Half of Idaho's wolves gone in a year, thanks to Obama's Sect'y of the Interior

[villager]

149. I profoundly disagree.

Animals are not merely a "resource," and treating them that way -- along with treating the rest of the earth like an object -- leads to all kinds of trouble.

Like, say, the present set of calamities we're dealing with now.

The problem with Heinlein -- my fondness for "Stranger in a Strange Land" notwithstanding -- is that he embraced that kind of faux Libertarianism so prevalent in certain strains of sf (I say this as a published writer of sf, by the way). The imagining of one as a complete island, cut off from anything else.

The reality is, middle class lifestyles aren't the result of atomized individuals, but of collective (gasp!)/societal decisions that benefit everyone. Burning through the "resources" that (briefly) sustained us won't keep us in copies of Podkayne of Mars. Let alone enough available food, shelter, and fresh water to keep a society stable.

In any case, at least I can retract the statement above about not engaging in conversation. Thanks for choosing a non-snarky smilie.