Reply #77: oh my god--are you even listening???

[Katherine Brengle]

>>MOST people want more than miserable subsistence farming in a hovel without meat and without a car

I am not miserable. I live in a perfectly nice apartment, with electricity and heating and all of the comforts of modern life (such as plumbing and a nice gas stove and a refrigerator). I do not find life miserable without meat. I do not find life miserable without a car. If I did, why would I live this way?

>>if you are happy w. so little, fine, but to insist that you are morally superior or that your choice should be emulated is elitist to put i mildly

I never said I was morally superior. I do believe that we all have a responsibility to leave as light a footprint as possible on the earth, but I am not going to tell you how to do that. All I am pointing out if how I do it.

>>i do not have cable teevee -- and i bet you do

Actually, I do not have cable. I do own one television, and I use an antenna which gets me decent reception on 4 channels on a good day--it's more than enough.

>>it is rude to say "get a grip" when losing the argument and it doesn't make your argument any the more convincing

I don't feel as if I am losing an argument--I feel as if you are not actually listening to anything I and others in this thread are saying to you. It is also rude to call someone an elitist when she is simply stating the facts of how she lives her life.

>>you know perfectly well that people want a better life -- MOST people do -- and they DON'T want a downsized life, and to pretend that your choice of a downsized life makes you better than everyone else is a bit twee
you only get one life to a customer, should i choose to live large or should i chose a life of playing the martyr, hell, most of us don't even like being around people who play martyr, we sure don't want to be one

I have a great life. I lack nothing that I need or desire, I have a wonderful child and a wonderful husband, and I love the work that I do. My entire point was that you can still be happy and comfortable and fulfilled without making the world worse than it already is. Just because everyone "wants" certain things, does not make it right.

There are no martyrs here--just two sides of an argument which you are wildly overreacting to.

I don't know if you are just having fun picking a fight or if you really believe what you are saying, but either way I think this has probably gone far enough.