Page 10 RAIN February-March 1980 letters DearRAIN, There are a couple of points that were raised in the last issue to which I would like to respond. Your comments in " Raindrops" about the importance of thinking hard about what kind of movement appropriate technology should bl'<'Ome reminded me of a David Morris article that has bothered me ever since I read it in a recent Solar Age. David argued that we ought to get serious about energy conservation by beginning to legislate "t'nergy quotas." He argued that energ waste ought to be recognrzed as anti-social behavior and treated as such. An attractive idea in a way- but, gosh, does it ever fly in the fal:e of the nolion uf decentraliling n..rgy decisions. It seems to me that the solution that David is propusing does not grow from the philosophi al underpinnings of what I take the movement to be. But, is there really anythmg approximating a commonly held philusophical pOSirion that binds people involved an appropriate or community technologies together? If not, we're not as strong as we'd like to think. RAIN has always been the journal where these matters of philosophy are discussed. I hope we see even more of this discussion . Your review of The Sun Betrayed was a dandy , and relates to the problem of philosophy, strength, and direction. And it was able to tell me why I always end up depressed and disoriented after reading through an issue of Solar Engineering. I won't do it any more. On to other things. Tom Bender, in his review of Why Trade It In? , contributes to the notion that the automobile repair business is fundamentally a " scam. " As someone who has spent a lot of time working as a mechanic, I'd like to take issue with his contention that flat rate manuals are set up as a way of putting something over on people. When used properly, flat rate times provide a reasonably good guess as to what 11 job will take. It is also true that many garages, particularly dealerships, use the books unfairly, charging, for example, for the time to replace a differential grease seal and charging for the time listed to replace a pinion bearing, which operation already includes replacing the seal. But that is a function of the nature ~f dealerships, where the shop foreman answers to the owner, and the mechanics "just work there." Go to a little, one- or two-man shop, where the mechanic is the foreman is the owner is the guy who deals with you . And don't give him hell just because he uses a flat-rate book. Chances are that he'll be charging you enough to meet expenses and take a little bit home, not by any means getting rich, and if he arrives at that amount by using time estimates from a manual, so be it. If you are driving an old car that you are keeping alive, despite the fact that every bolt is rusted solid, getting away with paying the flat rate will often be to your advantage. Then Tom and Lane teamed up to write an interesting article on population. Which contains a sentence that bothers me: " Centeredness can be found in meditation as well as in huge tracts of preserved wilderness." The implication is that one can view the importance of preserving wilderness in the face of pressures created by increased population in terms of how necessary wilderness is to man, and to his psychological well-being. Boy , is that anthropocentric' The notion has its roots way back in the book of Genesis, where God gave man dominion over the earth. Do Tom and Lane really mean to say that? I'm more inclined to think of wilderness not as something that was put here for my use, but as something also used by Grizzlies, Canada Jays, Trout, and lots of others I like almost as much as I like kids. Finally, where has Tom been buying his Ivory soap and having to pay $3 a pound? The other day I bought three 4112 -ounce bars of Ivory for $.79, which comes out to $.94 per pound. Or has Proctor and Gamble taken me in too? Good news from Oklahoma. Our Department of Energy has hired someone to look after the solar programs who has had experience with hands-on workshops and who has, in the past, shown a commitment to low-tech, decentralized applications. His name is Ron Marlett. A nice change from their past tendency to hire ex-executives from large corporations and ex-military people. Any magazine that can provoke so much comment on a single issue is doing its job. Keep up the good work. Bill Zoellick Sunspace, Inc. P.O . Box 1792 Ada, OK 74820 "Is Population a Problem?" (January RAIN) by Tom Bender and Lane deMolI, elicited more response than any single article we've published in recent months. We'll be printing some of those and a reply from T(lm and Lane in tire April isslle.
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