A Counterintuitive (and Depressing) Argument

This post is a couple of years old, but it certainly gave me pause when I stumbled across it earlier today. The take home message of the book (Rebel Sell) it references: "practices such as downshifting, energy conservation, eating organic produce, and engaging in local environmental activities are useless" and "you can't break the cycle of poverty; you can't break the cycle of violence; you can't break the cycle of corporate expansion; you can't break the cycle of the arms race; you can't break the cycle of imprisonment, if you don't break the cycle by which radicals are isolated, idealists are turned into pragmatists, and pragmatists into opportunists." The thing is, many of the arguments have merit. It's an interesting read, definitely worth a few minutes of your time.