Plastic Bag Totalitarianism

Are people willing to make even small sacrifices for the sake of the environment? Some are. Some, not so much. Because, you know, it's all just a big plot to take control of their lives:

Mayor-elect Sam Adams accurately states, of The Great Paper/Plastic/Cloth Use Debate: "It's a simple behavioral change that we have to ingrain in ourselves."

And in a free society we do, indeed, ingrain behavioral changes in ourselves, freely, as we, individually, perceive the necessity to do so.

In a totalitarian society, however, behavioral changes are ingrained in the citizens by the government, for ends perceived by the state to be beneficial, or, in this case, by some Little Caesar in City Hall.

-- LOUIS SARGENT Northwest Portland, letter to the editor, Oregonian, 7/28/08

Sometimes I think people forget what real totalitarianism looks like.