They are taking away our open highways

[ancianita]

240. Meme? Seriously? This is Reality. You can't just ignorantly claim that highways are The Commons.

I was going along with your additional misunderstanding of the concept and practice of stewardship by asking questions, none of which you've even attempted to think through or answer, even off the top of your head.

You're actually misunderstanding two concepts here -- Stewardship and The Commons. Perhaps there is a way that public ownership of highways might better fund and maintain them than the system we have right now. Lots of people are thinking about this and Obama's got a Transportation Bill up for consideration. I don't like toll roads, but I don't like the lower tax base of the country and the spending priorities of our non-representative government, either. But you can't simply say that the positivity alone will help the "many others" make some solution happen. The ball's still in your court to show some ideas, about how to not let highways into the hands of privateers, not just wanting some vision of America where infrastructure is free.

This isn't about a "it can't be done" meme. Or spreading it, since I was responding specifically to you. Most people know that highways are infrastructure, not nature. I couldn't get away with conflating the two along with you, and even for the sake of positivity or "a movement," I wouldn't try. Infrastructure takes funding and maintenance. If you want funding priorities to change, fine.

Are we able to afford all that needs fixing? However we get there, it won't be by equating infrastructure that sustains the fossil fuel world with The Commons. The Commons is our land base, our food, clothing and shelter source, our preservation of the wild source. It's got a whole different importance for our civilization than you're trying to give to highways.