Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Good Guys, Bad Guys, and Evil in Cambridge, MA, USA

1. Cambridge Machine: There is no such a thing as bad guys. There are just differences of opinion.
2. Bad guy.
3. Response (also known as censored #1).
4. Summary.

1. Cambridge Machine: There is no such a thing as bad guys. There are just differences of opinion.

The Cambridge Machine is active again.

Now the Cambridge Machine claims to be defending Cambridge against a massive increase in development allowed in Central and Kendall Squares.

As part of this fight, members of the Cambridge Machine have been doing lovely analyses of morality.

The Cambridge Machine is reading from the script.

The Cambridge Machine is objecting to the use of the word "Bad Guys" with regard to the supposed opposition.

I really do not want to spend a lot of time writing yet another response, so here are a bad guy comment and the response (with correction of one type) I sent which was censored from their listserve.

I am only quoting the introductory paragraph.

If I quoted the rest, I would have to go on and on and on.

2. Bad guy.

It isn't a case of bad people vs good people. (Gosh, we are hearing enough of that now with the Newtown killings.) It is best to think of it as different viewpoints on how expansion should occur and on the research on urban growth. It seems that the goal of these postings is to offer the opportunity to discuss the pros and cons of upzoning and city planning in a rational, fact-based manner.

3. Response (also known as censored #1)

The people who tell me "It is just a matter of difference of opinion" tend to have striking problems in that their "opinions" deviate very far from the norm.

Excellent examples of deviating from the norm include

(1) fighting for achieving inexcusable destruction of acres of virgin woodlands at Alewife along with massive killing of their resident animals, and fighting through stalling to make it much worse and

(2) fighting for

(a) the dumping of poisons on the banks of the Charles River to feed sickly grass introduced in place of environmentally responsible grass,

(b) the continuation and worsening of large scale deliberate animal starvation of three decade resident animals on the Charles River and related and accelerating animal abuse targeted at achieving a goal of killing off all resident animals on the Charles River Basin,

(c) the continuation of the bizarre wall blocking access between the Charles River and the Magazine Beach playing fields

(d) the continuation of the destruction of the boat docks at the Magazine Beach playing fields,

(e) the continuation of smaller playing fields to drain off poisons which should not be there, and

(f) fighting for destruction of the parking lot at the foot of Magazine Street without giving any explanation except that they do not have the money yet (while "neglecting" to mention that the destruction will occur immediately after they get the money).

When you combine such behavior with loud proclamations of "concern" which give the impression that the speakers are on the opposite side from the side they are really on, I have very great difficulty calling these outrages "differences of opinion."

And when you look at the fact that the principal tool being used is stalling to allow, through inaction, the opposite to happen from what they claim to stand for, that definitely looks to me like the bad guys.

4. Summary.

The tactics used strike me as an excellent example of Evil.

This is Cambridge, MA, USA.