Freelance Propaganda

Robert Kennedy Jr at Syracuse

Just returned from hearing Robert Kennedy Jr. talk at Syracuse University. It was a rousing look at the environment movement today—-timely because I’d been wondering where-o-where was the environment these days.

His environmentalism is new to me—-it’s one built on an enjoyment of fishing, falconing and using the outdoors. And one that draws on the role of nature in the American Psyche, the central position that it occupied in American art and writing. Raw Nature was what gave the States its artistic distinction from Europe.

He also made a convincing and rhetorically useful argument that polluters are subsidised through their pollution and that pollution is a shift of cost from the company to the people. Not a new argument but one that resonates well today.

He left his greatest scorn for the Bush administrations revision (“eviscerating”) of the federal environmental laws—-these are direct paybacks for campaign financing. “Campaign finance reform is the most important environmental law”.

I found the majority of the speech to be excellent but was flagging a little during the religious spiral he lept into at one point. Stewardship and the theme of nature in all world religions—-”prophets come out of the wilderness”.

Final observation was the sheer whiteness of the audience. I did not see any Black person and only a handful of Asian people. I understand that the environment has always been a white issue, but I’ve never understood why? We all live in the same environment?

So good for getting me interested in the environment again after too long a gap, but also good to see a Kennedy, American Royalty, speak and speak well—-even through a tough sounding case of laryngitis. He endorsed John Kerry and spoke of the sheer dollars that the Bush campaign will be putting on the table during the campaign—-I’m really looking forward to being here to see it all. Might even get cable TV to get a feel for an American election. Here’s hoping it doesn’t have a nightmare ending.

I’m embarrased that this was my first University Lecture, but with Garrison Keller coming up on the 17th of Feb that’ll be two in a row.