Remember the 1960s sitcom THE ADDAMS FAMILY?
Do you remember the episode where Gomez was running for a political office?
How one of his proposals was to "save the swamps"?
And how that was supposed to be considered "dark humor"?
At the time such was considered a "deviant" concept. The ideal concept of "modern-day development" at the time was one of "beautifying" communities and neighborhoods. Some of nature's "aberrations"---like overgrown vegetation, certain aesthetically unappealing native plants, and swamps and the like---were considered "eyesores" and either removed or paved over and replaced with either more appealing vegetation, or mad-made structures. All in the name of progress and beautification.
Of course more recently we've become more aware of the follies of counteracting nature---even of disregarding the aspects of it we may find repulsive. That by making too many unprecedented changes in the landscapes we have thrown the ecosystem in disarray, and that doing so might possibly be among the reasons for a lot of the unusual number of natural disasters of the recent decades. Among these revelations are of how essential all those wetlands are and of the purposes they serve(d).
Hence, a slogan like "Save the swamps", instead of being snidely ridiculed, would these days be revered as one of environmental sensibility. Seems the Addamses were actually ahead of their time---and no-one at the time knew it. Not even them.
Gomez Addams---accidental "environmentalist"? I guess so...
Do you remember the episode where Gomez was running for a political office?
How one of his proposals was to "save the swamps"?
And how that was supposed to be considered "dark humor"?
At the time such was considered a "deviant" concept. The ideal concept of "modern-day development" at the time was one of "beautifying" communities and neighborhoods. Some of nature's "aberrations"---like overgrown vegetation, certain aesthetically unappealing native plants, and swamps and the like---were considered "eyesores" and either removed or paved over and replaced with either more appealing vegetation, or mad-made structures. All in the name of progress and beautification.
Of course more recently we've become more aware of the follies of counteracting nature---even of disregarding the aspects of it we may find repulsive. That by making too many unprecedented changes in the landscapes we have thrown the ecosystem in disarray, and that doing so might possibly be among the reasons for a lot of the unusual number of natural disasters of the recent decades. Among these revelations are of how essential all those wetlands are and of the purposes they serve(d).
Hence, a slogan like "Save the swamps", instead of being snidely ridiculed, would these days be revered as one of environmental sensibility. Seems the Addamses were actually ahead of their time---and no-one at the time knew it. Not even them.
Gomez Addams---accidental "environmentalist"? I guess so...
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