nutters and cranks

[den_the_cat]

does anyone but me get a bit would up by the fact that because you care for the environment/like homegrown veg/don't eat meat you're automatically assumed to be a hippy nutter?

I just read Shirlz's post about the Blackpool illuminations, and it's brilliant that they're using renewable energy sources to power some illuminations but I wish they were just powering normal ones - nice as it may be to have an eco message in the illuminations using good energy sources just to power a display about being green sort of reinforces the pervading feeling that its a 'special' thing and not something that people should incorporate into everyday life.

I also get a bit depressed when I want a meal and cafes only serve wholewheat alfafa sprout low fat quiche with brown rice as the veggie option.. I may be veggie but I like my share of high fat terribly bad for you unhealthy stodge - just I like mine without a bit of cow in it please....

It is understandable why people do it, and things are loads better now than they used to be - I mean the sheer fact that veggie meals, alternative energy and bike lanes are now available most places is absolutely brilliant and I'd rather the OTT approach than the ignore us approach. Plus now more people are becoming aware of this stuff it is becoming more mainstream, but sometimes I feel very polarised. Or do the rest of you really like the fact that eco-friendly projects tend to be self contained and 'special'?

[Chickpea]

No, I agree. It should just be normal - I especially like your thinking about Blackpool lights. The "green" powers should be powering the normal lights.

I remember the only time I saw Blackpool lights when I was a little kid. My dad said "There must be some man putting 50p's in the meter ninety to the dozen". I bet everyone's dad says that, but it did make me think about all the energy needed.

On the other hand I *am* a weird green hippy nutter, and I love wholegrain alfalfa and wheatgrass quiche, so I probably don't notice that people are making unwarranted assumptions about me.

[Andy Hamilton]

I don't think I help myself sometimes by having long hair. But there has been a definate shift in peoples consiousness. When I talk to people about turing off appliances from standby or using the amount of water they need then they actually listen. The best way to approach the subject matter is to tell them that they will save money.

I was vegitarian many years ago before Linda Mcartney food was out there and the choice in resturants for vegies was really bad. It used to be a lump of cheese instead of meat. The only vegie 'fast food' that was around was a packet mix of veige burgers. really dry and bland a kind of soya based mush that you moulded into burgers after adding water. At least there is a much winder choice even if it is not as unhealthy as some would like.

I do find myself in certain situations keeping quiet rather than aring my views in my last job one of the people there did not recycle as she had her kerbside recycling box stolen and the council wanted to charge her £20 for a new one. I could see her point but after sugesting that she put her stuff in carrier bags she came out with a terade about the council. I left it there.

You don't always have to have your point of view heard and I think most people will come around to green thinking when we get some more 'natural' disasters. I will argue at most times but also know when you just won't get through as someone is staying closed minded on an issue. - Less likely to be called a freak if you don't give anyone the amunition.

[Martin]

might be something to do with age, but I've reached the stage where I don't give a flying fig for what the vast majority think of me - I accept that people don't begin to comprehend where I'm coming from - must be a total nutter - don't fly, don't use allopathic medicine, have a caravan, spends holiday at Green festivals, much more comfy in a sarong or au naturel, left-handed, anti gm food, id cards, the government..........
A fully paid-up member of the "pleasantly potty brigade" - and proud of it!

[Martin]

ps, I have hazy recollections of Lady Eve Balfour, one of the pioneers of organics saying something along the lines of "crank?" - "small, efficient device that causes revolutions"
I can live with that!

[den_the_cat]

lol - I don't mind being either a nutter or a crank but I do find it really strange and a bit irritating how rather than say "wow - if we spent £100,000 on solar panels we can power this [insert item here]" they say "wow - if we spent £100,000 on solar panels we could power 100 light up signs telling people the panels are powered by solar energy"

Not knocking blackpool specifically as I loved the illuminations as a kid

and veggie food is so much better than it used to be, I've been more or less veggie for almost 20 years and it was sooooo hard to find anything decent to eat when I started, I had to read menus before I went into restaurants and take picnics everywhere, but its still frequently assumed that only health freaks don't eat meat.

[Millymollymandy]

How strange, I consider it to be the opposite! About 20 years ago there were health food/veggie restaurants everywhere and it was the new 'in' thing.

I remember it being fantastic when I was travelling round NZ and Aus in the mid 80s for veggie food/health food. The food was exceptional quality. And soya ice cream is great! Yoghurt smoothies with banana and nuts - yum!

[the.fee.fairy]

I don't know how old people are on here, but i'm 24 and i feel the freak/nutter thing a lot.

I was talking avidly to a woman at work the other day about my veg patch, adn the fact that my ginger beer was being bottled at the weekend. She gave me a strange look and then said 'you sound like some kind of middle-aged retiree, why don't you just buy the stuff from T*scos?'.

I was horrified, I explained that i prefer to know where everything comes from. I lived on homemade bread and t*sco value tomoato soup for 2 weeks when i was younger because they were the only things that had ingredients in that i understood! (now, however, i realise that chocolate also has ingredients in it i don't understand, but it still has to be eaten!!).

I'm also subjected to a barrage from my mother about how recycled and ethical goods cost more than non-recyled/ethical good, and how she won't pay more for her organic veg (she has also had a bowl of homegrown potatoes in the kitchen for about 3 weeks....however, she still buys bags from aforementioned store).

I have to say though...silently i revel in the title big green hippy...

[Masco&Bongo]

I don't know how old people are on here, but i'm 24 and i feel the freak/nutter thing a lot.

I was talking avidly to a woman at work the other day about my veg patch, adn the fact that my ginger beer was being bottled at the weekend. She gave me a strange look and then said 'you sound like some kind of middle-aged retiree, why don't you just buy the stuff from T*scos?'.

Yup, I'm 26 and get the same thing!

We moved house to be more in the country and to be able to grow as much as we could for ourselves.

Today at work, people has asked the usual "what did you do at the weekend" and seem to be quite startled when I say:
"Picked fruit (bloody loads), made 2 new compost bins, made jam, made pasta sauce and walked the dog"

I get comments about how cheap jam is to buy and why bother making it, and the same about pasta sauce...
They all seem to think I should be out "clubbing" all weekend or something...

[the.fee.fairy]

i'd rather be in my compost heap than 'clubbing'!!!

Unless its a dirty dingy little rock club of course...

[Ranter]

As the youngest sibling & the only one interested in a greener, more just way of living, I'm treated by my brother & sister as the family hippy. Someone to be looked at like an exhibit in an old freak show. So I know how some of you feel.

Happily, most friends share my views or else they're interested to know how I came by said views. As for everyone else, I couldn't give a flying fig what they think.

[Stonehead]

does anyone but me get a bit would up by the fact that because you care for the environment/like homegrown veg/don't eat meat you're automatically assumed to be a hippy nutter?

I get it from both sides of the fence. The "normals" think I'm weird because of my self-sufficiency, keeping animals, "green" values, independent attitude etc while the "hippies" think I'm weird because I'm ruthlessly pragmatic, not into the "spritual", eat meat with great enjoyment, don't buy the "counter-culture" and am quite amused by some of the urban hippie antics.

I walk my own path. Always have done and always will. Fortunately, the Other Half doesn't seem to mind too much most of the time!

As for veggie food, I was veggie for a long time until I could rear my own animals for meat - and it was a long time for a bacon buttie! But I never saw the point in buying "vegetarian foods" or going for the veggie option.

I'd just buy veg and cook them up, or, if eating out, just order several veg side dishes and happlily eat them. All that Linda McCartney and Qorn stuff looks like something out of a Star Trek food replicator - feed all your waste into a machine and it churns out processed "food".

No thanks.

[Wombat]

Can't make up my mind whether I am a nutter or a crank - maybe a little from column A a little from column B.........

Nev

[Stonehead]

Can't make up my mind whether I am a nutter or a crank - maybe a little from column A a little from column B.........

Nev

Definitely a crank - cranks turn force into actual work!

[Wombat]

Wombat bows.....