6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting, February 19, 1998
This review is from: Act Now, Apologize Later (Hardcover)
This is an autobio and discussion of the environmental movement and activism by the 24-year-old president of the Sierra Club. Toward the end of the book he includes a meeting he had with a British Columbian Native American group, who criticize the environmental groups out to "save" their forests. The local people say, "It is our turn for environmental development.... You take food from our children's mouths. You're trying to stop us from improving our condition. You are no different from those who tried to kill us with their guns."
Werbach mentions, "I learned an important lesson on the trip. Environmentalists, in a rush to save the natural world, often forget to consider the implications of their actions. Our dedication leads to a self-righteousness that bowls over friends as well as enemies."
Yet his book title, and apparently his philosophy, remains, Act Now, Apologize Later.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
If I could give this book zero stars, I would., January 12, 2002
By A Customer
Besides lacking substance, the book was poorly written. Apparently the author feels that in order to reach young people, he has to write like one. Someone with an Ivy League education should write at a level higher than that of a high school student. He also writes about people who save the world while he himself does nothing. It seems that people do it for him and he takes credit for by writing a book or by signing checks (as Sierra Club president). The book should be titled: "While I sit back watching...".
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Act Now, Think Never, December 15, 2001
This review is from: Act Now, Apologize Later (Hardcover)
Here is a book that, while explicitly asking readers to think for themselves, implicitly tells them not to think at all, but simply to act.
This review will not complain about Mr Werbach's failing to provide a blueprint for action (as the other one-star reviews do), but will demonstrate the true nature of his musings. Incidentally, the man has no intention of apologizing for anything, as his title suggests...
Since every page of this book is replete with the shallow observations of a man who absolutely refuses to think, I hardly know where to begin. He confesses his profound ignorance of the world on the very first page of the introduction. "Oscar the Grouch, a smelly green whiner who lives in a garbage can has been the star of sesame street for years. Yogi Bear, the smiling optimist who believes there's a picnic basket around every corner, was cancelled. It's not cool to be positive."
Mr Werbach, Yogi Bear started in 1958 (long before Oscar was conceived) and went on to outlive the man who was his voice (Haws Butler). It was not CANCELLED as you were so keen to put it; Hanna Barbera retired him in 1988, and the Cartoon Network still runs him daily. The only reason Oscar has a job can be summed up in 6 words: The National Endowment for the Arts. Lets see how long he would last if Sesame Street had to live by the same rules as Hanna Barbera. It is cool to be positive. It's even cooler to be commercially cool. Yogi paid his own way.
Page 25 reveals the nature of Mr Werbach's epistemology through his recount of boyish mischief:
"Kevin believed experiences were the most effective way to offer lessons. He once convinced a student to touch his nose to an electric fence to see if it would sting. It did. Kevin had told the student, 'It's an electric fence, but if you touch it with your nose, you won't get shocked.' The boy hesitated, his common sense telling him the teacher couldn't be right. He protested, 'The fence is gonna shock me no matter what part of my body touches it.' Testing the mettle of the student, Kevin repeated, "You can touch an electric fence with your nose and you won't be shocked.' The student cautiously touched his nose to the fence and was rewarded with a shock. It sounds deviant, but Kevin wanted the student to use his mind, not blindly follow the words of someone claiming to know the answers."
Now. The only thing more deviant than tricking a child into hurting himself is telling him afterward that he was using his own mind in doing so and not blindly following someones words. I seriously doubt that, if Mr Werbach were sitting on a jury that was to judge a woman who had talked her school-aged son into putting his hand on a red-hot burner as a method of discovering the truth for himself, would vote her innocent of child abuse. The circumstances are different only in degree. The message is the same.
I'll bet Mr Werbach blindly follows the global warming theorists without having done the first bit of empirical research on his own. I guess he's afraid of being shocked.
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