(Warning: Political segue in mid-article.)
Interesting observation by Jim Dalrymple:
Apple ranks highest among Greenpeace’s top tech companies
(Via a DF tweet: Greenpeace and Apple, Sitting in a Tree.)
You may recall that Greenpeace has been all over Apple for awhile now. Regardless whether you liked the Greenpeace words/tactics, they at least recognize that Apple has become much more "green".
Aside: In Greenpeace's current analysis of consumer electronics (Which companies really sell greener electronics), Apple leads in every category. Interestingly, Apple is also the only company that has a product in every category.
In any event, Apple does seem to be a company that listens, and is inclined to "do the right thing" - at least some of the time.
Now this is no fairy tale; Apple will (generally) make decisions that are in its best interest - AND we've seen that Apple is smart enough to look to it's
long-term interests rather than just this minute's stock price.
This is where we get into "enlightened self-interest" territory: Clearly (in addition to the direct reductions to pollutants) it's in Apple's interest as a for-profit corporation, to be seen as "green", especially as "green" becomes a bigger and bigger buzzword.
And perhaps this is why Greenpeace was so vocal in its criticisms of Apple; they knew there was a good chance that Apple would listen.
(Or even, for you conspiracy theorists, that Apple was already moving to "green" and that Greenpeace could claim victory afterward - whatever floats your boat.)
Now, allow me an extrapolation into politics:
Perhaps it's not so much "Democrats are imploding!!" as Democrats always argue amongst themselves - because they actually listen to each other, and have a genuine discussion rather than a one-way rant as Republicans seem sadly prone to, these days.
As a flaming liberal myself, I take it as a very good sign, that Democrats didn't immediately unite into a solid whip-dissenters-into-shape machine, and ram through all their priorities. It would have perhaps been as bad as the mess Republicans made, especially in the Bush II years. Can you imagine what a steamroller it would have been if Republicans had 60 Senate seats?
However Democrats do have a solid majority and we can get some things done in a thoughtful way - not only fixing some of the damage of the past 30 years, but actually moving
forward on some things. It's certainly no
fait accompli and it will take a lot of effort, not only by folks in government, but the rest of us too - especially the rest of us.
So, back to the title - keep shouting:
1) Liberals need to stop simply thinking "Policy X makes perfect sense, so it's not necessary to shout about it."
2) Politicians - especially liberal politicians - need to hear that there really is broad support for liberal ideas.
3) There's a good chance someone's actually listening.
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