RE: Criteria for policy effectiveness/success

[Rich Puchalsky <rpuchalsky@att.net>]

David James writes:
"So even when you absolutely DO know that your opponent is a malefactor, presenting your case courteously can win you credibility in public fora. Hostility turns people off, even when warranted."

I agree that an appearance of civility is pragmatically useful.  And David James' other major point in his response could be paraphrased as that strident people miss valuable opportunities to advance through compromise -- sure, who could disagree with that?  I don't think you'll find that the environmental community has had any shortage of people who are willing to compromise when it appears that no better deal will present itself.

But I think that this is confusing acknowledging the truth with suggesting behavior.  To continue my prior analogy, it may well be most effective to sit down with muggers and listen to their complaints openly and civilly, then take action based partially on what they would like.  After all, muggers are people too, they aren't all bad, many of them are people who would like to get out of a life of crime if something better presented itself, and they might have good ideas about how to provide opportunities for people in lives like theirs to get out of that situation.  That might well be more productive in reducing crime than a strict get-tough policy -- especially, to twist the analogy a bit, if the muggers controlled a big chunk of the productive power of the U.S. economy.

But we should remember that they are still muggers.  Most especially we have to remember that the goal of an open public involvement process that includes them is to get them to change their behavior, not to have an inclusive process that results in an even compromise between the muggers and the muggees.  

You might not like the mugger analogy.  But pollution and ecosystem destruction are not caused by everyone, or caused by society, they are mostly caused by policies favoring a few people.  And the only reason that a lot of largescale but legal pollution isn't considered a crime is that the process of compromise between mugger and muggee is already well advanced.