Podcasts are limited themselves, though. Not everybody is online at all, let alone for more than checking email. In the case of these people a book may be a better option because they don’t have to turn on any electronic device to read. And they may prefer the written word to the spoken one, being able to go at their own pace.

I think it’s a false comparison to try to say one medium is inherently better than another. There are numerous factors to be kept in mind, and I think individual preference has a lot to do with it.

As to environmentalism–nobody’s perfect. Using some errors to try to prove that the whole system is flawed is short-sighted. It is a huge problem that needs to be approached both locally and globally, and all manners in between. People miss a lot if they adhere to only one way of viewing the problem. It’s an enormous, multi-faceted thing, and we make mistakes because we don’t entirely understand it. If you only focus locally, then you miss the interconnection among all places; if you look only globally, you miss local needs and problems.

However, I will say there’s an overall trend towards the personalization of communication in mundane society. It started with that call center/ticket system metric of mentioning the customer’s name but has expanded beyond that to employees being permitted (if not encouraged) to share personal experiences (positive or negative) as they see fit. This adds an additional level of personalization. I find it odd that this is coming full circle into the Pagan community. After all, Pagans are typically the “think outside the box” “down with the man” “get away from corporate uniformity” rebels, and it’s this philosophy of being different that companies have in recent times attempted to embrace.

I’m not saying all Pagan/Occult books are this way. I have a book written by an Indian (as in red dot) author about Chakras. The book is “Working with your Chakras…” by Ruth White if you’re interested. Heck, who better to explain Chakras than someone raised in the culture where such ideas originated and still permeate the culture. The book was interesting because it was written in a very personal way. Not only did she cover case studies but she discussed how her being true self (being otherkin, though not using that term) affected her workings.

While she did manage to convey her story… at the end of the day, it’s far less touching than something I would have heard with my ears or some other more intimate medium than artificial ink printed on dead trees.

You do some QA stuff with software/web design, so I’m sure somewhere you have or will come across some usability stuff. One of those principles is making sure you use the proper medium for the information being conveyed. Granted, this metric was created to keep people from abusing relatively bandwidth/CPU-intensive video to do what could much more easily be presented in a manual or in a web page.

Maybe these personal experiences are out there, just in different media. After all, it’s not like even the mainstream occult authors don’t share their personal experiences. However, I’ve heard more personal details from folks that went to Pagan and occult gatherings than I’ve ever read in any book. Perhaps because some of it is embarrassing, perhaps because books are just an improper or inherently unemotional medium.

Heck, seemingly every Pagan podcast out there ties into personal experiences. It comes as close as you can get to the atmosphere of interaction one gets at a gathering, while being spread across the world.

My main gripe with environmentalism (well, besides me being one of those weird pro-Wally World folks) is that it has a global focus. All we keep hearing is Global warming, climate change bla bla bla. Not that it’s not happening, but it’s very impersonal.

Worse, this global focus on environmentalism can cause otherwise nature-friendly individuals to become anti-environmentalists. On our podcast, we’ve been doing continuing coverage of the Plovers in North Carolina and how the Audubon Society is trying to destroy the local economy to preserve these birds in the outer banks. Sure, it’s an endangered species. However, in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, these things reproduce more prolifically than rabbits and only 1 (ONE !) has died in the past several years (run over by a car IIRC). Yet, the Audubon society wants to have the entire island shut down and destroy the economy to protect these prolifically reproducing critters.

I’ll admit, they probably are of limited populations in other parts of the world. However, this global focus that ignores local issues is causing locals who either 1) would be completely indifferent to the existing protective measures or 2) support the existing protective measures to start putting up signs like “Fried Plover Baskets.” Naturally there are rumors about hunting these birds off the island if the local economy becomes imminently threatened. Good job Audubon society, you’ve successfully made people hate and seek to kill the very thing you’re trying to “protect.” Congratulations!

Environmentalism works when there is a local focus and doesn’t try to be absolutely perfect (as the Audubon Society apparently attempts to do in their endeavors). Look at New York City. Not exactly environmentally friendly in the early 90s but people go “Ah crap, we ran out of landfill space!” and all of a sudden they’re recycling everything (of course laws being passed requiring such things and those laws actually being enforced likely contributes substantially). As for New Yorkers being nutjobs, studies have suggested any number of sources including lead in the air and the incredible noise pollution of the city.

However, environmentalism is sane when it is economical. Where I used to live in PA, it cost money to throw out garbage – but recycling was free. What do you think we did? We learned to only generate a single drum bag of garbage every 4-6 weeks. See, that makes sense. Trying to ruin the lives of hard working people for the sake of “protecting” some ultimately insignificant bird… not really worth it.

When environmentalism is both sane and local, that’s when all sorts of good stuff happens . In PA, our community recycling center recycled dang near everything. The money made from selling the scrap metal etc. paid for the salaries of the employees and stuff like twigs and grass got tossed into a (very large) community compost heap. Need free compost? Go to the recycling center. Thus everything was kept local and the landfills in the area are not being filled by the county’s residents… just the trash being imported from New York City.

I’m glad to see my little corner of PA is not alone. Granted, Houston’s recycling program leaves much to be desired, there’s a community re-use center at the main recycling plant. Anything left over and still usable whether it be paint, household cleaners etc. that you do not want to store, drop it off for free and someone else can pick it up for free. Less trash and a practical way of curbing waste, even if it is only a tiny dent.

There’s my rant. Probably should have posted it to my own dang blog but ah well .