Um excerto do livro The Armchair Economist: Economics and Everyday Life
Dear Rebecca:
When we lived in Colorado, Cayley was the only Jewish child in her class. There were also a few Moslems. Occasionally, and especially around Christmas time, the teachers forgot about this diversity and made remarks that were appropriate only for the Christian children. These remarks came rarely, and were easily counteracted at home with explanations that different people believe different things, so we chose not to say anything at first. We changed our minds when we overheard a teacher telling a group of children that if Santa didn’t come to your house, it meant you were a very bad child; this was within earshot of an Islamic child who certainly was not going to get a visit from Santa. At that point, we decided to share our concerns with the teachers. They were genuinely apologetic and there were no more incidents. I have no doubt that the teachers were good and honest people who had no intent to indoctrinate, only a certain naïveté derived from a provincial upbringing.
Perhaps that same sort of honest naïveté is what underlies the problems we’ve had at the JCC this year. Just as Cayley’s teachers in Colorado were honestly oblivious to the fact that there is diversity in religion, it may be that her teachers at the JCC have been honestly oblivious that there is diversity in politics.
Let me then make that diversity clear. We are not environmentalists. We ardently oppose environmentalists. We consider environmentalism a form of mass hysteria akin to Islamic fundamentalism or the War on Drugs. We do not recycle. We teach our daughter not to recycle. We teach her that people who try to convince her to recycle, or who try to force her to recycle, are intruding on her rights.
The preceding paragraph is intended to serve the same purpose as announcing to Cayley’s Colorado teachers that we are not Christians. Some of them had never been aware of knowing anybody who was not a Christian, but they adjusted pretty quickly.
(…)
I view the current situation as far more serious than what we encountered in Colorado for several reasons. First, in Colorado we were dealing with a few isolated remarks here and there, whereas at the JCC we have been dealing with a systematic attempt to inculcate a doctrine and to quite literally put words in children’s mouths. Second, I do not sense on your part any acknowledgment that there may be people in the world who do not share your views. Third, I am frankly a lot more worried about my daughter’s becoming an environmentalist than about her becoming a Christian. Fourth, we face no current threat of having Christianity imposed on us by petty tyrants; the same can not be said of environmentalism. My county government never tried to send me a New Testament, but it did send me a recycling bin.
Leitura complementar: A importância de explicar a reciclagem às crianças; A reciclagem e os preços de mercado; The meaning of “Earth Day”; Os custos económicos e ambientais da reciclagem; Os custos económicos e ambientais da reciclagem (2); A reciclagem e a intolerância eco-religiosa.
Pedro Sette-Câmara
André Azevedo Alves
Carlos Guimarães Pinto
Helder Ferreira
Bruno Garschagen
João Luís Pinto
LA
Bruno Alves
Miguel Botelho Moniz
ruicarmo
Miguel Noronha
Elizabete Dias
António Costa Amaral (AA)
LT
Rui Oliveira
BZ
dos ∫antos
André Abrantes Amaral
planca12
rui a.
Rodrigo Adão da Fonseca
Adolfo Mesquita Nunes
Michael Seufert
Luciano
Carlos M. Fernandes
Maria João Marques
jtcb
Nuno Branco
elisabetejoaquim
filipeabrantes
Tomás Belchior
Bruno Gonçalves
Ricardo G. Francisco
Tiago Loureiro
Ricardo Campelo de Magalhães
Filipe Faria
Ricardo Arroja
Ricardo Lima
Imagino que, em coerência, o Landsburg enterre o seu lixo no quintal ou o leve pelos seus meios para uma lixeira em vez de usar os serviços municipais de limpeza do lixo.
Comentário por Miguel Madeira — Agosto 29, 2010 @ 13:43
[...] Leitura complementar: A importância de explicar a reciclagem às crianças; A reciclagem e os preços de mercado; The meaning of “Earth Day”; Os custos económicos e ambientais da reciclagem; Os custos económicos e ambientais da reciclagem (2); A reciclagem e a intolerância eco-religiosa; A reciclagem e a intolerância eco-religiosa (2). [...]
Pingback por Os efeitos perversos da eco-religião « O Insurgente — Agosto 29, 2010 @ 16:01
> if Santa didn’t come to your house, it meant you were a very bad child
E se eu for cristão e me opuser a esta propaganda pagã?
Comentário por Euro2cent — Agosto 29, 2010 @ 21:28
Já agora, o meu comentário 1 referia-se apenas a esta parte -”we face no current threat of having Christianity imposed on us by petty tyrants; the same can not be said of environmentalism. My county government never tried to send me a New Testament, but it did send me a recycling bin.” (se é o município que lhe recolhe o lixo, penso que tem todo o direito de lhe exigir que o lixo venha separado); não se referia à parte essencial do texto (a critica ao papel doutrinador da escola), que até acho que tem alguma lógica.
Comentário por Miguel Madeira — Agosto 29, 2010 @ 22:23