NIMBY

This is part 2 of another essay I wrote.

Not In My BackYard is the idea where you don't want things in your neighborhood because you want it pristine and pure. No group homes for disabled people. No foster homes for troubled youths. No sober houses. No sex offenders. 

Those people should go elsewhere. I deserve a pristine untroubled place. It's a natural instinct to protect you home, and by extension neighborhood, and to keep things the way they are.

They want to build an 8 story building near me. It's been approved for 2 floors, which they've already built. There's a town hall meeting to discuss. This is the second one. I can't make it, so it's a moot point whether I go.

My daughter had the ethical clarity to say, "why not, people need places to live." She doesn't think about crowding, parking issues, crowding at the park. She can't anticipate problems. Mo people mo problems. 

My nature loving relatives built houses where there were none, and decreased the amount of wild land. I think living in the city is the best thing, after going vegan and not flying a lot, for the environment. But living in the city you are alienated to some extent from more wild settings in nature. Those are important too.

Gated communities are the fantasy of NIMBY. Controlling who can even walk down the street. 

As the climate changes, if income inequality increases, these problems are just going to be exacerbated. 

In a way going to a monastery is about choosing conditions for your spiritual growth. It's not at the expense of others, hopefully. They seem so infrequent and benign. They were repositories of learning and culture in a crazy wild world. One of my favorite movies is The Secret of Kells.  

Yesterday was Kwan Yin's birthday. She who hears the cries of the world. Needless to say Nimby isn't a kind stance, but to an extent an understandable one and not bad in certain circumstances like a monastery.