisdom, often philosophical.</strong>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Latent function: </em>The unintended function of an action or artifact.  Sometimes, ironically, a function at odds with the manifest function.</strong>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Lifestyle: </em>1) The complexity of life, reduced to the simplicity of consumption and commercial style; 2) A life, conceived as a collection of commodities.  See <em>commodity self</em>.</strong>\n\n<strong><em>Manifest function:</em> The expressed or intended function of an action or artifact.  The manifest function of this class is to help students learn American Studies.  The latent functions are something else.</strong>\n\n<strong><em>Mindfulness:</em> The quality of attention and care that keeps earth in mind, so that we can mind our own social and environmental behavior. Antonym: mindlessness.</strong>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Mining: </em>1) Extraction of minerals from the earth’s crust for human benefit; 2) Making things mine by buying them; 3) Making people, plants and animals mine by appreciating them and taking responsibility for them.</strong>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Moral amnesia: </em></strong>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Moral drift:</em></strong> In “Bad Politics and Silly Literature,” Carol Bly\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Moral ecology: </em>According to <em>Habits of the Heart</em>, moral ecology is \"the web of moral understandings and commitments that tie people together in community.\"  In this book, moral ecology is the web of moral understandings and commitments that tie people together with each other and with nature.</strong>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong>Moral economy: The underlying sense of fairness that makes markets work not just for the benefit of capitalists and consumers, but for all people and the planet.  In the past, when manufacturers violated the moral economy of a culture, they paid for it with strikes, boycotts, riots, etc.</strong>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Murketing:</em> 1) Promoting consumption by converting human hopes into commercial fantasies, half-truths, and lies; 2) the process of making complexity invisible. </strong>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Necessity: </em>Something we need, or something that everybody else has.  Necessities are always cultural and (in this culture) usually commercial.  In his trenchant essay “A Sad Heart at the Supermarket,” poet Randall Jarrell noted that in American “the frontier of necessity” always moves forward.  And in <em>The Overspent American</em>, Juliet Schor shows how many things are now “necessities” in American life.</strong>\n\n<strong><em>Need: </em>A verb with expansive meanings.  When Americans say they \"need\" something, most often it means that they \"want\" it.  And in a capitalist society, invention is often the mother of necessity as advertisers try to create a demand for what they can supply.</strong>\n\n<strong><em>Noah principle:</em> 1. According to David Ehrenfield, the idea that all species have a right to exist (and by extension, to be protected); 2. The <em>precautionary principle</em>: in the face of the deluge, it’s prudent to build an ark.</strong>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Operative values: </em> The values we really live by.  Few people—even politicians—espouse the value of convenience, but almost all of us live by it.</strong>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Ordinary consumption: </em></strong>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Opportunity costs:</em> The cost of missed opportunities; what you might have purchased instead of the things you did.  On the personal level, I might have purchased a co-op membership instead of an iPhone.  On a national level, Americans might have purchased renewable energy or increased energy efficiency instead of a war in Iraq.   Opportunity costs do not include the costs of missed opportunities, like the global climate change that’s coming from the missed opportunities for reducing our use of fossil fuels.</strong>\n\n<strong><em>Overshoot:</em></strong>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Peer pressure: </em>One form of peer socialization, in which your friends and fellow students exert their influence to get you to conform to social expectations of a culture or subculture, even when those expectations are environmentally disastrous.</strong>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Peer socialization: </em>The way we teach each other how to think and act in a consumer culture.  Usually peer socialization works to help us live up to the low expectations of a consumer society.  But it can also be a force for creating a life that’s better than “a good life.”</strong>\n\n<strong><em>Perfect standard: </em></strong>(Paul Loeb)\n\n<strong><em>Permaculture: </em>1) The agriculture of forever, cultivating plants and animals in perennial, closed-loop systems; 2) The culture of permanence, cultivating human beings in cultures rooted in the land and in an ethic of ever after, practicing regenerative design in all aspects of living. </strong>\n\n<strong><em>Photosynthesis:</em></strong>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Planned obsolescence: </em>The art of designing products that don’t last, either functionally or fashionably, so that manufacturers can increase sales. Disposable products are good examples of functional obsolescence, while fashion trends and the annual model change in cars are good examples of stylish obsolescence. On college campuses, new textbook editions speed obsolescence as well.</strong>\n\n<strong><em>Politics:</em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Practical idealism:</em></strong>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Precautionary principle: </em>A canon of carefulness, the idea that people proposing risky behavior must prove the benefit of the risks before proceeding.  Environmentally, it means that people shouldn’t conduct experiments with the planet; instead we should conduct experiments in the lab <em>before</em> we pollute the planet or alter the atmosphere.  Although the term is relatively new, the idea is old, an essential part of folk wisdom.  “Better safe than sorry” and “look before you leap” are the common sense of the precautionary principle.  The precautionary principle is also a way of reminding ourselves that the bottom line of business doesn’t go deep enough—a better bottom line considers the health of people and the planet.</strong>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Product chain: </em>The sequence of events by which nature becomes culture, as a natural resource is produced, processed, packaged, shipped, distributed, sold, consumed and discarded. </strong>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Professor: </em>1) The chairman of the bored; 2) Any person who professes values, either academically or actually; 3) Us.</strong>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Progress: </em></strong>1) xxxxxxxxxxxxx; 2) Regress.\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Ratcheting: </em>A process of rising expectations whereby today’s luxuries become tomorrow’s necessities.</strong>\n\n<strong><em>Real world:</em></strong>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Remote control: </em>1) The device we use to control our TVs and other electronics; 2) the designs we use to control the world, socially and environmentally. Eating, for example, is a form of remote control.</strong>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Republicanism</em>: From the Latin “res publica” (the public things), the quaint idea that private virtue is necessary for the public good. </strong>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Republican Party: </em>The quaint idea that private enterprise is the same thing as private virtue and the public good, even though corporations are legally bound to serve the interests of shareholders before any public purposes.</strong>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Responsibility: </em>(also spelled response-ability) The human ability to respond carefully and comprehensively to one’s environment</strong>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Reverse adaptation: </em>The process by which people become tools of their tools.  When Americans began to adapt their culture to cars—or other technologies—they practiced reverse adaptation.  When college students worry more about their grades—an invisible technology—than their learning, they practice reverse adaptation.  When people do things for the sake of the economy—instead of the other way around—it’s reverse adaptation.</strong>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Road kill: </em>A popular form of animal sacrifice, in which we take life (including human life) to drive wherever we please. </strong>\n\n<strong><em>Sabbath:</em></strong>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Sacramentality: </em>The radical idea that we all live in the Holy Land.</strong>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Sacrifice:</em> (obs.) The idea that a person who can have it all might prefer to give some of it to somebody else.  In a culture of individualism, this is a crazy idea.  In a culture of the common good, it’s common sense.  Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King believed in redemptive sacrifice.  George W. Bush was afraid to use the word, except for soldiers who are sacrificing their lives for oil and other national interests..  See <em>virtue.</em></strong>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Scenery:</em> The predominant way that nature is seen (and scene) in American culture, the way that land becomes landscape.</strong>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Seeing:</em> 1. The act of perception. 2. The art of perception, honed by practices of attentive mindfulness.  See Annie Dillard on “Seeing” in <em>Pilgrim at Tinker Creek</em></strong>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Silence: </em>One way we make environmental history, the sound that most of us make in response to the degradation of natural systems.  “<em>All </em>of us are collaborators in this silence,” says Sallie McFague.  “We enjoy the consumer lifestyle; in fact, most of us are addicted to it, and, like addicts, we cheerfully live in a state of denial.”</strong>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Sitizen:</em> A person whose civic engagement consists of sitting around and bitching about the state of the world, the gridlock in Washington, the environmental crisis, and the bias of the media, without ever doing a damn thing about it. Antonym: <em>Citizen </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Social capital:</em></strong>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Spirituality:</em></strong>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Sustainability:</em></strong>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Television:</em> 1) a technology for transmitting sound and images, and for transforming culture by distracting people from big questions; 2) a way of seeing the world, a vision of the world that focuses on the bottom line and the lowest common denominator.</strong>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Time poverty: </em>Part of the price we pay for affluence, because we generally have to spend too much time working to make the money we spend.  In <em>Walden</em>, Thoreau calculated that the price of a thing was the time it took to acquire it.  But even though most college students read Thoreau, most of us still ignore him.</strong>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Totem: </em>1) An animal, plant or object that serves as the emblem of a clan or tribe or family because of common ancestry.  Many Indian tribes identified with animals which looked over or helped them.  2) An animal, plant or object that serves as the emblem of an object like a car: the Ford Mustang, the Chevy Volt, Dodge Ram, etc.  Such totems capture the “spirit” of the car, and transfer those spiritual powers to the driver.   3) The natural symbol of a college or university, especially its sports teams.  Such symbols, originally called totems but now called mascots, most often represent predators, perhaps because college teaches students practices of predation. </strong>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Virtue: </em></strong>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Waste:</em></strong>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Water cycle:</em></strong>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Wisdom:</em> The goal of education, almost never discussed, because people become wise by asking whys. </strong>\n\n<strong><em>Wonder: </em></strong>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Wor(l)dplay:</em> The art of using words to challenge worldviews, and change the world.</strong>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>Zen affluence: </em>The art of having much by wanting little, the art of having your heart’s desire by restraining your desire.  For people who live in what William Leach calls “the land of desire,” this is not an easy trick.  See <em>desire.</em> </strong>','The Ecologician\'s Dictionary: Coming to Terms','','inherit','open','open','','247-autosave','','','2011-10-04 16:58:44','2011-10-04 16:58:44','',247,'http://natureofcollege.org/2011/03/247-autosave/',0,'revision','',0),(718,5,'2011-10-04 17:04:45','2011-10-04 17:04:45','I love teaching! When you\'re in a room of curious and committed young people, trying to make sense of the world, it\'s exhilarating. I\'m one of those people who says \"Thank God it\'s Monday,\" because I get to converse with student who want to know how the world works so that they can do good work in the world.\n\nI tend to be an unconventional teacher because I\'ve been surrounded by colleagues who believe in the virtues of intellectual play, and because I\'ve worker in institutions like St. Olaf\'s Paracollege, which','The Ecologician\'s Teaching','','inherit','open','open','','717-revision','','','2011-10-04 17:04:45','2011-10-04 17:04:45','',717,'http://natureofcollege.org/2011/10/717-revision/',0,'revision','',0),(719,5,'2011-10-04 18:45:49','2011-10-04 18:45:49','I love teaching! When you\'re in a room of curious and committed young people, trying to make sense of the world, it\'s exhilarating. I\'m one of those people who says \"Thank God it\'s Monday,\" because I get to converse with students who want to know how the world works so that they can do good work in the world.\n\nI tend to be an unconventional teacher because I\'ve been surrounded by colleagues who believe in the virtues of intellectual play, and because I\'ve worker in institutions like St. Olaf\'s Paracollege, which encouraged students and mentors to make learning make sense for students, not just for professional practitioners of academic disciplines.\n\nThe class that inspired <em>The Nature of College </em>is Campus Ecology, and you can find out more about it here.','The Ecologician\'s Teaching','','inherit','open','open','','717-revision-2','','','2011-10-04 18:45:49','2011-10-04 18:45:49','',717,'http://natureofcollege.org/2011/10/717-revision-2/',0,'revision','',0),(720,5,'2011-10-05 02:13:48','2011-10-05 02:13:48','<em>To prepare for the ecological revolution of the 21<sup>st</sup> century, American college students need to know more than the traditional disciplines can teach them. They need to understand the moral ecology of everyday life in America, and the daily practices that reinforce or resist the common sense of an unsustainable society. The Campus Ecology class at St. Olaf College does just that. Created by a senior student in 2004, the class helps students see the ethical and aesthetic (and practical) connections between their daily lives and the environmental crises of the planet. It’s also resulted in a book, </em>The Nature of College: How a New Understanding of Campus Life Can Change the World<em> (Milkweed Editions, 2010), which traces the environmental impacts of Jo and Joe College as they perform the routines of everyday life, from the dorm room to the bathroom, from the clothes closet to the cafeteria, from the parking lots to the party house.  This section of the website, therefore, describes the advantages of connecting sustainability issues to the everyday lives of students, and shares the kinds of learning goals, readings, assignments, and practices (individual and collective) that can make sustainability not just an academic subject for students, but a normal part of their daily lives.</em>','Environmental Studies 222: Campus Ecology','','publish','closed','open','','environmental-studies-222-campus-ecology','','','2018-07-09 14:32:20','2018-07-09 19:32:20','',717,'http://natureofcollege.org/?page_id=720',0,'page','',0),(721,5,'2011-10-05 02:07:36','2011-10-05 02:07:36','','Environmental Studies 222: Campus Ec','','inherit','open','open','','720-revision','','','2011-10-05 02:07:36','2011-10-05 02:07:36','',720,'http://natureofcollege.org/2011/10/720-revision/',0,'revision','',0),(250,5,'2011-03-13 02:05:59','2011-03-13 02:05:59','<strong><em>Action/information ratio: </em>The amount of action that comes from each unit of information; the practices that come from knowledge; thus, the practical consequences of learning.  TV news, in general, has a ratio of zero.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Activist</em></strong>: <strong>A person who does something about environmental (and other) problems, instead of just bitching about them.  Synonym: citizen.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Air conditioning:</em></strong> <strong>A way of warming the planet by cooling the air.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Appeerances:</em> The way that peer pressure looks in our lives.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Apposite sex: </em></strong><strong>The appropriate sex for sexuality.  For heterosexuals, the apposite sex is the opposite sex, but for homosexuals it’s not.  “Apposite” means “fitting, suitable, appropriate,”so the term “apposite sex” helps us to remember that we’re not all heterosexual.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Asceticism: </em>The art of getting more life with less stuff, a practice of restraint which is increasingly rare in a consumer society that promotes self-indulgence more than self-discipline. </strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Automobility: </em>The combination of ideas, assumptions, institutions and technologies that have driven Americans (in cars) since the early 20<sup>th</sup> century.  See <em>Car culture.</em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Bearthday: </em>1) The day on which a person is born; 2) The day on which the elements of the earth combine to produce a human being, whose being is, in fact, inextricable connected to the nurturing of people and the planet’s ecosystem services; 3) A day that might be ritualized not just as a celebration of one life, but as a celebration of the many lives involved in one life.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Beer: </em>The elixir of college life, the fermented beverage that foments fellowship and fun and fantasy and audacity and hook-ups and unconsciousness and hangovers, among other things. </strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Bitching</em>: A characteristic conversational mode in the college culture of complaint, an expression of cynicism, learned helplessness, and quiet desperation.  Antonym: <em>hope.</em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Boredom: </em>1) Mindless, listless tedium, brought on by a lack of stimulation or a lack of imagination; 2) The primary social disease of college life, often cured by TV or video games or pharmaceuticals or fun.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Boycott:</em> A way of putting our money where our values are, a protest withdrawing business from merchants who have withdrawn from the moral economy of the culture.  \"We boycott,\" said Martin Luther King, \"not to put people out of business, but to put justice into business.\"</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Buycott: </em>A way of putting our money where our values are by buying goods that are good for people and the planet.  If you believe that sustainability is a good thing, you can buycott manufacturers by purchasing organic foods or textiles, by looking for energy-efficient appliances and cars, and by preferring recycled products.  In this way, consumers get to make the market work for the good life instead of just for profits.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Carcass: The body of a person who drives a car.</em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Comfearth:</em> The amount of comfort that’s consistent with sustainability.</strong>\r\n\r\n<em>Comfort:</em> One of the most important American environmental values.  See <em>comfearth.</em>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Commodity: </em>A thing, specifically a thing that can be bought and sold; thus, everything in a capitalist economy, including the labor (and sometimes the bodies) of human beings.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Commodity fetishism:</em> A fetish is, in primitive societies like ours, an object believed to have magical qualities—like toothpaste, which effectively cleans teeth and magically attracts the opposite sex.  Fetishism is the belief in such fetishes.  For Marx, one of the magical things about such fetishes is the way they work in disappearing acts.  When people focus on money and stuff, the social and environmental consequences of money and stuff magically disappear. </strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Commodity self:</em> The identity of a person expressed by the things a person owns.  If you are what you own, what are you?  A commodity self.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Common sense: </em>The ordinary and everyday interpretation of reality, a social construction of a community for the convenience of its members.  The sense that we don’t need to think more deeply about the reasons for our lives. Antonym: <em>Uncommon sense.</em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Commons sense: The common sense of the 21<sup>st</sup> century, in which “everybody knows” that human life depends on other lives in the biosphere—and the health of the biosphere itself.</em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Compartmentalization</em>: The cultural sport of boxing, sorting ourselves into the boxes we call specialization—or, in academia, departments.  See <em>myopia.</em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Consumer forgetfulness: </em>Ignorance of, or intentional ignoring, the implications of our consumption and materialism.  In writing about 19<sup>th</sup> century transformations in the making of meat, historian William Cronon reminds us that “The packing plants distanced their customers most of all from the act of killing. . . . The more people became accustomed to the attractively cut, carefully wrapped, cunningly displayed packages that Swift had introduced to the trade, the more they could fail to remember that their purchase had once pulsed and breathed with a life much like their own. . . . In the packers’ world, it was easy not to remember that eating was a moral act inextricably bound to killing.  Such was the second nature that a corporate order had imposed on the American landscape.  Forgetfulness was among the least noticed and most important of its by-products.” </strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Convenience: </em>One of the core values of American consumer culture, the idea that saving time is a saving grace, even when it reduces the amount of care and cooperation and sustainability in the society.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Cultural work: </em> The work performed by actions and artifacts that reinforces (or challenges) cultural values, assumptions and expectations.  Grades, for example, tell us how we did on papers and exams, but they also do cultural work, reinforcing patterns of authority, hierarchy, quantification, and the reification of values. Bananas are good food, but they also do cultural work, reinforcing patterns of globalization, free trade, resourcism, and underdevelopment (they weren’t called “banana republics” for nothing.)</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Cynicism: </em>Despairing doubtfulness, a defense against the challenges of hopefulness and idealism.  A common reflex of college students; as Mark Edmundson says, “Cynicism became their habitual mode.  They are the progeny of Bart Simpson and David Letterman, and the hyper-cool ethos of the box.”  See <em>realism.</em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Dense fact: </em>A cultural act or artifact, as seen by a person with a connecting mind. </strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Designing minds:</em> Minds designed to see the designs of nature and culture, <em>and </em>to design a society that harmonizes them happily ever after.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong> </strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Distraction: </em>The act of paying attention to the wrong thing.  In the early 21<sup>st</sup> century, Americans live in a culture of distraction, designed to keep us thinking about white teeth and white  laundry, about beer and big breasts, about junk food and giant cars, about fun and fashion, instead of liberty and justice for all. </strong>\r\n\r\n<strong> </strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Ecologician:</em> 1) A student of ecology, including the moral ecology of everyday life; 2) a magician who practices the arts of regenerative design; 3) us, if we choose to be.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Ecosystem services: </em>what nature does to nurture us, producing such things as the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat, the fibers we wear, the bacteria that help to digest our food, and the instincts that drive us when we’re not driving ourselves.  In addition, nature supplies habitat, produces soil, supplies lumber, manufactures medicines, prevents floods, controls pests, regulates climate, develops genes, maintains biodiversity, and absorbs wastes—all without cost to people.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Enchantment of goods:</em> Making magic with materialism. <em> </em>In a scientific, semi-secular society, most of us don’t believe that there’s magic in the world—except in our products, which routinely cause magical transformations in people and their places.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Enough: </em> An obsolete word that used to connote a sufficiency.  In modern America, enough is not enough, because there\'s still more, and it\'s new and improved.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Ethicurean: </em>A person who seeks out tasty things that are also <em>s</em>ustainable, organic, local, and/or ethical — SOLE food, for short.  See <a href=\"http://www.ethicurean.com/\">www.ethicurean.com</a>. </strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Expressed values: </em>The values we say we love and live, as opposed to the ones we actually practice.  Many Americans express environmental values, but they live as if environmental impacts occurred only in other places—which, often, they do. See <em>operative values.</em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Extensive pleasure: </em>The pleasure derived from living in right relation to the world.  Eating is a good example. According to Wendell Berry, good food tastes good, but when you know that food has been carefully and conscientiously prepared (from farm to fork), it tastes better.  See <em>intensive pleasure.</em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Extinction:</em> The death of dying for a species, the transformation from life to obliteration</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Extrospection: </em>The practice of looking outside the self to understand the self.  When we see the consequences of our lives, we get a better idea of who we are.  Ant.: <em>introspection</em></strong>\r\n\r\n<em> </em>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Facebook:</em> An online social network that substitutes profiles, poking and writing on walls for face-to-face conversation, which is so old-fashioned.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Familyism: </em>The focus on the family of American culture, in which we sometimes sacrifice the public good and environmental health for the good of our families.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Flow: </em>A state of satisfaction more fulfilling than fun, an active engagement in work or play in which a person loses themselves in the intrinsic interest of the activity.  The deep pleasure that comes from intense engagement in play, in the play of work, in a problem, in a quest or a question, or in another person. The goal of a good society.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Food: </em>Nature converted to culture converted, by cooking and preparation and dining, to human nature.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Fun morality: </em>The idea that people ought to have fun in the socially accepted ways that people in beer commercials do.  The idea that leisure is our duty allows merchants to sell us our own leisure time.  See <em>free time.</em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Fundamentalism: </em>The primary religion of American life, the idea that people are created to have fun. Fundamentalism explains why the great American interdenominational prayer is “Thank God it’s Friday.” </strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Freakological era</em>: The freakish time period between 1800 and 2000 in which human beings seemingly expected that they could live well by compromising other lives on the planet.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong> </strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Global warming:</em></strong> A euphemism for the climate changes that are occurring as people heat up the planet.  See <strong><em>global weirding</em>.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Global weirding:</em> A phrase coined by Amory Lovins to emphasize the catastrophic climate changes that accompany global warming, including drought, heat waves, thunderstorms, hurricanes, blizzards, dust storms, plant and animal extinctions and population explosions, spreading pests and diseases, human starvation and social upheaval.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Habitat: </em>1. In nature, the environment in which an organism or biological population normally lives; 2. In culture, the sum total of our habits, the way we inhabit our habitat. One of the most important questions of ecology is how well human habits are adapted to the habitats that <em>homo sapiens</em> occupies, all of which are on a planet with a beleaguered biosphere.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Hope:</em> 1) The practice of possibility; 2) the art of making the good life a better life—and not just for people.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Hoping mechanism:</em> A person, community, institution, text, image, performance or artwork that sustains our hope for sustainability. Ant: <em> coping mechanism</em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Ignorance:</em> 1. Lack of knowledge. 2. Avoidance of knowledge, as when we actively ignore the signs of global weirding in order to preserve a culture of comfort and materialism.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Ignorant knowledge:</em> (from David Orr)  Decontextualized knowledge, knowledge that ignores the bigger pictures of human fulfillment and environmental health.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>In<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">car</span>ceration:</em> The voluntary process of imprisonment in cars, a process carried out over the course of the 20<sup>th</sup> century. </strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Industrial lawn:</em> A form of industrial agriculture, the application of industrial processes (chemical fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, fossil-fueled mowers) to the growth of a crop which is harvested weekly and thrown out.  See also <em>freedom lawn</em>.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Inhabitant:</em> A person whose habits are in synch with their environment, a human being who fits within nature’s regenerative cycles, a person who makes a habit of harmony. </strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Insight:</em> The sight you get when you think about what you see, and about the cultural norms that frame perception. </strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Interbeing: </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Interdependence: </em></strong>The only kind of independence there is, xxxxxx.  See interbeing.\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Invisible technology: </em>A tool so familiar that we forget that we’re using it and it’s using us. Grades are an invisible technology, a tool designed to communicate quality to students, but a tool which also naturalizes such ideas as the standardization of excellence, the importance of hierarchy, and the identity of the self (“a B student.”)</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>The Joneses:</em> The mythical other, responsible for motivating the real us to consume.  The family next door (figuratively) who put pressure on us to keep up with their appearance of wealth by buying things.  Synonym: us. See <em>peer socialization</em>.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Know-how: </em>Instrumental knowledge, often technological.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Know-why: </em>Instrumental wisdom, often philosophical.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Latent function: </em>The unintended function of an action or artifact.  Sometimes, ironically, a function at odds with the manifest function.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Lifestyle: </em>1) The complexity of life, reduced to the simplicity of consumption and commercial style; 2) A life, conceived as a collection of commodities.  See <em>commodity self</em>.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Manifest function:</em> The expressed or intended function of an action or artifact.  The manifest function of this class is to help students learn American Studies.  The latent functions are something else.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Mindfulness:</em> The quality of attention and care that keeps earth in mind, so that we can mind our own social and environmental behavior. Antonym: mindlessness.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Mining: </em>1) Extraction of minerals from the earth’s crust for human benefit; 2) Making things mine by buying them; 3) Making people, plants and animals mine by appreciating them and taking responsibility for them.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Moral amnesia: </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Moral drift:</em></strong> In “Bad Politics and Silly Literature,” Carol Bly\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Moral ecology: </em>According to <em>Habits of the Heart</em>, moral ecology is \"the web of moral understandings and commitments that tie people together in community.\"  In this book, moral ecology is the web of moral understandings and commitments that tie people together with each other and with nature.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong>Moral economy: The underlying sense of fairness that makes markets work not just for the benefit of capitalists and consumers, but for all people and the planet.  In the past, when manufacturers violated the moral economy of a culture, they paid for it with strikes, boycotts, riots, etc.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Murketing:</em> 1) Promoting consumption by converting human hopes into commercial fantasies, half-truths, and lies; 2) the process of making complexity invisible. </strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Necessity: </em>Something we need, or something that everybody else has.  Necessities are always cultural and (in this culture) usually commercial.  In his trenchant essay “A Sad Heart at the Supermarket,” poet Randall Jarrell noted that in American “the frontier of necessity” always moves forward.  And in <em>The Overspent American</em>, Juliet Schor shows how many things are now “necessities” in American life.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Need: </em>A verb with expansive meanings.  When Americans say they \"need\" something, most often it means that they \"want\" it.  And in a capitalist society, invention is often the mother of necessity as advertisers try to create a demand for what they can supply.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Noah principle:</em> 1. According to David Ehrenfield, the idea that all species have a right to exist (and by extension, to be protected); 2. The <em>precautionary principle</em>: in the face of the deluge, it’s prudent to build an ark.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Operative values: </em> The values we really live by.  Few people—even politicians—espouse the value of convenience, but almost all of us live by it.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Ordinary consumption: </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Opportunity costs:</em> The cost of missed opportunities; what you might have purchased instead of the things you did.  On the personal level, I might have purchased a co-op membership instead of an iPhone.  On a national level, Americans might have purchased renewable energy or increased energy efficiency instead of a war in Iraq.   Opportunity costs do not include the costs of missed opportunities, like the global climate change that’s coming from the missed opportunities for reducing our use of fossil fuels.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Overshoot:</em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Peer pressure: </em>One form of peer socialization, in which your friends and fellow students exert their influence to get you to conform to social expectations of a culture or subculture, even when those expectations are environmentally disastrous.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Peer socialization: </em>The way we teach each other how to think and act in a consumer culture.  Usually peer socialization works to help us live up to the low expectations of a consumer society.  But it can also be a force for creating a life that’s better than “a good life.”</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Perfect standard: </em></strong>(Paul Loeb)\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Permaculture: </em>1) The agriculture of forever, cultivating plants and animals in perennial, closed-loop systems; 2) The culture of permanence, cultivating human beings in cultures rooted in the land and in an ethic of ever after, practicing regenerative design in all aspects of living. </strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Photosynthesis:</em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Planned obsolescence: </em>The art of designing products that don’t last, either functionally or fashionably, so that manufacturers can increase sales. Disposable products are good examples of functional obsolescence, while fashion trends and the annual model change in cars are good examples of stylish obsolescence. On college campuses, new textbook editions speed obsolescence as well.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Politics:</em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Practical idealism:</em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Precautionary principle: </em>A canon of carefulness, the idea that people proposing risky behavior must prove the benefit of the risks before proceeding.  Environmentally, it means that people shouldn’t conduct experiments with the planet; instead we should conduct experiments in the lab <em>before</em> we pollute the planet or alter the atmosphere.  Although the term is relatively new, the idea is old, an essential part of folk wisdom.  “Better safe than sorry” and “look before you leap” are the common sense of the precautionary principle.  The precautionary principle is also a way of reminding ourselves that the bottom line of business doesn’t go deep enough—a better bottom line considers the health of people and the planet.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Product chain: </em>The sequence of events by which nature becomes culture, as a natural resource is produced, processed, packaged, shipped, distributed, sold, consumed and discarded. </strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Professor: </em>1) The chairman of the bored; 2) Any person who professes values, either academically or actually; 3) Us.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Progress: </em></strong>1) xxxxxxxxxxxxx; 2) Regress.\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Ratcheting: </em>A process of rising expectations whereby today’s luxuries become tomorrow’s necessities.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Real world:</em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Remote control: </em>1) The device we use to control our TVs and other electronics; 2) the designs we use to control the world, socially and environmentally. Eating, for example, is a form of remote control.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Republicanism</em>: From the Latin “res publica” (the public things), the quaint idea that private virtue is necessary for the public good. </strong>\r\n\r\n<strong> </strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Republican Party: </em>The quaint idea that private enterprise is the same thing as private virtue and the public good, even though corporations are legally bound to serve the interests of shareholders before any public purposes.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Responsibility: </em>(also spelled response-ability) The human ability to respond carefully and comprehensively to one’s environment</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Reverse adaptation: </em>The process by which people become tools of their tools.  When Americans began to adapt their culture to cars—or other technologies—they practiced reverse adaptation.  When college students worry more about their grades—an invisible technology—than their learning, they practice reverse adaptation.  When people do things for the sake of the economy—instead of the other way around—it’s reverse adaptation.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Road kill: </em>A popular form of animal sacrifice, in which we take life (including human life) to drive wherever we please. </strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Sabbath:</em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Sacramentality: </em>The radical idea that we all live in the Holy Land.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Sacrifice:</em> (obs.) The idea that a person who can have it all might prefer to give some of it to somebody else.  In a culture of individualism, this is a crazy idea.  In a culture of the common good, it’s common sense.  Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King believed in redemptive sacrifice.  George W. Bush was afraid to use the word, except for soldiers who are sacrificing their lives for oil and other national interests..  See <em>virtue.</em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Scenery:</em> The predominant way that nature is seen (and scene) in American culture, the way that land becomes landscape.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Seeing:</em> 1. The act of perception. 2. The art of perception, honed by practices of attentive mindfulness.  See Annie Dillard on “Seeing” in <em>Pilgrim at Tinker Creek</em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Silence: </em>One way we make environmental history, the sound that most of us make in response to the degradation of natural systems.  “<em>All </em>of us are collaborators in this silence,” says Sallie McFague.  “We enjoy the consumer lifestyle; in fact, most of us are addicted to it, and, like addicts, we cheerfully live in a state of denial.”</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Sitizen:</em> A person whose civic engagement consists of sitting around and bitching about the state of the world, the gridlock in Washington, the environmental crisis, and the bias of the media, without ever doing a damn thing about it. Antonym: <em>Citizen </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Social capital:</em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Spirituality:</em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Sustainability:</em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Television:</em> 1) a technology for transmitting sound and images, and for transforming culture by distracting people from big questions; 2) a way of seeing the world, a vision of the world that focuses on the bottom line and the lowest common denominator.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Time poverty: </em>Part of the price we pay for affluence, because we generally have to spend too much time working to make the money we spend.  In <em>Walden</em>, Thoreau calculated that the price of a thing was the time it took to acquire it.  But even though most college students read Thoreau, most of us still ignore him.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Totem: </em>1) An animal, plant or object that serves as the emblem of a clan or tribe or family because of common ancestry.  Many Indian tribes identified with animals which looked over or helped them.  2) An animal, plant or object that serves as the emblem of an object like a car: the Ford Mustang, the Chevy Volt, Dodge Ram, etc.  Such totems capture the “spirit” of the car, and transfer those spiritual powers to the driver.   3) The natural symbol of a college or university, especially its sports teams.  Such symbols, originally called totems but now called mascots, most often represent predators, perhaps because college teaches students practices of predation. </strong>\r\n\r\n<strong> </strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Virtue: </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Waste:</em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Water cycle:</em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Wisdom:</em> The goal of education, almost never discussed, because people become wise by asking whys. </strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Wonder: </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Wor(l)dplay:</em> The art of using words to challenge worldviews, and change the world.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em> </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Zen affluence: </em>The art of having much by wanting little, the art of having your heart’s desire by restraining your desire.  For people who live in what William Leach calls “the land of desire,” this is not an easy trick.  See <em>desire.</em> </strong>','The Ecologician\'s Dictionary','','inherit','open','open','','247-revision-2','','','2011-03-13 02:05:59','2011-03-13 02:05:59','',247,'http://natureofcollege.org/2011/03/247-revision-2/',0,'revision','',0),(252,5,'2011-04-16 15:29:13','2011-04-16 15:29:13','In <em>The Nature of College</em>, I suggest that a new “Placebook” might helps students understand their ecological connections and responsibilities better than Facebook does. So I decided to try it out in my Campus Ecology class. Here’s a look at the Placebook categories:\r\n\r\n<em> </em>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Placebook Profile</em></strong>\r\n\r\n<em> </em>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Name: </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Totem: </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<em> </em>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Homeplace </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<em>College home: </em>\r\n\r\n<em>Distance between the homeplace and college place: </em>\r\n\r\n<em>Watershed: </em>\r\n\r\n<em>Bioregion: </em>\r\n\r\n<em>Ecosystem: </em>\r\n\r\n<em> </em>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Favorite Flora and Fauna</em></strong>\r\n\r\n<em>Favorite trees: </em>\r\n\r\n<em>Favorite native plants: </em>\r\n\r\n<em>Favorite animals: </em>\r\n\r\n<em>1) </em>\r\n\r\n<em>2) </em>\r\n\r\n<em>3)</em>\r\n\r\n<em>Threats to favorite animals:</em>\r\n\r\n<em>1) </em>\r\n\r\n<em>2) </em>\r\n\r\n<em>3) </em>\r\n\r\n<em>Favorite decomposers: </em>\r\n\r\n<em> </em>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Favorite Places</em></strong>\r\n\r\n<em>1) </em>\r\n\r\n<em>2)</em>\r\n\r\n<em>3) </em>\r\n\r\n<em>Favorite place within 50 miles of homeplace:</em>\r\n\r\n<em>4) </em>\r\n\r\n<em>5)</em>\r\n\r\n<em>Threats to favorite places:</em>\r\n\r\n<em>1) </em>\r\n\r\n<em>2) </em>\r\n\r\n<em>3) What I’m doing about threats to places I love: </em>\r\n\r\n<em> </em>\r\n\r\n<em>Places I loved that are gone: </em>\r\n\r\n<em> </em>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Favorite season: </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<em> </em>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Favorite environmentalists: </em></strong>\r\n\r\n<em>1)</em>\r\n\r\n<em>2) </em>\r\n\r\n<em>3) </em>\r\n\r\n<em> </em>\r\n\r\n<em>Ecological footprint:</em>\r\n\r\n<em>Foodshed: </em>\r\n\r\n<em>Largest carbon consumers in my diet: </em>\r\n\r\n<em> </em>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Getting Around</em></strong>\r\n\r\n<em>Mode of transportation:</em>\r\n\r\n<em>Make and model of car: </em>\r\n\r\n<em>Embodied energy in car: </em>\r\n\r\n<em>EPA mpg for car: </em>\r\n\r\n<em>Miles traveled per pound of carbon dioxide emitted: </em>\r\n\r\n<em> </em>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Relationship status</em></strong>\r\n\r\n<em>Closest relationship: </em>\r\n\r\n<em>Best friends (in the classical sense): </em>\r\n\r\n<em>Friends I can talk to about environmental issues: </em>\r\n\r\n<em>Youngest living relative: </em>\r\n\r\n<em>Year in which that relative will be 70</em>\r\n\r\n<em>Threats to that child’s future: </em>\r\n\r\n<em>What I’m doing about it: </em>\r\n\r\n<em> </em>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Green Consumption</em></strong>\r\n\r\n<em>Organic products: </em>\r\n\r\n<em>Local purchasing: </em>\r\n\r\n<em>Companies I buy into because of their environmental values: </em>\r\n\r\n<em>Companies that I wish would develop some environmental values to match their greenwashing:</em>\r\n\r\n<em> </em>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>My Electrocution</em></strong>\r\n\r\n<em>Electrical appliances in my dorm room: </em>\r\n\r\n<em>Total wattage: </em>\r\n\r\n<em>Kilowatt hours used per day: </em>\r\n\r\n<em>Negawatts generated by conservation: </em>\r\n\r\n<em> </em>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Deepest values</em></strong>\r\n\r\n<em>1) </em>\r\n\r\n<em>2) </em>\r\n\r\n<em>3) </em>\r\n\r\n<em>Books that reflect my deepest values: </em>\r\n\r\n<em>Poetry that reflects my idea(l)s: </em>\r\n\r\n<em>Quotables:</em>\r\n\r\n<em>Music that reflects my deepest values:</em>\r\n\r\n<em>Music that expresses my values and hopes for my earthly home:</em>\r\n\r\n<em> </em>\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Institutionalization of environmental values</em></strong>\r\n\r\n<em>Environmental organizations I belong too (even as student member): </em>\r\n\r\n<em>Organizations that aren’t environmental that I could influence as a member: </em>\r\n\r\n<em>Political causes I work for: </em>\r\n\r\n<em>Political issues I write my representatives about: </em>\r\n\r\n<em>Community organizing I do: </em>\r\n\r\n<em>Facebook/Placebook groups (“green”) I belong to: </em>\r\n\r\n<em>Environmental websites I have bookmarked: </em>\r\n\r\n<em>Environmental newsfeeds I get:</em>\r\n\r\n<em> </em>\r\n\r\nStudents generally found this profile (which is, in some ways, more three-dimensional than a profile) difficult. As one student said, “Yikes... this was embarrassingly illuminating!” Another student noted that “Hmmm, I feel slightly troubled by how long it took me to come up with these answers, and how many things I didn\'t like my answers for.” Yet another commented with dismay, “I thought that I would only spend about a half an hour on this document, but I\'ve been staring at it for the past hour and a half, struggling to find things in my life that prove I\'m trying to make a difference. Needless to say, I came up short. This activity is pretty enlightening in the way it makes us realize how ignorant we are of our lack of contribution and basic knowledge of our general environmental impact.” In today’s world, our remoteness from nature and environmentalism isn’t happy news, but it’s a starting point for more engagement.\r\n\r\nOne student was really pleased; in her journal she wrote:\r\n\r\n<em>I liked creating a Placebook profile more than I enjoyed creating a Facebook profile because Placebook actually made me think. When I created my Facebook page I am pretty sure that it took me less than 5 minutes and I know that I was not all too concerned about people judging my profile page because in reality everyone’s profile page is more similar than different. I think that Facebook originally fed off of our American consumption culture, and since by and large we consume the same products, Facebook in a way takes away people’s unique identities. Facebook is another place where people seem to seek conformity instead of celebrating differences. </em>\r\n\r\n<em> </em>\r\n\r\n<em>In contrast, I think the idea of Placebook is a less passive activity than Facebook because it forces people to acknowledge place, the environment, and the future. Also, Placebook more than Facebook makes us more aware of where we come from, and thus seems to encourage people to show and be proud of how they are different. </em>\r\n\r\n<em> </em>\r\n\r\n<em>Another important difference between Placebook and Facebook is that Facebook rarely causes people to worry about being judged or embarrassed by news feeds or comments they make. Thus Facebook has created another careless environment. On the other hand, Placebook is a space where I think people would judge one another, especially about people’s carbon footprints and peoples’ activites to create a better future. Thus, Placebook creates a caring and thoughtful environment when compared to Facebook.</em>\r\n\r\n<em> </em>\r\n\r\n<em>I do not think that people would latch onto Placebook like they have with Facebook, especially Americans, because Placebook does not leave room for complaining and bitching about life, and these are two activities that Americans are more than addicted to. </em>\r\n\r\nIt’s possible that Placebook might be for you. Give it a try and let me know what you think.','Placebook','','publish','closed','closed','','placebook','','','2018-07-09 14:31:59','2018-07-09 19:31:59','',0,'http://natureofcollege.org/?p=252',0,'post','',2),(253,5,'2011-04-16 15:28:41','2011-04-16 15:28:41','In <em>The Nature of College</em>, I suggest that a new “Placebook” might helps students understand their ecological connections and responsibilities better than Facebook does. So I decided to try it out in my Campus Ecology class. Here’s a look at the Placebook categories:\n\n<em> </em>\n\n<strong><em>Placebook Profile</em></strong>\n\n<em> </em>\n\n<strong><em>Name: </em></strong>\n\n<strong><em>Totem: </em></strong>\n\n<em> </em>\n\n<strong><em>Homeplace </em></strong>\n\n<em>College home: </em>\n\n<em>Distance between the homeplace and college place: </em>\n\n<em>Watershed: </em>\n\n<em>Bioregion: </em>\n\n<em>Ecosystem: </em>\n\n<em> </em>\n\n<strong><em>Favorite Flora and Fauna</em></strong>\n\n<em>Favorite trees: </em>\n\n<em>Favorite native plants: </em>\n\n<em>Favorite animals: </em>\n\n<em>1) </em>\n\n<em>2) </em>\n\n<em>3)</em>\n\n<em>Threats to favorite animals:</em>\n\n<em>1) </em>\n\n<em>2) </em>\n\n<em>3) </em>\n\n<em>Favorite decomposers: </em>\n\n<em> </em>\n\n<strong><em>Favorite Places</em></strong>\n\n<em>1) </em>\n\n<em>2)</em>\n\n<em>3) </em>\n\n<em>Favorite place within 50 miles of homeplace:</em>\n\n<em>4) </em>\n\n<em>5)</em>\n\n<em>Threats to favorite places:</em>\n\n<em>1) </em>\n\n<em>2) </em>\n\n<em>3) What I’m doing about threats to places I love: </em>\n\n<em> </em>\n\n<em>Places I loved that are gone: </em>\n\n<em> </em>\n\n<strong><em>Favorite season: </em></strong>\n\n<em> </em>\n\n<strong><em>Favorite environmentalists: </em></strong>\n\n<em>1)</em>\n\n<em>2) </em>\n\n<em>3) </em>\n\n<em> </em>\n\n<em>Ecological footprint:</em>\n\n<em>Foodshed: </em>\n\n<em>Largest carbon consumers in my diet: </em>\n\n<em> </em>\n\n<strong><em>Getting Around</em></strong>\n\n<em>Mode of transportation:</em>\n\n<em>Make and model of car: </em>\n\n<em>Embodied energy in car: </em>\n\n<em>EPA mpg for car: </em>\n\n<em>Miles traveled per pound of carbon dioxide emitted: </em>\n\n<em> </em>\n\n<strong><em>Relationship status</em></strong>\n\n<em>Closest relationship: </em>\n\n<em>Best friends (in the classical sense): </em>\n\n<em>Friends I can talk to about environmental issues: </em>\n\n<em>Youngest living relative: </em>\n\n<em>Year in which that relative will be 70</em>\n\n<em>Threats to that child’s future: </em>\n\n<em>What I’m doing about it: </em>\n\n<em> </em>\n\n<strong><em>Green Consumption</em></strong>\n\n<em>Organic products: </em>\n\n<em>Local purchasing: </em>\n\n<em>Companies I buy into because of their environmental values: </em>\n\n<em>Companies that I wish would develop some environmental values to match their greenwashing:</em>\n\n<em> </em>\n\n<strong><em>My Electrocution</em></strong>\n\n<em>Electrical appliances in my dorm room: </em>\n\n<em>Total wattage: </em>\n\n<em>Kilowatt hours used per day: </em>\n\n<em>Negawatts generated by conservation: </em>\n\n<em> </em>\n\n<strong><em>Deepest values</em></strong>\n\n<em>1) </em>\n\n<em>2) </em>\n\n<em>3) </em>\n\n<em>Books that reflect my deepest values: </em>\n\n<em>Poetry that reflects my idea(l)s: </em>\n\n<em>Quotables:</em>\n\n<em>Music that reflects my deepest values:</em>\n\n<em>Music that expresses my values and hopes for my earthly home:</em>\n\n<em> </em>\n\n<strong><em>Institutionalization of environmental values</em></strong>\n\n<em>Environmental organizations I belong too (even as student member): </em>\n\n<em>Organizations that aren’t environmental that I could influence as a member: </em>\n\n<em>Political causes I work for: </em>\n\n<em>Political issues I write my representatives about: </em>\n\n<em>Community organizing I do: </em>\n\n<em>Facebook/Placebook groups (“green”) I belong to: </em>\n\n<em>Environmental websites I have bookmarked: </em>\n\n<em>Environmental newsfeeds I get:</em>\n\n<em> </em>\n\nStudents generally found this profile (which is, in some ways, more three-dimensional than a profile) difficult. As one student said, “Yikes... this was embarrassingly illuminating!” Another student noted that “Hmmm, I feel slightly troubled by how long it took me to come up with these answers, and how many things I didn\'t like my answers for.” Yet another commented with dismay, “I thought that I would only spend about a half an hour on this document, but I\'ve been staring at it for the past hour and a half, struggling to find things in my life that prove I\'m trying to make a difference. Needless to say, I came up short. This activity is pretty enlightening in the way it makes us realize how ignorant we are of our lack of contribution and basic knowledge of our general environmental impact.” In today’s world, our remoteness from nature and environmentalism isn’t happy news, but it’s a starting point for more engagement.\n\nOne student was really pleased; in her journal she wrote:\n\n<em>I liked creating a Placebook profile more than I enjoyed creating a Facebook profile because Placebook actually made me think. When I created my Facebook page I am pretty sure that it took me less than 5 minutes and I know that I was not all too concerned about people judging my profile page because in reality everyone’s profile page is more similar than different. I think that Facebook originally fed off of our American consumption culture, and since by and large we consume the same products, Facebook in a way takes away people’s unique identities. Facebook is another place where people seem to seek conformity instead of celebrating differences. </em>\n\n<em> </em>\n\n<em>In contrast, I think the idea of Placebook is a less passive activity than Facebook because it forces people to acknowledge place, the environment, and the future. Also, Placebook more than Facebook makes us more aware of where we come from, and thus seems to encourage people to show and be proud of how they are different. </em>\n\n<em> </em>\n\n<em>Another important difference between Placebook and Facebook is that Facebook rarely causes people to worry about being judged or embarrassed by news feeds or comments they make. Thus Facebook has created another careless environment. On the other hand, Placebook is a space where I think people would judge one another, especially about people’s carbon footprints and peoples’ activites to create a better future. Thus, Placebook creates a caring and thoughtful environment when compared to Facebook.</em>\n\n<em> </em>\n\n<em>I do not think that people would latch onto Placebook like they have with Facebook, especially Americans, because Placebook does not leave room for complaining and bitching about life, and these are two activities that Americans are more than addicted to. </em>\n\nIt’s possible that Placebook might be for you. Give it a try and let me know what you think.','Placebook','','inherit','open','open','','252-revision','','','2011-04-16 15:28:41','2011-04-16 15:28:41','',252,'http://natureofcollege.org/2011/04/252-revision/',0,'revision','',0),(257,5,'2011-06-24 19:27:57','2011-06-24 19:27:57','Reading Sightline Institute\'s weekly newsletter, I ran across this <a href=\"http://vimeo.com/25329849\">short video</a>, which summarizes a lot of information on \"the nature of computers\" very well. Enjoy!','How Green Is Your Internet?','','publish','closed','closed','','how-green-is-your-internet','','\nhttp://vimeo.com/25329849','2018-07-09 14:31:58','2018-07-09 19:31:58','',0,'http://natureofcollege.org/?p=257',0,'post','',0),(255,5,'2011-06-10 12:04:46','2011-06-10 12:04:46','Bill McKibben contends that human beings are engaged in creating what he calls “Earth 2.0”—or “Eaarth”—a planet substantially different from the one that has nurtured life for millions of years—and human life for thousands of years. Recently, the conservative British newsweekly <em>The Economist </em>agreed. “Welcome to the Anthropocene,” it said on its cover. And in two articles inside—<a href=\"http://www.economist.com/node/18744401\">here</a> and <a href=\"http://www.economist.com/node/18741749\">here</a>—it described the ways that human beings are creating a new planet less hospitable to life—and especially to human life as we know it. People don’t just create environmental problems; now they’re creating a new planet—or, more precisely, a new ecological regime on an old planet. If you ever wondered if it’s time for activism, these articles should answer the question for you.','Welcome to the Anthropocene','','publish','closed','closed','','welcome-to-the-anthropocene','','','2018-07-09 14:31:58','2018-07-09 19:31:58','',0,'http://natureofcollege.org/?p=255',0,'post','',0),(256,5,'2011-06-10 11:59:34','2011-06-10 11:59:34','Bill McKibben contends that human beings are engaged in creating what he calls “Earth 2.0”—or “Eaarth”—a planet substantially different from the one that has nurtured life for millions of years—and human life for thousands of years. Recently, the conservative British newsweekly <em>The Economist </em>agreed. “Welcome to the Anthropocene,” it said on its cover. And in two articles inside—<a href=\"http://www.economist.com/node/18744401\">here</a> and <a href=\"http://www.economist.com/node/18741749\">here</a>—it described the ways that human beings are creating a new planet less hospitable to life—and especially to human life as we know it. People don’t just create environmental problems; now they’re creating a new planet—or, more precisely, a new ecological regime on an old planet. If you ever wondered if it’s time for activism, these articles should answer the question for you.','Welcome to the Anthropocene','','inherit','open','open','','255-revision','','','2011-06-10 11:59:34','2011-06-10 11:59:34','',255,'http://natureofcollege.org/2011/06/255-revision/',0,'revision','',0),(258,5,'2011-06-24 19:27:50','2011-06-24 19:27:50','Reading Sightline Institute\'s weekly newsletter, I ran across this <a href=\"http://vimeo.com/25329849\">short video</a>, which summarizes a lot of information on \"the nature of computers\" very well. Enjoy!','How Green Is Your Internet?','','inherit','open','open','','257-revision','','','2011-06-24 19:27:50','2011-06-24 19:27:50','',257,'http://natureofcollege.org/2011/06/257-revision/',0,'revision','',0),(259,5,'2011-06-24 19:29:02','2011-06-24 19:29:02','Reading Sightline Institute\'s weekly newsletter, I ran across this <a href=\"http://vimeo.com/25329849\">short video</a>, which summarizes a lot of information on \"the nature of computers\" very well. Enjoy!','How Green Is Your Internet?','','inherit','open','open','','257-autosave','','','2011-06-24 19:29:02','2011-06-24 19:29:02','',257,'http://natureofcollege.org/2011/06/257-autosave/',0,'revision','',0),(261,5,'2011-06-25 13:13:00','2011-06-25 13:13:00','<a rel=\"attachment wp-att-263\" href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/2011/06/261/ask-mr-green-pic-2/\"><img class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-263\" title=\"ask-mr-green-pic\" src=\"http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/ask-mr-green-pic1-280x149.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"280\" height=\"149\" /></a>\r\n\r\n“<a href=\"http://sierraclub.org/mrgreen\">Ask Mr. Green</a>” is a feature of <em>Sierra </em>magazine. This month, in response to a question about washing machines, Mr. Green (aka Bob Schildgen) noted that\r\n\r\n<em>Back in 2002, when you bought yours, Energy Star models were allowed to use about 40 percent more power and 60 percent more water than they are today. Some new Energy Star washers are twice as efficient as those manufactured under the old standard, and many use only a third as much water. A new washer can reduce your utility bills by up to $135 per year, according to the EPA, and by washing full loads with cold water and using a solar dryer (a.k.a. a clothesline), you can save even more. Compare washers by consulting the EPA\'s list of some 250 at <a href=\"http://bit.ly/EPAwashersPDF\">http://bit.ly/EPAwashersPDF</a>.</em>\r\n\r\n<em> </em>\r\n\r\nSeveral things stand out in this paragraph. The first is that green consumption makes a difference, both economically and ecologically. This is particularly true in cases of “ordinary consumption,” the daily uses of water and electricity that aren’t conspicuous, and don’t shape our identity. Often, we think of consumption as the purchase of products that give us standing or status or identity, and we forget the everyday consumption that’s embedded in the ordinary operation of things like our new flat-screen TV.\r\n\r\nThe second notable fact about this plebeian paragraph on washing machines is that government regulation works. When the EPA sets standards for an industry, all of the companies need to meet them—and it’s not impossible, as corporations like to claim before the regulations are proclaimed. When “we the people” set standards for manufacturers, we replace “the race to the bottom” with a “race to the standard,” which includes a new—and better—bottom line. If we had set stringent CAFÉ standards for cars thirty years ago (when regulation was a dirty word in the Reagan administration), there would be a lot less “ordinary consumption” of oil today—and a lot less pressure to intervene with force in the Middle East to preserve our access to oil.','Ordinary Consumption','','publish','closed','closed','','261','','','2018-07-09 14:31:58','2018-07-09 19:31:58','',0,'http://natureofcollege.org/?p=261',0,'post','',0),(262,5,'2011-06-25 13:11:13','2011-06-25 13:11:13','','ask-mr-green-pic','','inherit','open','open','','ask-mr-green-pic','','','2011-06-25 13:11:13','2011-06-25 13:11:13','',261,'http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/ask-mr-green-pic.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(263,5,'2011-06-25 13:12:31','2011-06-25 13:12:31','','ask-mr-green-pic','','inherit','open','open','','ask-mr-green-pic-2','','','2011-06-25 13:12:31','2011-06-25 13:12:31','',261,'http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/ask-mr-green-pic1.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(264,5,'2011-06-25 13:08:35','2011-06-25 13:08:35','“<a href=\"http://sierraclub.org/mrgreen\">Ask Mr. Green</a>” is a feature of <em>Sierra </em>magazine. This month, in response to a question about washing machines, Mr. Green (aka Bob Schildgen) noted that\n\n<em>Back in 2002, when you bought yours, Energy Star models were allowed to use about 40 percent more power and 60 percent more water than they are today. Some new Energy Star washers are twice as efficient as those manufactured under the old standard, and many use only a third as much water. A new washer can reduce your utility bills by up to $135 per year, according to the EPA, and by washing full loads with cold water and using a solar dryer (a.k.a. a clothesline), you can save even more. Compare washers by consulting the EPA\'s list of some 250 at <a href=\"http://bit.ly/EPAwashersPDF\">http://bit.ly/EPAwashersPDF</a>.</em>\n\n<em> </em>\n\nSeveral things stand out in this paragraph. The first is that green consumption makes a difference, both economically and ecologically. This is particularly true in cases of “ordinary consumption,” the daily uses of water and electricity that aren’t conspicuous, and don’t shape our identity. Often, we think of consumption as the purchase of products that give us standing or status or identity, and we forget the everyday consumption that’s embedded in the ordinary operation of things like our new flat-screen TV.\n\nThe second notable fact about this plebeian paragraph on washing machines is that government regulation works. When the EPA sets standards for an industry, all of the companies need to meet them—and it’s not impossible, as corporations like to claim before the regulations are proclaimed. When “we the people” set standards for manufacturers, we replace “the race to the bottom” with a “race to the standard,” which includes a new—and better—bottom line. If we had set stringent CAFÉ standards for cars thirty years ago (when regulation was a dirty word in the Reagan administration), there would be a lot less “ordinary consumption” of oil today—and a lot less pressure to intervene with force in the Middle East to preserve our access to oil.','','','inherit','open','open','','261-revision','','','2011-06-25 13:08:35','2011-06-25 13:08:35','',261,'http://natureofcollege.org/2011/06/261-revision/',0,'revision','',0),(265,5,'2011-06-25 13:13:00','2011-06-25 13:13:00','<a rel=\"attachment wp-att-263\" href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/?attachment_id=263\"><img class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-263\" title=\"ask-mr-green-pic\" src=\"http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/ask-mr-green-pic1-280x149.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"280\" height=\"149\" /></a>“<a href=\"http://sierraclub.org/mrgreen\">Ask Mr. Green</a>” is a feature of <em>Sierra </em>magazine. This month, in response to a question about washing machines, Mr. Green (aka Bob Schildgen) noted that\r\n\r\n<em>Back in 2002, when you bought yours, Energy Star models were allowed to use about 40 percent more power and 60 percent more water than they are today. Some new Energy Star washers are twice as efficient as those manufactured under the old standard, and many use only a third as much water. A new washer can reduce your utility bills by up to $135 per year, according to the EPA, and by washing full loads with cold water and using a solar dryer (a.k.a. a clothesline), you can save even more. Compare washers by consulting the EPA\'s list of some 250 at <a href=\"http://bit.ly/EPAwashersPDF\">http://bit.ly/EPAwashersPDF</a>.</em>\r\n\r\n<em> </em>\r\n\r\nSeveral things stand out in this paragraph. The first is that green consumption makes a difference, both economically and ecologically. This is particularly true in cases of “ordinary consumption,” the daily uses of water and electricity that aren’t conspicuous, and don’t shape our identity. Often, we think of consumption as the purchase of products that give us standing or status or identity, and we forget the everyday consumption that’s embedded in the ordinary operation of things like our new flat-screen TV.\r\n\r\nThe second notable fact about this plebeian paragraph on washing machines is that government regulation works. When the EPA sets standards for an industry, all of the companies need to meet them—and it’s not impossible, as corporations like to claim before the regulations are proclaimed. When “we the people” set standards for manufacturers, we replace “the race to the bottom” with a “race to the standard,” which includes a new—and better—bottom line. If we had set stringent CAFÉ standards for cars thirty years ago (when regulation was a dirty word in the Reagan administration), there would be a lot less “ordinary consumption” of oil today—and a lot less pressure to intervene with force in the Middle East to preserve our access to oil.','','','inherit','open','open','','261-revision-2','','','2011-06-25 13:13:00','2011-06-25 13:13:00','',261,'http://natureofcollege.org/2011/06/261-revision-2/',0,'revision','',0),(266,5,'2011-06-25 13:13:00','2011-06-25 13:13:00','<a rel=\"attachment wp-att-263\" href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/2011/06/261/ask-mr-green-pic-2/\"><img class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-263\" title=\"ask-mr-green-pic\" src=\"http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/ask-mr-green-pic1-280x149.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"280\" height=\"149\" /></a>“<a href=\"http://sierraclub.org/mrgreen\">Ask Mr. Green</a>” is a feature of <em>Sierra </em>magazine. This month, in response to a question about washing machines, Mr. Green (aka Bob Schildgen) noted that\r\n\r\n<em>Back in 2002, when you bought yours, Energy Star models were allowed to use about 40 percent more power and 60 percent more water than they are today. Some new Energy Star washers are twice as efficient as those manufactured under the old standard, and many use only a third as much water. A new washer can reduce your utility bills by up to $135 per year, according to the EPA, and by washing full loads with cold water and using a solar dryer (a.k.a. a clothesline), you can save even more. Compare washers by consulting the EPA\'s list of some 250 at <a href=\"http://bit.ly/EPAwashersPDF\">http://bit.ly/EPAwashersPDF</a>.</em>\r\n\r\n<em> </em>\r\n\r\nSeveral things stand out in this paragraph. The first is that green consumption makes a difference, both economically and ecologically. This is particularly true in cases of “ordinary consumption,” the daily uses of water and electricity that aren’t conspicuous, and don’t shape our identity. Often, we think of consumption as the purchase of products that give us standing or status or identity, and we forget the everyday consumption that’s embedded in the ordinary operation of things like our new flat-screen TV.\r\n\r\nThe second notable fact about this plebeian paragraph on washing machines is that government regulation works. When the EPA sets standards for an industry, all of the companies need to meet them—and it’s not impossible, as corporations like to claim before the regulations are proclaimed. When “we the people” set standards for manufacturers, we replace “the race to the bottom” with a “race to the standard,” which includes a new—and better—bottom line. If we had set stringent CAFÉ standards for cars thirty years ago (when regulation was a dirty word in the Reagan administration), there would be a lot less “ordinary consumption” of oil today—and a lot less pressure to intervene with force in the Middle East to preserve our access to oil.','','','inherit','open','open','','261-revision-3','','','2011-06-25 13:13:00','2011-06-25 13:13:00','',261,'http://natureofcollege.org/2011/06/261-revision-3/',0,'revision','',0),(267,5,'2011-06-25 13:14:04','2011-06-25 13:14:04','<a rel=\"attachment wp-att-263\" href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/2011/06/261/ask-mr-green-pic-2/\"><img class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-263\" title=\"ask-mr-green-pic\" src=\"http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/ask-mr-green-pic1-280x149.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"280\" height=\"149\" /></a>\r\n\r\n“<a href=\"http://sierraclub.org/mrgreen\">Ask Mr. Green</a>” is a feature of <em>Sierra </em>magazine. This month, in response to a question about washing machines, Mr. Green (aka Bob Schildgen) noted that\r\n\r\n<em>Back in 2002, when you bought yours, Energy Star models were allowed to use about 40 percent more power and 60 percent more water than they are today. Some new Energy Star washers are twice as efficient as those manufactured under the old standard, and many use only a third as much water. A new washer can reduce your utility bills by up to $135 per year, according to the EPA, and by washing full loads with cold water and using a solar dryer (a.k.a. a clothesline), you can save even more. Compare washers by consulting the EPA\'s list of some 250 at <a href=\"http://bit.ly/EPAwashersPDF\">http://bit.ly/EPAwashersPDF</a>.</em>\r\n\r\n<em> </em>\r\n\r\nSeveral things stand out in this paragraph. The first is that green consumption makes a difference, both economically and ecologically. This is particularly true in cases of “ordinary consumption,” the daily uses of water and electricity that aren’t conspicuous, and don’t shape our identity. Often, we think of consumption as the purchase of products that give us standing or status or identity, and we forget the everyday consumption that’s embedded in the ordinary operation of things like our new flat-screen TV.\r\n\r\nThe second notable fact about this plebeian paragraph on washing machines is that government regulation works. When the EPA sets standards for an industry, all of the companies need to meet them—and it’s not impossible, as corporations like to claim before the regulations are proclaimed. When “we the people” set standards for manufacturers, we replace “the race to the bottom” with a “race to the standard,” which includes a new—and better—bottom line. If we had set stringent CAFÉ standards for cars thirty years ago (when regulation was a dirty word in the Reagan administration), there would be a lot less “ordinary consumption” of oil today—and a lot less pressure to intervene with force in the Middle East to preserve our access to oil.','','','inherit','open','open','','261-revision-4','','','2011-06-25 13:14:04','2011-06-25 13:14:04','',261,'http://natureofcollege.org/2011/06/261-revision-4/',0,'revision','',0),(268,5,'2011-06-25 13:14:04','2011-06-25 13:14:04','<a rel=\"attachment wp-att-263\" href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/2011/06/261/ask-mr-green-pic-2/\"><img class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-263\" title=\"ask-mr-green-pic\" src=\"http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/ask-mr-green-pic1-280x149.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"280\" height=\"149\" /></a>\r\n\r\n“<a href=\"http://sierraclub.org/mrgreen\">Ask Mr. Green</a>” is a feature of <em>Sierra </em>magazine. This month, in response to a question about washing machines, Mr. Green (aka Bob Schildgen) noted that\r\n\r\n<em>Back in 2002, when you bought yours, Energy Star models were allowed to use about 40 percent more power and 60 percent more water than they are today. Some new Energy Star washers are twice as efficient as those manufactured under the old standard, and many use only a third as much water. A new washer can reduce your utility bills by up to $135 per year, according to the EPA, and by washing full loads with cold water and using a solar dryer (a.k.a. a clothesline), you can save even more. Compare washers by consulting the EPA\'s list of some 250 at <a href=\"http://bit.ly/EPAwashersPDF\">http://bit.ly/EPAwashersPDF</a>.</em>\r\n\r\n<em> </em>\r\n\r\nSeveral things stand out in this paragraph. The first is that green consumption makes a difference, both economically and ecologically. This is particularly true in cases of “ordinary consumption,” the daily uses of water and electricity that aren’t conspicuous, and don’t shape our identity. Often, we think of consumption as the purchase of products that give us standing or status or identity, and we forget the everyday consumption that’s embedded in the ordinary operation of things like our new flat-screen TV.\r\n\r\nThe second notable fact about this plebeian paragraph on washing machines is that government regulation works. When the EPA sets standards for an industry, all of the companies need to meet them—and it’s not impossible, as corporations like to claim before the regulations are proclaimed. When “we the people” set standards for manufacturers, we replace “the race to the bottom” with a “race to the standard,” which includes a new—and better—bottom line. If we had set stringent CAFÉ standards for cars thirty years ago (when regulation was a dirty word in the Reagan administration), there would be a lot less “ordinary consumption” of oil today—and a lot less pressure to intervene with force in the Middle East to preserve our access to oil.','','','inherit','open','open','','261-revision-5','','','2011-06-25 13:14:04','2011-06-25 13:14:04','',261,'http://natureofcollege.org/2011/06/261-revision-5/',0,'revision','',0),(269,5,'2011-06-25 13:15:01','2011-06-25 13:15:01','<a rel=\"attachment wp-att-263\" href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/2011/06/261/ask-mr-green-pic-2/\"><img class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-263\" title=\"ask-mr-green-pic\" src=\"http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/ask-mr-green-pic1-280x149.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"280\" height=\"149\" /></a>\r\n\r\n“<a href=\"http://sierraclub.org/mrgreen\">Ask Mr. Green</a>” is a feature of <em>Sierra </em>magazine. This month, in response to a question about washing machines, Mr. Green (aka Bob Schildgen) noted that\r\n\r\n<em>Back in 2002, when you bought yours, Energy Star models were allowed to use about 40 percent more power and 60 percent more water than they are today. Some new Energy Star washers are twice as efficient as those manufactured under the old standard, and many use only a third as much water. A new washer can reduce your utility bills by up to $135 per year, according to the EPA, and by washing full loads with cold water and using a solar dryer (a.k.a. a clothesline), you can save even more. Compare washers by consulting the EPA\'s list of some 250 at <a href=\"http://bit.ly/EPAwashersPDF\">http://bit.ly/EPAwashersPDF</a>.</em>\r\n\r\n<em> </em>\r\n\r\nSeveral things stand out in this paragraph. The first is that green consumption makes a difference, both economically and ecologically. This is particularly true in cases of “ordinary consumption,” the daily uses of water and electricity that aren’t conspicuous, and don’t shape our identity. Often, we think of consumption as the purchase of products that give us standing or status or identity, and we forget the everyday consumption that’s embedded in the ordinary operation of things like our new flat-screen TV.\r\n\r\nThe second notable fact about this plebeian paragraph on washing machines is that government regulation works. When the EPA sets standards for an industry, all of the companies need to meet them—and it’s not impossible, as corporations like to claim before the regulations are proclaimed. When “we the people” set standards for manufacturers, we replace “the race to the bottom” with a “race to the standard,” which includes a new—and better—bottom line. If we had set stringent CAFÉ standards for cars thirty years ago (when regulation was a dirty word in the Reagan administration), there would be a lot less “ordinary consumption” of oil today—and a lot less pressure to intervene with force in the Middle East to preserve our access to oil.','Ordinary Consumption','','inherit','open','open','','261-revision-6','','','2011-06-25 13:15:01','2011-06-25 13:15:01','',261,'http://natureofcollege.org/2011/06/261-revision-6/',0,'revision','',0),(270,5,'2011-06-25 13:16:04','2011-06-25 13:16:04','<a rel=\"attachment wp-att-263\" href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/2011/06/261/ask-mr-green-pic-2/\"><img class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-263\" title=\"ask-mr-green-pic\" src=\"http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/ask-mr-green-pic1-280x149.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"280\" height=\"149\" /></a>\n\n“<a href=\"http://sierraclub.org/mrgreen\">Ask Mr. Green</a>” is a feature of <em>Sierra </em>magazine. This month, in response to a question about washing machines, Mr. Green (aka Bob Schildgen) noted that\n\n<em>Back in 2002, when you bought yours, Energy Star models were allowed to use about 40 percent more power and 60 percent more water than they are today. Some new Energy Star washers are twice as efficient as those manufactured under the old standard, and many use only a third as much water. A new washer can reduce your utility bills by up to $135 per year, according to the EPA, and by washing full loads with cold water and using a solar dryer (a.k.a. a clothesline), you can save even more. Compare washers by consulting the EPA\'s list of some 250 at <a href=\"http://bit.ly/EPAwashersPDF\">http://bit.ly/EPAwashersPDF</a>.</em>\n\n<em> </em>\n\nSeveral things stand out in this paragraph. The first is that green consumption makes a difference, both economically and ecologically. This is particularly true in cases of “ordinary consumption,” the daily uses of water and electricity that aren’t conspicuous, and don’t shape our identity. Often, we think of consumption as the purchase of products that give us standing or status or identity, and we forget the everyday consumption that’s embedded in the ordinary operation of things like our new flat-screen TV.\n\nThe second notable fact about this plebeian paragraph on washing machines is that government regulation works. When the EPA sets standards for an industry, all of the companies need to meet them—and it’s not impossible, as corporations like to claim before the regulations are proclaimed. When “we the people” set standards for manufacturers, we replace “the race to the bottom” with a “race to the standard,” which includes a new—and better—bottom line. If we had set stringent CAFÉ standards for cars thirty years ago (when regulation was a dirty word in the Reagan administration), there would be a lot less “ordinary consumption” of oil today—and a lot less pressure to intervene with force in the Middle East to preserve our access to oil.','Ordinary Consumption','','inherit','open','open','','261-autosave','','','2011-06-25 13:16:04','2011-06-25 13:16:04','',261,'http://natureofcollege.org/2011/06/261-autosave/',0,'revision','',0),(702,5,'2011-10-02 21:28:58','2011-10-02 21:28:58','','The Real Revolution','','inherit','open','open','','701-revision','','','2011-10-02 21:28:58','2011-10-02 21:28:58','',701,'http://natureofcollege.org/2011/10/701-revision/',0,'revision','',0),(690,5,'2011-08-29 22:13:03','2011-08-29 22:13:03','The BBC offers this graphic <a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/2011/08/home-sweet-home/home_size-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-691\"><img class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-691\" title=\"home_size\" src=\"http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/home_size1-280x315.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"235\" height=\"264\" /></a>to help us compare the relative size of houses in different countries in the world. The United States, of course, is number one, with our average house twice the size of a new house in the UK. But why? Are we twice as important? Are our families twice as large? Are we twice as big (perhaps so, with obesity ballooning)? Or are we twice as stupid, paying to heat and cool twice the space of the average European home?\r\n\r\nThe single-family home has long been a part of the American Dream, but not always the McMansion. What are your dreams for living space when you graduate from college? Will you do what everybody else does? Or do you have different dreams?','Home, Sweet Home','','publish','closed','closed','','home-sweet-home','','','2018-07-09 14:31:58','2018-07-09 19:31:58','',0,'http://natureofcollege.org/?p=690',0,'post','',0),(352,5,'2011-08-18 19:09:34','2011-08-18 19:09:34','','03 Izuzu Rodeo','','inherit','open','open','','03-izuzu-rodeo','','','2011-08-18 19:09:34','2011-08-18 19:09:34','',110,'http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/03-Izuzu-Rodeo.m4a',20,'attachment','audio/mpeg',0),(353,5,'2011-08-18 19:09:37','2011-08-18 19:09:37','','04 Christmas Lights','','inherit','open','open','','04-christmas-lights','','','2011-08-18 19:09:37','2011-08-18 19:09:37','',110,'http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/04-Christmas-Lights.m4a',21,'attachment','audio/mpeg',0),(354,5,'2011-08-18 19:09:40','2011-08-18 19:09:40','','05 Body Politics','','inherit','open','open','','05-body-politics','','','2011-08-18 19:09:40','2011-08-18 19:09:40','',110,'http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/05-Body-Politics.m4a',22,'attachment','audio/mpeg',0),(355,5,'2011-08-18 19:09:43','2011-08-18 19:09:43','','06 Mall Kiosk','','inherit','open','open','','06-mall-kiosk','','','2011-08-18 19:09:43','2011-08-18 19:09:43','',110,'http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/06-Mall-Kiosk.m4a',23,'attachment','audio/mpeg',0),(356,5,'2011-08-18 19:09:46','2011-08-18 19:09:46','','07 Coca-Cola','','inherit','open','open','','07-coca-cola','','','2011-08-18 19:09:46','2011-08-18 19:09:46','',110,'http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/07-Coca-Cola.m4a',24,'attachment','audio/mpeg',0),(357,5,'2011-08-18 19:09:49','2011-08-18 19:09:49','','08 Roadkill','','inherit','open','open','','08-roadkill','','','2011-08-18 19:09:49','2011-08-18 19:09:49','',110,'http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/08-Roadkill.m4a',25,'attachment','audio/mpeg',0),(358,5,'2011-08-18 19:09:52','2011-08-18 19:09:52','','09 Sports Section','','inherit','open','open','','09-sports-section','','','2011-08-18 19:09:52','2011-08-18 19:09:52','',110,'http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/09-Sports-Section.m4a',26,'attachment','audio/mpeg',0),(359,5,'2011-08-18 19:09:54','2011-08-18 19:09:54','','10 Home Cooking','','inherit','open','open','','10-home-cooking','','','2011-08-18 19:09:54','2011-08-18 19:09:54','',110,'http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/10-Home-Cooking.m4a',27,'attachment','audio/mpeg',0),(360,5,'2011-08-18 19:09:57','2011-08-18 19:09:57','','11 Television News','','inherit','open','open','','11-television-news','','','2011-08-18 19:09:57','2011-08-18 19:09:57','',110,'http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/11-Television-News.m4a',28,'attachment','audio/mpeg',0),(361,5,'2011-08-18 19:10:00','2011-08-18 19:10:00','','12 Universal Price Code','','inherit','open','open','','12-universal-price-code','','','2011-08-18 19:10:00','2011-08-18 19:10:00','',110,'http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/12-Universal-Price-Code.m4a',29,'attachment','audio/mpeg',0),(362,5,'2011-08-18 19:10:03','2011-08-18 19:10:03','','13 Popcorn','','inherit','open','open','','13-popcorn','','','2011-08-18 19:10:03','2011-08-18 19:10:03','',110,'http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/13-Popcorn.m4a',30,'attachment','audio/mpeg',0),(363,5,'2011-08-18 19:10:06','2011-08-18 19:10:06','','14 Bath Salts','','inherit','open','open','','14-bath-salts','','','2011-08-18 19:10:06','2011-08-18 19:10:06','',110,'http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/14-Bath-Salts.m4a',31,'attachment','audio/mpeg',0),(364,5,'2011-08-18 19:10:09','2011-08-18 19:10:09','','15 Spring Break','','inherit','open','open','','15-spring-break','','','2011-08-18 19:10:09','2011-08-18 19:10:09','',110,'http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/15-Spring-Break.m4a',32,'attachment','audio/mpeg',0),(365,5,'2011-08-18 19:10:46','2011-08-18 19:10:46','','01 Love Your Body','','inherit','open','open','','01-love-your-body','','','2011-08-18 19:10:46','2011-08-18 19:10:46','',110,'http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/01-Love-Your-Body.m4a',33,'attachment','audio/mpeg',0),(366,5,'2011-08-18 19:10:48','2011-08-18 19:10:48','','02 Taxes','','inherit','open','open','','02-taxes','','','2011-08-18 19:10:48','2011-08-18 19:10:48','',110,'http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/02-Taxes.m4a',34,'attachment','audio/mpeg',0),(367,5,'2011-08-18 19:10:51','2011-08-18 19:10:51','','03 Dustbuster','','inherit','open','open','','03-dustbuster','','','2011-08-18 19:10:51','2011-08-18 19:10:51','',110,'http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/03-Dustbuster.m4a',35,'attachment','audio/mpeg',0),(368,5,'2011-08-18 19:10:54','2011-08-18 19:10:54','','04 Volkswagen Beetle','','inherit','open','open','','04-volkswagen-beetle','','','2011-08-18 19:10:54','2011-08-18 19:10:54','',110,'http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/04-Volkswagen-Beetle.m4a',36,'attachment','audio/mpeg',0),(380,5,'2011-08-18 19:12:11','2011-08-18 19:12:11','','04 Botox','','inherit','open','open','','04-botox','','','2011-08-18 19:12:11','2011-08-18 19:12:11','',110,'http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/04-Botox.m4a',48,'attachment','audio/mpeg',0),(381,5,'2011-08-18 19:12:13','2011-08-18 19:12:13','','05 Perception Analyzer','','inherit','open','open','','05-perception-analyzer','','','2011-08-18 19:12:13','2011-08-18 19:12:13','',110,'http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/05-Perception-Analyzer.m4a',49,'attachment','audio/mpeg',0),(382,5,'2011-08-18 19:12:16','2011-08-18 19:12:16','','06 Back to School Sale','','inherit','open','open','','06-back-to-school-sale','','','2011-08-18 19:12:16','2011-08-18 19:12:16','',110,'http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/06-Back-to-School-Sale.m4a',50,'attachment','audio/mpeg',0),(383,5,'2011-08-18 19:12:20','2011-08-18 19:12:20','','07 Corn Dog_Labor Day','','inherit','open','open','','07-corn-dog_labor-day','','','2011-08-18 19:12:20','2011-08-18 19:12:20','',110,'http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/07-Corn-Dog_Labor-Day.m4a',51,'attachment','audio/mpeg',0),(384,5,'2011-08-18 19:12:22','2011-08-18 19:12:22','','08 Voicemail','','inherit','open','open','','08-voicemail','','','2011-08-18 19:12:22','2011-08-18 19:12:22','',110,'http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/08-Voicemail.m4a',52,'attachment','audio/mpeg',0),(385,5,'2011-08-18 19:12:24','2011-08-18 19:12:24','','09 iMac','','inherit','open','open','','09-imac','','','2011-08-18 19:12:24','2011-08-18 19:12:24','',110,'http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/09-iMac.m4a',53,'attachment','audio/mpeg',0),(386,5,'2011-08-18 19:12:27','2011-08-18 19:12:27','','10 Lipstick','','inherit','open','open','','10-lipstick','','','2011-08-18 19:12:27','2011-08-18 19:12:27','',110,'http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/10-Lipstick.m4a',54,'attachment','audio/mpeg',0),(387,5,'2011-08-18 19:12:29','2011-08-18 19:12:29','','11 Malls','','inherit','open','open','','11-malls','','','2011-08-18 19:12:29','2011-08-18 19:12:29','',110,'http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/11-Malls.m4a',55,'attachment','audio/mpeg',0),(388,5,'2011-08-18 19:12:32','2011-08-18 19:12:32','','12 Driver\'s License','','inherit','open','open','','12-drivers-license','','','2011-08-18 19:12:32','2011-08-18 19:12:32','',110,'http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/12-Drivers-License.m4a',56,'attachment','audio/mpeg',0),(369,5,'2011-08-18 19:10:56','2011-08-18 19:10:56','','05 Microwave','','inherit','open','open','','05-microwave','','','2011-08-18 19:10:56','2011-08-18 19:10:56','',110,'http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/05-Microwave.m4a',37,'attachment','audio/mpeg',0),(370,5,'2011-08-18 19:10:59','2011-08-18 19:10:59','','06 Horticulture','','inherit','open','open','','06-horticulture','','','2011-08-18 19:10:59','2011-08-18 19:10:59','',110,'http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/06-Horticulture.m4a',38,'attachment','audio/mpeg',0),(371,5,'2011-08-18 19:11:01','2011-08-18 19:11:01','','07 Excrement Occurs','','inherit','open','open','','07-excrement-occurs','','','2011-08-18 19:11:01','2011-08-18 19:11:01','',110,'http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/07-Excrement-Occurs.m4a',39,'attachment','audio/mpeg',0),(372,5,'2011-08-18 19:11:04','2011-08-18 19:11:04','','08 Bottom Line','','inherit','open','open','','08-bottom-line','','','2011-08-18 19:11:04','2011-08-18 19:11:04','',110,'http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/08-Bottom-Line.m4a',40,'attachment','audio/mpeg',0),(373,5,'2011-08-18 19:11:07','2011-08-18 19:11:07','','09 Graduation','','inherit','open','open','','09-graduation','','','2011-08-18 19:11:07','2011-08-18 19:11:07','',110,'http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/09-Graduation.m4a',41,'attachment','audio/mpeg',0),(374,5,'2011-08-18 19:11:10','2011-08-18 19:11:10','','10 Born to Shop','','inherit','open','open','','10-born-to-shop','','','2011-08-18 19:11:10','2011-08-18 19:11:10','',110,'http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/10-Born-to-Shop.m4a',42,'attachment','audio/mpeg',0),(375,5,'2011-08-18 19:11:12','2011-08-18 19:11:12','','11 Cosmetics','','inherit','open','open','','11-cosmetics','','','2011-08-18 19:11:12','2011-08-18 19:11:12','',110,'http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/11-Cosmetics.m4a',43,'attachment','audio/mpeg',0),(376,5,'2011-08-18 19:11:15','2011-08-18 19:11:15','','12 Doors','','inherit','open','open','','12-doors','','','2011-08-18 19:11:15','2011-08-18 19:11:15','',110,'http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/12-Doors.m4a',44,'attachment','audio/mpeg',0),(377,5,'2011-08-18 19:12:03','2011-08-18 19:12:03','','01 Stress Management','','inherit','open','open','','01-stress-management','','','2011-08-18 19:12:03','2011-08-18 19:12:03','',110,'http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/01-Stress-Management.m4a',45,'attachment','audio/mpeg',0),(378,5,'2011-08-18 19:12:05','2011-08-18 19:12:05','','02 Lines','','inherit','open','open','','02-lines','','','2011-08-18 19:12:05','2011-08-18 19:12:05','',110,'http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/02-Lines.m4a',46,'attachment','audio/mpeg',0),(379,5,'2011-08-18 19:12:08','2011-08-18 19:12:08','','03 Just Looking','','inherit','open','open','','03-just-looking','','','2011-08-18 19:12:08','2011-08-18 19:12:08','',110,'http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/03-Just-Looking.m4a',47,'attachment','audio/mpeg',0),(333,5,'2011-08-18 19:07:37','2011-08-18 19:07:37','','01 Cool Whip','','inherit','open','open','','01-cool-whip','','','2011-08-18 19:07:37','2011-08-18 19:07:37','',110,'http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/01-Cool-Whip.m4a',1,'attachment','audio/mpeg',0),(334,5,'2011-08-18 19:07:40','2011-08-18 19:07:40','','02 Nike Swoosh','','inherit','open','open','','02-nike-swoosh','','','2011-08-18 19:07:40','2011-08-18 19:07:40','',110,'http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/02-Nike-Swoosh.m4a',2,'attachment','audio/mpeg',0),(335,5,'2011-08-18 19:07:42','2011-08-18 19:07:42','','03 Garbage Bag','','inherit','open','open','','03-garbage-bag','','','2011-08-18 19:07:42','2011-08-18 19:07:42','',110,'http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/03-Garbage-Bag.m4a',3,'attachment','audio/mpeg',0),(336,5,'2011-08-18 19:07:45','2011-08-18 19:07:45','','04 Bowling Ball','','inherit','open','open','','04-bowling-ball','','','2011-08-18 19:07:45','2011-08-18 19:07:45','',110,'http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/04-Bowling-Ball.m4a',4,'attachment','audio/mpeg',0),(337,5,'2011-08-18 19:07:48','2011-08-18 19:07:48','','05 Kodak Picture Spot','','inherit','open','open','','05-kodak-picture-spot','','','2011-08-18 19:07:48','2011-08-18 19:07:48','',110,'http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/05-Kodak-Picture-Spot.m4a',5,'attachment','audio/mpeg',0),(338,5,'2011-08-18 19:07:50','2011-08-18 19:07:50','','06 Shit Happens','','inherit','open','open','','06-shit-happens','','','2011-08-18 19:07:50','2011-08-18 19:07:50','',110,'http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/06-Shit-Happens.m4a',6,'attachment','audio/mpeg',0),(339,5,'2011-08-18 19:07:53','2011-08-18 19:07:53','','07 T.V. 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School','','inherit','open','open','','10-back-to-school','','','2011-08-18 19:21:00','2011-08-18 19:21:00','',110,'http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/10-Back-to-School.m4a',133,'attachment','audio/mpeg',0),(466,5,'2011-08-18 19:21:03','2011-08-18 19:21:03','','11 State Fair','','inherit','open','open','','11-state-fair','','','2011-08-18 19:21:03','2011-08-18 19:21:03','',110,'http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/11-State-Fair.m4a',134,'attachment','audio/mpeg',0),(467,5,'2011-08-18 19:21:06','2011-08-18 19:21:06','','12 Labor Day','','inherit','open','open','','12-labor-day','','','2011-08-18 19:21:06','2011-08-18 19:21:06','',110,'http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/12-Labor-Day.m4a',135,'attachment','audio/mpeg',0),(468,5,'2011-08-18 19:21:09','2011-08-18 19:21:09','','13 Mirrors','','inherit','open','open','','13-mirrors','','','2011-08-18 19:21:09','2011-08-18 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Designer','','inherit','open','open','','03-designer','','','2011-08-18 19:22:18','2011-08-18 19:22:18','',110,'http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/03-Designer.m4a',140,'attachment','audio/mpeg',0),(473,5,'2011-08-18 19:22:20','2011-08-18 19:22:20','','04 Newspapers','','inherit','open','open','','04-newspapers','','','2011-08-18 19:22:20','2011-08-18 19:22:20','',110,'http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/04-Newspapers.m4a',141,'attachment','audio/mpeg',0),(474,5,'2011-08-18 19:22:22','2011-08-18 19:22:22','','05 Washington','','inherit','open','open','','05-washington','','','2011-08-18 19:22:22','2011-08-18 19:22:22','',110,'http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/05-Washington.m4a',142,'attachment','audio/mpeg',0),(475,5,'2011-08-18 19:22:24','2011-08-18 19:22:24','','06 Clothing Tags','','inherit','open','open','','06-clothing-tags','','','2011-08-18 19:22:24','2011-08-18 19:22:24','',110,'http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/06-Clothing-Tags.m4a',143,'attachment','audio/mpeg',0),(476,5,'2011-08-18 19:22:26','2011-08-18 19:22:26','','07 Rainforest Cafe','','inherit','open','open','','07-rainforest-cafe','','','2011-08-18 19:22:26','2011-08-18 19:22:26','',110,'http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/07-Rainforest-Cafe.m4a',144,'attachment','audio/mpeg',0),(477,5,'2011-08-18 19:22:28','2011-08-18 19:22:28','','08 Buy Nothing Day','','inherit','open','open','','08-buy-nothing-day','','','2011-08-18 19:22:28','2011-08-18 19:22:28','',110,'http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/08-Buy-Nothing-Day.m4a',145,'attachment','audio/mpeg',0),(478,5,'2011-08-18 19:22:31','2011-08-18 19:22:31','','09 Christmas','','inherit','open','open','','09-christmas','','','2011-08-18 19:22:31','2011-08-18 19:22:31','',110,'http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/09-Christmas.m4a',146,'attachment','audio/mpeg',0),(479,5,'2011-08-18 19:22:33','2011-08-18 19:22:33','','10 Ad-Vent','','inherit','open','open','','10-ad-vent','','','2011-08-18 19:22:33','2011-08-18 19:22:33','',110,'http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/10-Ad-Vent.m4a',147,'attachment','audio/mpeg',0),(480,5,'2011-08-18 19:22:35','2011-08-18 19:22:35','','11 Silent Night','','inherit','open','open','','11-silent-night','','','2011-08-18 19:22:35','2011-08-18 19:22:35','',110,'http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/11-Silent-Night.m4a',148,'attachment','audio/mpeg',0),(481,5,'2011-08-18 19:22:37','2011-08-18 19:22:37','','12 Solstice','','inherit','open','open','','12-solstice','','','2011-08-18 19:22:37','2011-08-18 19:22:37','',110,'http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/12-Solstice.m4a',149,'attachment','audio/mpeg',0),(482,5,'2011-08-18 19:22:39','2011-08-18 19:22:39','','13 Novelty, New and Improved','','inherit','open','open','','13-novelty-new-and-improved','','','2011-08-18 19:22:39','2011-08-18 19:22:39','',110,'http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/13-Novelty-New-and-Improved.m4a',150,'attachment','audio/mpeg',0),(483,5,'2011-08-18 19:22:58','2011-08-18 19:22:58','','01 Choice','','inherit','open','open','','01-choice','','','2011-08-18 19:22:58','2011-08-18 19:22:58','',110,'http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/01-Choice.m4a',151,'attachment','audio/mpeg',0),(484,5,'2011-08-18 19:23:01','2011-08-18 19:23:01','','02 Race','','inherit','open','open','','02-race','','','2011-08-18 19:23:01','2011-08-18 19:23:01','',110,'http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/02-Race.m4a',152,'attachment','audio/mpeg',0),(485,5,'2011-08-18 19:23:04','2011-08-18 19:23:04','','03 Temptation Island','','inherit','open','open','','03-temptation-island','','','2011-08-18 19:23:04','2011-08-18 19:23:04','',110,'http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/03-Temptation-Island.m4a',153,'attachment','audio/mpeg',0),(486,5,'2011-08-18 19:23:06','2011-08-18 19:23:06','','04 Muzak','','inherit','open','open','','04-muzak','','','2011-08-18 19:23:06','2011-08-18 19:23:06','',110,'http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/04-Muzak.m4a',154,'attachment','audio/mpeg',0),(487,5,'2011-08-18 19:23:09','2011-08-18 19:23:09','','05 Valentine\'s Day 2001','','inherit','open','open','','05-valentines-day-2001','','','2011-08-18 19:23:09','2011-08-18 19:23:09','',110,'http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/05-Valentines-Day-2001.m4a',155,'attachment','audio/mpeg',0),(488,5,'2011-08-18 19:23:11','2011-08-18 19:23:11','','06 Home Shopping','','inherit','open','open','','06-home-shopping','','','2011-08-18 19:23:11','2011-08-18 19:23:11','',110,'http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/06-Home-Shopping.m4a',156,'attachment','audio/mpeg',0),(489,5,'2011-08-18 19:23:13','2011-08-18 19:23:13','','07 Built Ford Tough','','inherit','open','open','','07-built-ford-tough','','','2011-08-18 19:23:13','2011-08-18 19:23:13','',110,'http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/07-Built-Ford-Tough.m4a',157,'attachment','audio/mpeg',0),(490,5,'2011-08-18 19:23:16','2011-08-18 19:23:16','','08 Class Warfare','','inherit','open','open','','08-class-warfare','','','2011-08-18 19:23:16','2011-08-18 19:23:16','',110,'http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/08-Class-Warfare.m4a',158,'attachment','audio/mpeg',0),(491,5,'2011-08-18 19:23:19','2011-08-18 19:23:19','','09 Cool','','inherit','open','open','','09-cool','','','2011-08-18 19:23:19','2011-08-18 19:23:19','',110,'http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/09-Cool.m4a',159,'attachment','audio/mpeg',0),(492,5,'2011-08-18 19:23:21','2011-08-18 19:23:21','','10 Eye of the Needle','','inherit','open','open','','10-eye-of-the-needle','','','2011-08-18 19:23:21','2011-08-18 19:23:21','',110,'http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/10-Eye-of-the-Needle.m4a',160,'attachment','audio/mpeg',0),(493,5,'2011-08-18 19:23:24','2011-08-18 19:23:24','','11 Taxpayer','','inherit','open','open','','11-taxpayer','','','2011-08-18 19:23:24','2011-08-18 19:23:24','',110,'http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/11-Taxpayer.m4a',161,'attachment','audio/mpeg',0),(494,5,'2011-08-18 19:23:26','2011-08-18 19:23:26','','12 Soul','','inherit','open','open','','12-soul','','','2011-08-18 19:23:26','2011-08-18 19:23:26','',110,'http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/12-Soul.m4a',162,'attachment','audio/mpeg',0),(495,5,'2011-08-18 19:23:29','2011-08-18 19:23:29','','13 Shampoo','','inherit','open','open','','13-shampoo','','','2011-08-18 19:23:29','2011-08-18 19:23:29','',110,'http://natureofcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/13-Shampoo.m4a',163,'attachment','audio/mpeg',0),(507,5,'2010-11-22 19:28:27','2010-11-22 19:28:27','<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Intro</span>: <em>Collecting and displaying the artifacts of American culture is hard work, and sometimes Dr. America is overextended.  Like most of us, he has methods for dealing with stress.  This week, in the magnificent (but wholly imaginary) American Studies Museum, the institution\'s imaginative curator discusses the curative properties of a new product.</em>\r\n\r\n* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *\r\n\r\nWhen Dr. America spotted the package in the Nature Store, he was immediately interested.  The big black letters said \"Soothing Salts,\" and the doctor did need soothing. But as he settled into the warm bath water, and his jangled nerves began to unjangle, he began to cogitate.  What was the meaning of this bath, these salts, this situation?  The actual ingredients don\'t help much to answer the question.  Two ounces of sodium chloride, sodium bicarbonate, jojoba oil, and fragrance--this is basically souped-up salt at twenty dollars a pound.  In this case, as in so many in American culture, the package is as important as the product itself.\r\n\r\nThis bath additive is part of the \"<em>Explorer</em> Bath Collection,\" which, we learn in the brochure, \"takes you on a botanical voyage of discovery.\"  The special fragrant formulas, it says, \"nourish the skin and stimulate the senses while evoking distant lands.\"  The collection includes bath salts, lotions, and massage oils thematically linked to exotic places--the Serengeti, the Great Barrier Reef, and Angel Falls.  Serengeti, the brochure says breathlessly, \"intoxicates with its notes of honey, fig, and African woods and grasses.  The Great Barrier Reef refreshes with the cool scents of water and wind.  And Angel Falls nurtures with rare orchid against a green background.\"\r\n\r\nDr. America bought the Great Barrier Reef at the Nature Store, because he liked the bright picture of tropical fish in the coral sea.  He also liked the supposedly handwritten excerpt from the explorer\'s journal, lyrically recording the sighting of  \"fish and fauna of every shape, design, and color in the Great Barrier Reef.\"  So Dr. America followed the simple directions: \"Add to Bath, Relax, and Enjoy the Journey.\"  Dr. A, who traveled only as far as his bathroom, did enjoy the journey.  After adding the soothing salts, he <em>did</em> relax, as he always does when he sits in warm water.  But <em>his </em>journal was not so lyrical.  \"I am sitting in the bathtub,\" it said truthfully.\r\n\r\nThe Explorer Bath Collection urges weary bathers to \"let your senses run riot.\"  This is an inviting proposition for modern Americans, who often run themselves senseless.  And it\'s part of the appeal of shops like the Nature Store, which bathe consumers in myriad meanings.  The Nature Store, which now serves as a retail outlet for the Discovery Channel, is a place where Americans can go \"looking for nature at the mall.\"  In a revealing essay by that title, historian Jennifer Price unpacks the cultural meanings of nature that are stored within the Nature Store.  The nature that we look for, the nature that we buy, is not generally the nature that we live in.  The nature that we buy is exotic, unspoiled, wild, remote and romantic.  It\'s also peaceful--among the plush animals in the Nature Store, there\'s not much Darwinian \"nature red in tooth and claw.\"  It\'s not so much the state of nature as a state of mind that appeals to busy Americans.  People who rush every morning to get through the shower need an excuse to slow down, and expensive soothing salts provide an occasion to linger in a bath.  Having paid two-fifty for two ounces of salt, you need to get your money\'s worth.\r\n\r\nOf course, while these products restore <em><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">us</span></em>, they don\'t necessarily restore nature.  Both the Explorer Collection and the Nature Store tell us that \"no habitats were damaged by harvesting in any way.\"  But for most of our purchases as Americans, habitat is affected, and we don\'t much think about it.  We forget that <em>every</em> store is a nature store, since they\'re all full of nature converted to commodities to be converted to cash.  In this culture, Dr. America notes, it\'s only natural.  But when we buy the nature that evokes <em>distant</em> lands, it helps us to distance ourselves from the nature nearby, the nature that\'s increasingly domesticated, spoiled, conquered, and not quite so romantic.  Why do we need \"Explorer\" salts and sport utility vehicles?  Why couldn\'t we be satisfied with the \"college professor\" massage oil or the \"computer programmer\" lotion?  Why couldn\'t we market the smell of suburban grass, or the Midwestern scents of hay and alfalfa?   It seems to Dr. America that, until we can appreciate the sensual pleasures of our own place on earth, we will continue to evoke nature without understanding it.  We may be in the Nature Store, but we won\'t know really what <em>wonders</em> nature has in store for us.\r\n\r\nFrom the American Studies Museum, this is Dr. America, finding himself, as usual, in hot water.','Great Barrier Reef Soothing Salts','','inherit','open','open','','171-revision-2','','','2010-11-22 19:28:27','2010-11-22 19:28:27','',171,'http://natureofcollege.org/2010/11/171-revision-2/',0,'revision','',0),(703,5,'2011-10-02 21:30:24','2011-10-02 21:30:24','Sometimes, the ecological revolution of the 21<sup>st</sup> century seems stalled. There hasn’t been significant environmental legislation for years. Republican resourcism and denials of what everybody else can see with their own eyes dominates public discourse. Environmentalists are caricatured as Birkenstock-wearing long-haired hippies AND (inconsistently) as “enviro-nazis.”\n\nAnd yet there’s a lot going on at the grassroots. In <em>Blessed Unrest, </em>Paul Hawken contends that the environmental movements—local, logical, practical, problem-solving—are the largest social movement in the history of the world. Businesses are embracing environmental action—especially efficiencies—as standard operating procedure. And most people—even most Republicans—believe that we need to pay attention to environmental health, making polluters pay for poisoning the rest of us.\n\nThis situation isn’t new; it happened in democratic revolution of the 18<sup>th</sup> century as well. Long afterward, John Adams wrote that the American Revolution \"was effected before the war commenced. The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people . . . This radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments and affections of the people was the real American Revolution.\"\n\nThat’s true for the ecological revolution as well, and so it’s worth asking: How have we affected the principles, opinions, sentiments and affections of the people we know—and the people we don’t know too? How are we engaging the hearts and minds of Americans in our time?','The Real Revolution','','inherit','open','open','','701-autosave','','','2011-10-02 21:30:24','2011-10-02 21:30:24','',701,'http://natureofcollege.org/2011/10/701-autosave/',0,'revision','',0),(501,5,'2011-08-18 20:24:05','2011-08-18 20:24:05','','Dr. America essays (text)','','publish','closed','open','','dr-america-essays-text','','','2018-07-09 14:32:20','2018-07-09 19:32:20','',110,'http://natureofcollege.org/?page_id=501',0,'page','',0),(502,5,'2011-08-18 20:23:42','2011-08-18 20:23:42','','Auto Draft','','inherit','open','open','','501-revision','','','2011-08-18 20:23:42','2011-08-18 20:23:42','',501,'http://natureofcollege.org/2011/08/501-revision/',0,'revision','',0),(503,5,'2011-08-18 20:24:05','2011-08-18 20:24:05','','Dr. America essays (text)','','inherit','open','open','','501-revision-2','','','2011-08-18 20:24:05','2011-08-18 20:24:05','',501,'http://natureofcollege.org/2011/08/501-revision-2/',0,'revision','',0),(504,5,'2011-08-18 20:24:54','2011-08-18 20:24:54','','Dr. America essays (text)','','inherit','open','open','','501-revision-3','','','2011-08-18 20:24:54','2011-08-18 20:24:54','',501,'http://natureofcollege.org/2011/08/501-revision-3/',0,'revision','',0),(508,5,'2010-11-22 19:27:59','2010-11-22 19:27:59','<strong>Intro</strong>: <em>Water is the distinguishing characteristic of planet earth, covering most of the earth\'s surface and containing and sustaining life throughout.  It\'s a product of nature, but it\'s a product of culture too, as curator Dr. America shows this morning in the American Studies Museum.</em>\r\n\r\n* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *\r\n\r\nBottled water is as simple as it sounds, just water in a bottle.  The complexity comes in explaining the popularity of this packaged potion.  In the last ten years, the annual consumption of bottled water has almost tripled; the average American of 1986 drank four-and-a-half gallons, but now we average almost 11 gallons apiece.\r\n\r\nAmericans have purchased flavored sugar water in bottles and cans for years.  Coke and Pepsi have built empires by selling water to thirsty customers.  But some people are now suspicious of additives, and so a few companies have tried to capitalize on what we might call \"subtractives.\"  Bottled water is Coke without the additives, Pepsi without the flavor or the fizz.  It\'s pure water, and it\'s almost pure profit.\r\n\r\nAccording to water experts, bottled water costs almost 1,000 times more than water from the tap.  Dr. America, for example, pays the city slightly more than a tenth of a penny for a gallon of tap water.  Evian Natural Spring Water, on the other hand, costs $1.00 for a 20-ounce bottle from a vending machine.\r\n\r\nSo why do people like Dr. America drink bottled water?  We may think that bottled water is purer than tap water, but this idea doesn\'t, in fact, hold water.   Indeed, the New York Times reports that one-third of bottled water <em>is</em> tap water.  And bottled water is as susceptible to contamination as any water.  While the Environmental Protection Agency monitors municipal water quality, only the Food and Drug Administration pays attention--and then, not much--to bottled water.  Still, bottled water is so popular that one American city, Houston, has decided to bottle its tap water.  That way, on days when it\'s inconvenient to go to the kitchen or the bathroom or the drinking fountain at work, you can run down to the 7-11 and get a bottle of your own familiar flavor of water.\r\n\r\nWe may think that because it costs more, bottled water tastes better.  But when a leading consumer magazine compared bottled waters to tap waters, it ranked New York and Los Angeles tap water better than all the non-carbonated bottled waters.  In fact, Dr. America suspects, bottled water makes his mouth water not because it tastes good, but because it is a sign of good taste.  In fact, bottled water might as easily be called watered bottle, because the bottle contains not just the liquid, but the signs and symbols that add image value to the water.\r\n\r\nThe big development of designer water began about twenty years ago, when Perrier began to suggest that a person\'s selection of a supposedly tasteless liquid was a sign of superior taste.  Perrier adds carbonation to its \"natural\" spring water, but its promotions pump status into the concoction as well.  Both Perrier and Evian travel to American consumers from Europe, and for those Americans who think that \"American culture\" is a contradiction in terms, the European pedigree offers an insignia of refined taste.\r\n\r\nAmericans also drink bottled water because of its associations with sports.  An early Evian ad titled \"Revival of the Fittest,\" for example, showed athletes slurping Evian after exercise.  The copy claimed that \"Evian, with its unique balance of calcium and magnesium, gets into your body faster than other waters to rid your system of impurities and replace the fluids you lose after a workout.\"  It is true that Evian rehydrates the body, but so does any water.  And calcium and magnesium are hardly unique to Evian; they are simply the minerals that make hard water hard.\r\n\r\nIronically, <em>bottled</em> water is also popular because it seems so <em>natural</em>.  Almost all ads for bottled water feature striking scenes of nature; there are no generally no people in them.  Perrier and Evian flow from the Alps, while other waters come from an assortment of springs, geysers, mountain streams and Artesian wells. The term \"natural,\" however, doesn\'t necessarily mean that these waters aren\'t filtered or treated; it just means that the mineral content remains the same (even though, in some case, there are more minerals than are good for us).\r\n\r\nPeople also buy bottled water because it\'s H2O to go, for people <em>on </em>the go.  The bottle makes potable water portable.  Of course, some Americans package their own water for places they might travel.  But they have no class, unless, of course, they put tap water in the designer water bottle.  Bottled water itself is <em>water </em>on the go; it has often flowed extraordinary distances to vending machines or supermarket shelves.  That\'s why, as a critic said several years ago, the companies \"prefer you to think of their products not as water that\'s been shipped a long way at great expense but as a kind of no-cal Coke, a quintessentially \'lite\' drink with the panache of purity.\"\r\n\r\nFrom the American Studies Museum, this is Dr. America, noting that \"Evian\" spelled backwards is just \"naive.\"','Bottled Water','','inherit','open','open','','169-revision-2','','','2010-11-22 19:27:59','2010-11-22 19:27:59','',169,'http://natureofcollege.org/2010/11/169-revision-2/',0,'revision','',0),(509,5,'2011-08-18 20:29:11','2011-08-18 20:29:11','<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Intro</span>: <em>Collecting and displaying the artifacts of American culture is hard work, and sometimes Dr. America is overextended.  Like most of us, he has methods for dealing with stress.  This week, in the magnificent (but wholly imaginary) American Studies Museum, the institution\'s imaginative curator discusses the curative properties of a new product.</em>\n\n* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *\n\nWhen Dr. America spotted the package in the Nature Store, he was immediately interested.  The big black letters said \"Soothing Salts,\" and the doctor did need soothing. But as he settled into the warm bath water, and his jangled nerves began to unjangle, he began to cogitate.  What was the meaning of this bath, these salts, this situation?  The actual ingredients don\'t help much to answer the question.  Two ounces of sodium chloride, sodium bicarbonate, jojoba oil, and fragrance--this is basically souped-up salt at twenty dollars a pound.  In this case, as in so many in American culture, the package is as important as the product itself.\n\nThis bath additive is part of the \"<em>Explorer</em> Bath Collection,\" which, we learn in the brochure, \"takes you on a botanical voyage of discovery.\"  The special fragrant formulas, it says, \"nourish the skin and stimulate the senses while evoking distant lands.\"  The collection includes bath salts, lotions, and massage oils thematically linked to exotic places--the Serengeti, the Great Barrier Reef, and Angel Falls.  Serengeti, the brochure says breathlessly, \"intoxicates with its notes of honey, fig, and African woods and grasses.  The Great Barrier Reef refreshes with the cool scents of water and wind.  And Angel Falls nurtures with rare orchid against a green background.\"\n\nDr. America bought the Great Barrier Reef at the Nature Store, because he liked the bright picture of tropical fish in the coral sea.  He also liked the supposedly handwritten excerpt from the explorer\'s journal, lyrically recording the sighting of  \"fish and fauna of every shape, design, and color in the Great Barrier Reef.\"  So Dr. America followed the simple directions: \"Add to Bath, Relax, and Enjoy the Journey.\"  Dr. A, who traveled only as far as his bathroom, did enjoy the journey.  After adding the soothing salts, he <em>did</em> relax, as he always does when he sits in warm water.  But <em>his </em>journal was not so lyrical.  \"I am sitting in the bathtub,\" it said truthfully.\n\nThe Explorer Bath Collection urges weary bathers to \"let your senses run riot.\"  This is an inviting proposition for modern Americans, who often run themselves senseless.  And it\'s part of the appeal of shops like the Nature Store, which bathe consumers in myriad meanings.  The Nature Store, which now serves as a retail outlet for the Discovery Channel, is a place where Americans can go \"looking for nature at the mall.\"  In a revealing essay by that title, historian Jennifer Price unpacks the cultural meanings of nature that are stored within the Nature Store.  The nature that we look for, the nature that we buy, is not generally the nature that we live in.  The nature that we buy is exotic, unspoiled, wild, remote and romantic.  It\'s also peaceful--among the plush animals in the Nature Store, there\'s not much Darwinian \"nature red in tooth and claw.\"  It\'s not so much the state of nature as a state of mind that appeals to busy Americans.  People who rush every morning to get through the shower need an excuse to slow down, and expensive soothing salts provide an occasion to linger in a bath.  Having paid two-fifty for two ounces of salt, you need to get your money\'s worth.\n\nOf course, while these products restore <em><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">us</span></em>, they don\'t necessarily restore nature.  Both the Explorer Collection and the Nature Store tell us that \"no habitats were damaged by harvesting in any way.\"  But for most of our purchases as Americans, habitat is affected, and we don\'t much think about it.  We forget that <em>every</em> store is a nature store, since they\'re all full of nature converted to commodities to be converted to cash.  In this culture, Dr. America notes, it\'s only natural.  But when we buy the nature that evokes <em>distant</em> lands, it helps us to distance ourselves from the nature nearby, the nature that\'s increasingly domesticated, spoiled, conquered, and not quite so romantic.  Why do we need \"Explorer\" salts and sport utility vehicles?  Why couldn\'t we be satisfied with the \"college professor\" massage oil or the \"computer programmer\" lotion?  Why couldn\'t we market the smell of suburban grass, or the Midwestern scents of hay and alfalfa?   It seems to Dr. America that, until we can appreciate the sensual pleasures of our own place on earth, we will continue to evoke nature without understanding it.  We may be in the Nature Store, but we won\'t know really what <em>wonders</em> nature has in store for us.\n\nFrom the American Studies Museum, this is Dr. America, finding himself, as usual, in hot water.','Great Barrier Reef Soothing Salts','','inherit','open','open','','171-autosave','','','2011-08-18 20:29:11','2011-08-18 20:29:11','',171,'http://natureofcollege.org/2011/08/171-autosave/',0,'revision','',0),(510,5,'2011-08-18 20:30:00','2011-08-18 20:30:00','<strong>Intro</strong>: <em>Water is the distinguishing characteristic of planet earth, covering most of the earth\'s surface and containing and sustaining life throughout.  It\'s a product of nature, but it\'s a product of culture too, as curator Dr. America shows this morning in the American Studies Museum.</em>\n\n* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *\n\nBottled water is as simple as it sounds, just water in a bottle.  The complexity comes in explaining the popularity of this packaged potion.  In the last ten years, the annual consumption of bottled water has almost tripled; the average American of 1986 drank four-and-a-half gallons, but now we average almost 11 gallons apiece.\n\nAmericans have purchased flavored sugar water in bottles and cans for years.  Coke and Pepsi have built empires by selling water to thirsty customers.  But some people are now suspicious of additives, and so a few companies have tried to capitalize on what we might call \"subtractives.\"  Bottled water is Coke without the additives, Pepsi without the flavor or the fizz.  It\'s pure water, and it\'s almost pure profit.\n\nAccording to water experts, bottled water costs almost 1,000 times more than water from the tap.  Dr. America, for example, pays the city slightly more than a tenth of a penny for a gallon of tap water.  Evian Natural Spring Water, on the other hand, costs $1.00 for a 20-ounce bottle from a vending machine.\n\nSo why do people like Dr. America drink bottled water?  We may think that bottled water is purer than tap water, but this idea doesn\'t, in fact, hold water.   Indeed, the New York Times reports that one-third of bottled water <em>is</em> tap water.  And bottled water is as susceptible to contamination as any water.  While the Environmental Protection Agency monitors municipal water quality, only the Food and Drug Administration pays attention--and then, not much--to bottled water.  Still, bottled water is so popular that one American city, Houston, has decided to bottle its tap water.  That way, on days when it\'s inconvenient to go to the kitchen or the bathroom or the drinking fountain at work, you can run down to the 7-11 and get a bottle of your own familiar flavor of water.\n\nWe may think that because it costs more, bottled water tastes better.  But when a leading consumer magazine compared bottled waters to tap waters, it ranked New York and Los Angeles tap water better than all the non-carbonated bottled waters.  In fact, Dr. America suspects, bottled water makes his mouth water not because it tastes good, but because it is a sign of good taste.  In fact, bottled water might as easily be called watered bottle, because the bottle contains not just the liquid, but the signs and symbols that add image value to the water.\n\nThe big development of designer water began about twenty years ago, when Perrier began to suggest that a person\'s selection of a supposedly tasteless liquid was a sign of superior taste.  Perrier adds carbonation to its \"natural\" spring water, but its promotions pump status into the concoction as well.  Both Perrier and Evian travel to American consumers from Europe, and for those Americans who think that \"American culture\" is a contradiction in terms, the European pedigree offers an insignia of refined taste.\n\nAmericans also drink bottled water because of its associations with sports.  An early Evian ad titled \"Revival of the Fittest,\" for example, showed athletes slurping Evian after exercise.  The copy claimed that \"Evian, with its unique balance of calcium and magnesium, gets into your body faster than other waters to rid your system of impurities and replace the fluids you lose after a workout.\"  It is true that Evian rehydrates the body, but so does any water.  And calcium and magnesium are hardly unique to Evian; they are simply the minerals that make hard water hard.\n\nIronically, <em>bottled</em> water is also popular because it seems so <em>natural</em>.  Almost all ads for bottled water feature striking scenes of nature; there are no generally no people in them.  Perrier and Evian flow from the Alps, while other waters come from an assortment of springs, geysers, mountain streams and Artesian wells. The term \"natural,\" however, doesn\'t necessarily mean that these waters aren\'t filtered or treated; it just means that the mineral content remains the same (even though, in some case, there are more minerals than are good for us).\n\nPeople also buy bottled water because it\'s H2O to go, for people <em>on </em>the go.  The bottle makes potable water portable.  Of course, some Americans package their own water for places they might travel.  But they have no class, unless, of course, they put tap water in the designer water bottle.  Bottled water itself is <em>water </em>on the go; it has often flowed extraordinary distances to vending machines or supermarket shelves.  That\'s why, as a critic said several years ago, the companies \"prefer you to think of their products not as water that\'s been shipped a long way at great expense but as a kind of no-cal Coke, a quintessentially \'lite\' drink with the panache of purity.\"\n\nFrom the American Studies Museum, this is Dr. America, noting that \"Evian\" spelled backwards is just \"naive.\"','Bottled Water','','inherit','open','open','','169-autosave','','','2011-08-18 20:30:00','2011-08-18 20:30:00','',169,'http://natureofcollege.org/2011/08/169-autosave/',0,'revision','',0),(511,5,'2011-08-18 20:30:50','2011-08-18 20:30:50','&nbsp;\r\n\r\nDr. America Recordings\r\n\r\nJuly - October 1997\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/01-cool-whip-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-514\">01 Cool Whip</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/02-nike-swoosh-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-515\">02 Nike Swoosh</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/03-garbage-bag-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-516\">03 Garbage Bag</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/04-bowling-ball-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-517\">04 Bowling Ball</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/05-kodak-picture-spot-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-518\">05 Kodak Picture Spot</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/06-shit-happens-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-519\">06 Shit Happens</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/07-t-v-season-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-520\">07 T.V. Season</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/08-remote-control-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-521\">08 Remote Control</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/09-laughtracks-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-523\">09 Laughtracks</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/10-mosquito-repellent-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-522\">10 Mosquito Repellent</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/11-labor-day-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-524\">11 Labor Day</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/12-coffee-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-525\">12 Coffee</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/13-the-rake-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-526\">13 The Rake</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/14-aspirin-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-527\">14 Aspirin</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/15-wonder-bread-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-528\">15 Wonder Bread</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/16-bottled-water-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-529\">16 Bottled Water</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/17-subwoofer-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-530\">17 Subwoofer</a>\r\n\r\nDecember 1997 - March 1998\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/01-christmas-cards-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-531\">01 Christmas Cards</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/02-shopping-day-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-532\">02 Shopping Day</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/03-izuzu-rodeo-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-533\">03 Izuzu Rodeo</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/04-christmas-lights-3/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-534\">04 Christmas Lights</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/05-body-politics-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-535\">05 Body Politics</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/06-mall-kiosk-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-536\">06 Mall Kiosk</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/07-coca-cola-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-537\">07 Coca-Cola</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/08-roadkill-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-538\">08 Roadkill</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/09-sports-section-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-539\">09 Sports Section</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/10-home-cooking-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-540\">10 Home Cooking</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/11-television-news-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-541\">11 Television News</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/12-universal-price-code-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-542\">12 Universal Price Code</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/13-popcorn-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-543\">13 Popcorn.</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/14-bath-salts-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-544\">14 Bath Salts</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/15-spring-break-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-545\">15 Spring Break</a>\r\n\r\nApril - July 1998\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/01-love-your-body-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-546\">01 Love Your Body</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/02-taxes-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-547\">02 Taxes</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/03-dustbuster-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-548\">03 Dustbuster</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/04-volkswagen-beetle-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-549\">04 Volkswagen Beetle</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/05-microwave-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-550\">05 Microwave</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/06-horticulture-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-551\">06 Horticulture</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/07-excrement-occurs-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-552\">07 Excrement Occurs</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/08-bottom-line-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-553\">08 Bottom Line</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/09-graduation-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-554\">09 Graduation</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/10-born-to-shop-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-555\">10 Born to Shop</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/11-cosmetics-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-556\">11 Cosmetics</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/12-doors-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-557\">12 Doors</a>\r\n\r\nJuly - November 1998\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/01-stress-management-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-558\">01 Stress Management</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/02-lines-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-559\">02 Lines</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/03-just-looking-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-560\">03 Just Looking</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/04-botox-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-561\">04 Botox</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/05-perception-analyzer-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-562\">05 Perception Analyzer</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/06-back-to-school-sale-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-563\">06 Back to School Sale</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/07-corn-dog_labor-day-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-564\">07 Corn Dog_Labor Day</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/08-voicemail-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-565\">08 Voicemail</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/09-imac-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-566\">09 iMac</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/10-lipstick-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-567\">10 Lipstick</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/11-malls-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-568\">11 Malls</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/12-drivers-license-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-569\">12 Driver\'s License</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/13-the-truck-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-570\">13 The Truck</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/14-election-day-1998-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-571\">14 Election Day 1998</a>\r\n\r\nNovember 1998 - February 1999\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/01-fun-morality-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-572\">01 Fun Morality</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/02-be-like-mike-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-573\">02 Be Like Mike</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/03-piercing-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-574\">03 Piercing</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/04-christmas-lights-4/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-575\">04 Christmas Lights</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/05-shopping-day-1998-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-576\">05 Shopping Day 1998</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/06-christ-muss-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-577\">06 Christ-muss</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/07-new-years-eve-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-578\">07 New Year\'s Eve</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/08-peter-pandering-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-579\">08 Peter Pandering</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/09-interactive-toys-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-580\">09 Interactive Toys</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/10-martin-luther-king-jr-day-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-581\">10 Martin Luther King Jr. Day</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/11-super-bowl-1999-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-582\">11 Super Bowl 1999</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/12-keeping-up-with-the-joneses-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-583\">12 Keeping Up with the Joneses</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/13-valentines-day-1999-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-584\">13 Valentine\'s Day 1999</a>\r\n\r\nFebruary - May 1999\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/01-girl-scouts-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-585\">01 Girl Scouts</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/02-escalators-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-586\">02 Escalators</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/03-penny-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-587\">03 Penny</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/04-arcadia-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-588\">04 Arcadia</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/05-april-fools-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-589\">05 April Fools</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/06-security-camera-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-590\">06 Security Camera</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/07-tax-shifting-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-591\">07 Tax Shifting</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/08-jesse-action-figure-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-592\">08 Jesse Action Figure</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/09-garden-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-593\">09 Garden</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/10-testing-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-594\">10 Testing</a>\r\n\r\nMay - September 1999\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/01-graduation-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-595\">01 Graduation</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/02-roller-coasters-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-596\">02 Roller Coasters</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/03-deodorant-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-597\">03 Deodorant</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/04-bachelor-party-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-598\">04 Bachelor Party</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/05-4th-of-july-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-599\">05 4th of July</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/06-5th-of-july-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-600\">06 5th of July</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/07-banana-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-601\">07 Banana</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/08-suntan-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-602\">08 Suntan</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/09-cool-whip-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-603\">09 Cool Whip</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/10-garbage-bag-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-604\">10 Garbage Bag</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/11-restrooms-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-605\">11 Restrooms</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/12-bureaucrat-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-606\">12 Bureaucrat</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/13-cotton-candy-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-607\">13 Cotton Candy</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/14-syllabus-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-608\">14 Syllabus</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/15-tv-guide_american-survey-2-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-609\">15 TV Guide_American Survey (2)</a>\r\n\r\nOctober 1999 - February 2000\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/1-01-stadium-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-610\">1-01 Stadium</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/1-02-quilts-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-611\">1-02 Quilts</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/1-03-minimum-wage-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-612\">1-03 Minimum Wage</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/1-04-football-jersey-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-613\">1-04 Football Jersey</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/1-05-professional-wrestling-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-614\">1-05 Professional Wrestling</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/1-06-thanksgiving-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-615\">1-06 Thanksgiving</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/1-07-its-you-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-616\">1-07 It\'s You</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/1-08-christmas-gift-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-617\">1-08 Christmas Gift</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/1-09-christmas-kids-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-618\">1-09 Christmas Kids</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/1-10-ghost-of-christmas-presents-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-619\">1-10 Ghost of Christmas Presents</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/1-11-new-year_lose-weight-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-620\">1-11 New Year_Lose Weight</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/1-12-perfume-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-621\">1-12 Perfume</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/1-13-getting-in-shape-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-622\">1-13 Getting in Shape</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/1-14-millionaire-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-623\">1-14 Millionaire</a>\r\n\r\nFebruary - May 2000\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/01-superbowl-2000-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-624\">01 Superbowl 2000</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/02-road-map-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-625\">02 Road Map</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/03-valentines-day-2000-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-626\">03 Valentine\'s Day 2000</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/04-bridal-magazine-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-627\">04 Bridal Magazine</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/05-real-estate-classifieds-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-628\">05 Real Estate Classifieds</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/06-food-court-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-629\">06 Food Court</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/07-mardi-gras-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-630\">07 Mardi Gras</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/08-frugality-channel-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-631\">08 Frugality Channel</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/09-the-gap-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-632\">09 The Gap</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/10-reinvent-yourself-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-633\">10 Reinvent Yourself</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/11-real-simple-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-634\">11 Real Simple</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/12-victorias-secret-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-635\">12 Victoria\'s Secret</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/13-bachelor-party-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-636\">13 Bachelor Party</a>\r\n\r\nJune - September 2000\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/01-store-hours-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-637\">01 Store Hours</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/02-boredom-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-638\">02 Boredom</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/03-california-closets-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-639\">03 California Closets</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/04-spreadsheets-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-640\">04 Spreadsheets</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/05-lucky-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-641\">05 Lucky</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/06-justice-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-642\">06 Justice</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/07-price-is-right-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-643\">07 Price is Right</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/08-shoes-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-644\">08 Shoes</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/09-vacation-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-645\">09 Vacation</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/10-back-to-school-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-646\">10 Back to School</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/11-state-fair-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-647\">11 State Fair</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/12-labor-day-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-648\">12 Labor Day</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/13-mirrors-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-649\">13 Mirrors</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/14-saturday-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-650\">14 Saturday</a>\r\n\r\nSeptember - December 2000\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/01-sprawl-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-651\">01 Sprawl</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/02-tv-season-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-652\">02 TV Season</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/03-designer-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-653\">03 Designer</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/04-newspapers-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-654\">04 Newspapers</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/05-washington-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-656\">05 Washington</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/06-clothing-tags-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-655\">06 Clothing Tags</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/07-rainforest-cafe-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-657\">07 Rainforest Cafe</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/08-buy-nothing-day-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-658\">08 Buy Nothing Day</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/09-christmas-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-659\">09 Christmas</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/10-ad-vent-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-660\">10 Ad-Vent</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/11-silent-night-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-662\">11 Silent Night</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/12-solstice-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-661\">12 Solstice</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/13-novelty-new-and-improved-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-663\">13 Novelty, New and Improved</a>\r\n\r\nJanuary - April 2001\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/01-choice-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-666\">01 Choice</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/02-race-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-667\">02 Race</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/03-temptation-island-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-668\">03 Temptation Island</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/04-muzak-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-669\">04 Muzak</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/05-valentines-day-2001-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-670\">05 Valentine\'s Day 2001</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/06-home-shopping-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-671\">06 Home Shopping</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/07-built-ford-tough-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-672\">07 Built Ford Tough</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/08-class-warfare-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-673\">08 Class Warfare</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/09-cool-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-674\">09 Cool</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/10-eye-of-the-needle-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-675\">10 Eye of the Needle</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/11-taxpayer-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-676\">11 Taxpayer</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/12-soul-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-677\">12 Soul</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://natureofcollege.org/essays/dr-america/dr-america-essays-audio/13-shampoo-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-678\">13 Shampoo</a>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','Dr. America essays (audio)','','publish','closed','open','','dr-america-essays-audio','','','2018-07-09 14:32:20','2018-07-09 19:32:20','',110,'http://natureofcollege.org/?page_id=511',0,'page','',0),(512,5,'2011-08-18 20:30:42','2011-08-18 20:30:42','','Dr. America essays (audio)','','inherit','open','open','','511-revision','','','2011-08-18 20:30:42','2011-08-18 20:30:42','',511,'http://natureofcollege.org/2011/08/511-revision/',0,'revision','',0),