These thoughts are not fully formed, but that’s a good reason to share them. Maybe some discussion can ensue that will help me out.
Over the past month or so, I’ve caught a couple of episodes of the newest Ken Burns film: The National Parks: America’s Best Idea. I was impressed and inspired. I love parks and recently bought a National Park Passport with the hopes of filling it up with my family in the years to come. As I listed to the history of these parks and the park system, I had a thought: These parks would not be built today.
I say that not out of anti-corporate sentiment or government distrust. I say that with a sense of irony, as one assumes the environmental and preservationist movement has come a long way since the early 20th Century. I say it because the parks were (more irony here) seemingly begun in a way that’s seemingly anti-democratic. A few wealthy and powerful men thought it would be a good idea to have them, and so they exerted their political and financial influence to get them set aside. These men, like the Roosevelts and Rockefellers, were instrumental in setting aside public land that everyone can enjoy. By and large, the establishment of these parks was not a grassroots, public effort. Left to that, I doubt we’d have them.
I was reminded of a conversation with another professor at a conference about the noblesse oblige. We’re dismissive of this idea; it has been cover for exploitation in many forms. But it may be the case that, without it, we’d never have National Parks.
Just an interesting thought that may be less than half-baked.
Recent Comments