The author makes some good points. It goes along with some of my beefs about our cherished modern culture. Along with the undeniable benefits of some (or much) of our tech, comes a widespread self-delusion that we are above the fray, that our science and tech somehow supersedes the fact that we create dung just like cattle, that we need heat in the winter, and food regularly.

I've worked for quite a few people in the highly educated/affluent range and the way some of these folks race through piles of possessions/resources can be jaw dropping. Oh yeah, it's 'their money.' Doesn't make it prudent.

Along with that, or integral with that perhaps, is an enhanced sense of their/our own personal power, which, IMHO, is vastly inflated.

On the educated classes being less likely to discuss politics, my bro. in law in Idaho has a Mech. Eng. masters (coal fired elec. professional) and MBA and is utterly unavailable for considering opposing points of view. You can see the wheels working in his head when he hears forbidden language on the AGW or gun control issues: he moves infallibly to smirk mode followed by a recitation of talking points, which never vary.

I've told the guy (whom I like in many ways) that his barrage of e-mail forwards begins to sound like heckling/bronx cheering. He forwarded Geo. Wills erroneous article wherein Will stated that U. of Ill. arctic climate/ice researchers said there'd been no decline in ice pack since '79 (maybe '89 I forget now). The U of I people came out afterwards and said, approx: "No way in hell did we say that."

But none of my corrections on these points of fact slow him in the slightest. Which brings me back to my main beef: on the whole, we are arrogant and proud way past rationality in this country.

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1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K