Tensions Develop as Environmental Concerns Build

According to this note in the Writer’s Almanac, yesterday was the 101st anniversary of the opening of Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring,” a ballet so new in its day that it caused a literal riot in the theater in which it was performed.  Per the article:

Paris of 1913 was caught between tradition and modernity. The opening of the Eiffel Tower had drawn scorn in 1889; telephones and elevators were beginning to creep into everyday life. In the arts, Picasso and Gertrude Stein were testing the limits of representation and narrative. On the evening of May 29, 1913, two types of people had gathered for the debut of this ballet: the wealthy, who expected beautiful music and choreography; and the Bohemians, who were eager for something bold and new….. Forty people were ejected, but not before the audience had turned on the orchestra. The musicians patiently played on, even as they were pelted with vegetables.

A comparison could be made to where we are now with respect to energy and the environment.  To most young people, our old modalities of robo-consumerism and exploitation of fossil energy without regard for the environmental consequences are an outrage.  Our scientists tell us that humankind’s approach to living on this planet is in the process of creating “the most devastating extinction event since the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs,” and many people’s reactions to this are anything but serene.

Yet change is coming slowly, if it is coming at all, due in large measure to the weight of entrenched interests that profit so greatly from the status quo.

Understandably, there is a great deal of enmity here, and I would not be too surprised if we see a few vegetables fly in the process of getting our civilization on a path to sustainability.