Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by tomxor 2550 days ago
I think you're both wrong. Since the dawn of civilization there has and always will be people disrespectful of nature. Your proposed causes are merely localised perturbations.

I think the _recent_ issue is in the title, and it's global, it's social networking. I can't think of any other force in the world that pushes huge numbers of people who have basically no interest or respect for nature, to go out into it, not learn anything, not gain any respect, and then destroy it... Selfies are a natural resource for social networking, and the natural world is full of them, ripe for exploitation.

1 comments

> Pictures are the a natural resource for social networking, and nature is full of them, ripe for exploitation.

> [..] it is an economic function of photography to supply the masses, by modish processing, with matter which previously eluded mass consumption.

-- Walter Benjamin, 1934

It's like people shifted from even that, to needing to have a photo with themselves front and center. Trample nature, then mess up the photo, too, and of course, burn a whole lot of kerosene.

To be less bitter about it, if people had more imagination and confidence, they wouldn't need to see everything first-hand, and wouldn't need to collect external proof that they're "someone". That seems achievable and worthwhile.