Well, wait a minute.  Let's think about this a moment.

Bissell wrote:
>> Unfortunately the environmental movement has been plagued by these people
>> for as long as. . .well as long as there has been an environmental movement.
>> I suppose this woman has some concern about trees, or something, but her
>> primary motivation is herself. Getting on TV and such is the point, not the
>> trees. For those interested in motives I suppose this is an issue, for those
>> interested in outcomes, probably not so much.
>>  Steven

to which Ben responded:

>We might go speculating about the psychology of folks who bare their
>bodies to call attention to an issue, but we would be falling prey to the
>same fallacy that afflicts the person who assumes that I, by hand waving,
>intend only to call attention to myself.

and John F. says:
>I disagree with Steve Bissell. The issue is not credibility here. He seems
>to think that the woman is there because she has breasts and they TV
>Company is interested in breasts, and the redwoods are simple a stage
>prop.

It's hard to imagine the same kind of protest occurring (let's try a
thought experiment) in the context of, say, the US civil rights movement in
the 1950s and 1960s.  To have protested in this way to draw attention to
the plight of blacks and other minorities at the time would have seemed
entirely inappropriate.  To have done so would have trivialized the cause
that so many people were so earnestly involved with . . . or so it seems to
me.

All the "striptease for the trees" accomplishes is to make a joke out of
the entire issue.   I do think one of the issues here is credibility; and I
must say that I'm not all that convinced by Ben's hand waving comparison to
the case of the drowning victim.  Certainly, Ben, you'd agree that there is
a considerable difference between an exhibitionist display (now I'm in
trouble <g>) performed in front of a group of bored log truck drivers, and
the attempt to attract the attention of others in order to help someone who
is dying?

Jim T.


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