The penance of guilt ridden yuppies

Read this NYT article first.

A commenter takes the words right out of my mouth:

This experiment is a cute and interesting way to raise awareness of our bad habits, but the Conlin-Beavan family does not face the difficulties that so many American families do. It’s nice that Mr. Conlin has the time and the MONEY to shop and cook for locally grown, organically produced food (and it’s oh-so-kind of them to let their cleaning lady keep her vacuum). But what about the people who have to work multiple jobs just to get enough food of any kind on the table, even if it’s Kraft mac and cheese? What about the residents of low-income neighborhoods whose only option is to shop at a convenience store because there ARE no grocery stores? And what about the people living in rural America who shop at Wal-Mart and don’t even have access to the produce being grown all around them because of how screwed-up our food systems are in this country? The Comlin-Beavans must look beyond their own family and see what they can do to help others and change the systems in place. Real changes occur when we care about the needs of others, not just ourselves.

It is not impressive to me to see some 5th Ave yuppies go a year without balsalmic vinegar. We have to address the serious resource inequities in this country before people like the Conlin-Beavans fret over having accidentally eaten in a restaurant.

As much as I enjoyed reading Crunchy Cons, that was my main critique of it, as well - that other than implementing a recycling program, the lifestyle being advocated is completely inaccessable to a family with even average means.

For all our sakes, I'll allay my desire to open the can of worms that is the list of Conlin-Beavan motivating factors. Dreher has philosophy and theology as an impetus for change; these people have Al fucking Gore. He invented the internets, for Pete's sake!