Even Larry Johnson is afraid of the I.C.O.T.I.G.

March 14, 2006 12:27 PM

Earth-friendly evangelicals have been in the news a lot lately. Are they related to the Crunchy Cons (or Green cons?!?)? Maybe they're all just afraid of the wrath of grandma...[first link requires nyt account, or a library card]
posted by ericbop (3 comments total)

Ezekiel 4:9 has been around forever. I eat it every once in a while (cereal), and I'm a crunchy "ultraliberal." He kind of lost me with the intro. Forced.

While I may have read a few articles by "green" Christians, they seem to be very much in the majority. More Christians (in America) seem to believe in the Rapture than sustainable development. I am not an expert, however.

"It seems to crunchy cons that most Americans are so busy bargain-shopping or bed-hopping, or talking about their shopping" and bed-hopping selves, that "they're missing the point of life,"

Isn't sex the point of life? I see very little connection between bed hoppers and bargain shoppers. I'm sure my experiences are different from most Americans, but all of the sex-positive people I know are mostly anti-consumerist as well.

Just because some rich conservatives care about eating healthy does not make them "green" or "crunchy." In fact, most of the upper class will likely soon be eating "organic." Vegetarianism will likely first be forced upon the poor.

all of which sounds suspiciously like liberalism, rewound to before the sexual revolution.

Sounds about right. Most people are basically "liberal" anyway. Religious folk just seem a bit scared of their sexual desires.
posted by mrgrimm at 2:15 PM on March 14, 2006

The core of the crunchy-con perspective is that "industrial capitalism and conventional left-wing bohemianism are two sides of the same coin." Both glorify consumerism and individual choice above all else, at the cost of undermining traditional mores and ways of life.
....
"Shopping at Whole Foods (and places like it) as a morally and environmentally responsible act? Don't roll your eyes and think of the Bobos," he writes.

May I be the first to say, "What a freaking tard." This dude's little fantasy makes about as much sense as Christian rock. Too bad the NY Times Book Review is run by conservatives. This book could have been given a rollicking review.

I might add that I used to belong to a crunchy food coop. It was supplied by a cooperative outfit called Blooming Prairie. It was a great deal (though, pace Dreher, nobody was bed-hopping). It all kind of fizzled when Blooming Prairie was somehow acquired by a very large food concern. Prices went up by about 20 percent in one month, making much of the stuff I bought more expensive than my local monopoly grocery store. The company that bought Blooming Prairie? United Natural Foods, whose major business partner is ... Whole Foods. Not that that's relevant.
posted by Rutherford B. Hatch at 3:11 PM on March 14, 2006

I enjoyed the book. A wake-up call to media right-wingers who seem to operate on the false equation that the enemy of my enemy (in this case, ultra-high-consumption lifestyles loathed by some liberals) must be our friend. What makes it odd is that 90% of the right-wing media celebrities who valorize SUVs and Minimansions live in apartments in Adam Morgan or the Upper East Side and drive foreign compacts, if they have cars at all.

No conservative whom I know hesitates to benefit from something just because it has a strong liberal association -- organic foods, or elite educations. After all, liberals don't hesitate to benefit from things with strong conservative associations, like low-crime neighborhoods, or functioning markets for goods and services.
posted by MattD at 9:13 AM on March 15, 2006