I just joined the Sierra Club and have been following the housing mailing list discussions. It’s really evident from reading it that there is a clear divide between Crisis Greens and Cautious Greens just like you mentioned here.
I think what has happened is that the Cautious Greens in the org haven’t had anyone in my generation to talk to. They have battle wounds from the past and they still behave that way with regard to anything new that might roll back what they fought for.
I think you nailed it. Many of those battles were hard-fought, first of all, so like you indicate, that Herculean effort is going to make people cling to the wins. I do wonder about Cautious Greens talking to younger people. The Crisis Greens are going to be their kids, mostly, right? Do they not talk to their kids? I talk to my kids (Gen Z) all the time and am profoundly shaped by their ideas. But maybe that's unusual, which is sad.
I also think that as people get older, change becomes less and less comfortable, so Cautious Greens may be animated by a force common to all humans (fear of change) that they are backfilling with more high-minded ideas like "I am just trying to preserve that tree I have named George against the Evil Developers trying to build housing on the empty lot near me." And finally! We have another factor that in America, we have artificially prevented natural neighborhood dynamism and city growth for so long that we've begun to think change is weird and bad instead of natural and normal. All of this adds up to entrench the status quo and make it harder and harder to get green infrastructure built.
I just joined the Sierra Club and have been following the housing mailing list discussions. It’s really evident from reading it that there is a clear divide between Crisis Greens and Cautious Greens just like you mentioned here.
I think what has happened is that the Cautious Greens in the org haven’t had anyone in my generation to talk to. They have battle wounds from the past and they still behave that way with regard to anything new that might roll back what they fought for.
I think you nailed it. Many of those battles were hard-fought, first of all, so like you indicate, that Herculean effort is going to make people cling to the wins. I do wonder about Cautious Greens talking to younger people. The Crisis Greens are going to be their kids, mostly, right? Do they not talk to their kids? I talk to my kids (Gen Z) all the time and am profoundly shaped by their ideas. But maybe that's unusual, which is sad.
I also think that as people get older, change becomes less and less comfortable, so Cautious Greens may be animated by a force common to all humans (fear of change) that they are backfilling with more high-minded ideas like "I am just trying to preserve that tree I have named George against the Evil Developers trying to build housing on the empty lot near me." And finally! We have another factor that in America, we have artificially prevented natural neighborhood dynamism and city growth for so long that we've begun to think change is weird and bad instead of natural and normal. All of this adds up to entrench the status quo and make it harder and harder to get green infrastructure built.
Woof! Great read.
Thank you!