Lughnasa\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 New Moon<\/p>\n
Every once in a while the internet jumps out and bites me.\u00a0 I lost a potential job because I talked about the process on my blog and the congregation thought I had violated their privacy.\u00a0 Last year on the Sierra Club blog I posted what I thought was obvious information about how our lobbyists planned to work a committee only to discover that it was supposed to be in house.\u00a0\u00a0 Monday I posted about the MEP, the Minnesota Environmental Partnership, meeting I attended.\u00a0 They found it and called Margaret at the Sierra Club.\u00a0 There was no problem with what I wrote, they said.\u00a0 Except, they said there was no problem.\u00a0 Of course, confidential material (which the lobbyist last year felt I had disclosed) is just that, confidential.\u00a0 In order to retain trust we agree not to break confidence.<\/p>\n
This capacity of people to troll the web for whatever they want, especially things that concern them, is a blessing and a curse.\u00a0 It’s a blessing when it allows a person or organization to track matters of importance to them.\u00a0 It’s a curse in that it can have a chilling effect on communication.<\/p>\n
Margaret has a legitimate issue.\u00a0 She wonders if I will be quoted or misquoted from my blog and then identified as a Sierra Club leader.\u00a0 In that sense there is a persona management concern for the organization.\u00a0 We’ll talk about it tomorrow.<\/p>\n
On a related matter, tomorrow I will install an electric fence, a device for making our dogs respect the boundaries we have established for them.\u00a0 That’s what all this is about:\u00a0 boundaries.\u00a0 Boundaries are fluid, shifting from one person’s perception to another’s.\u00a0 Respect for boundaries is an important aspect of living in community.<\/p>\n
Interestingly, it is at just this juncture that liberalism, with its focus on individualism, can run into problems.\u00a0 Those of us on the bleeding edge of the liberal boundary can tilt toward too much emphasis on liberty, the negative kind that insists only on the right to do what we want, or, contradictorily, toward restrictions on individual liberty to achieve some other virtue, like justice.\u00a0 This is also the precise intersection where equality, as fundamental an aspect of liberalism as individualism, can create social tension.<\/p>\n
In fact if we decide on economic equality as a necessary part of our political program we may move across the line from liberal to socialist, a communitarian model for economic justice.<\/p>\n
Actions for or on behalf of the environment demand human action and these demands often create the perception of curtailed liberty.\u00a0 Why can’t I hunt whales?\u00a0 Why can’t I build a dam where the salmon run?\u00a0 Why can’t I shoot the wolf I believe killed my livestock?\u00a0 Why can’t I drive my Hummer?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Lughnasa\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 New Moon Every once in a while the internet jumps out and bites me.\u00a0 I lost a potential job because I talked about the process on my blog and the congregation thought I had violated their privacy.\u00a0 Last year on the Sierra Club blog I posted what I thought was obvious information about how … Continue reading The Internet and Personal Exposure<\/span>