How many biodegradable plastic bags can dance on the head of a pin? Why, let’s ask the Holy Synod of the Park Slope Co-Op, which met in an intense conclave last night. A reader sends this live-tweeted account of the interminable meeting. It is horrible. It is hilarious. You must read it at once.
Honestly, I would rather survive on genetically-modified Cheetos and Mountain Dew purchased at the 7-Eleven than have to buy food from these people.
Lulu says: OK, genetically modified foods all around, and hold the politics!
John E says: I admire their commitment to discussing the issues they care about.
alkali says: You pretend to be horrified, but secretly you long to discuss the merits of cloth vs. biodegradable bags at length with your fellow crunchies.
Mr. Patrick says: Almost as ideological yet vapid as the House of Representatives.
Certainly, not the sort of thing that I’d personally be up for, but hey, god bless ‘em, they’re living the way they want to live.
I don’t see, at a glance, why it should be a “conservative” obsession to poke fun at these folks. I mean, I wouldn’t expect to see Kevin Drum making fun of a meeting in Mississippi about, I dunno, crawdads or whatever it is that stereotypical liberals would think stereotypical conservatives would care about.
J says: I don’t see, at a glance, why it should be a “conservative” obsession to poke fun at these folks.
Conservatives struggle with feelings of inferiority. And you know how high schoolers deal with feelings of inferiority- they find some brighter kid with a flaw and pick on him/her.
John M. says: I used to have to sit through community planning board meetings that were at least as absurd as this, but that is the price we pay for civic engagement.
I live in Brooklyn and I use a different coop that doesn’t force me to do a shift, just pay my membership. If I want a bigger discount I can do some shifts or I can choose to live with 3% off. This one even lets you shop there if you’re not a member.
Personally, I think the PSFC folks are kind of nuts and love to fight over little and big issues. But I have to admire how committed they are to the coop and to commons. It might be fun to mock their seriousness, but really, wouldn’t it be better if more people were engaged like this though perhaps not so intense and judgmental about it?
Jaybird says: You pretend to be horrified, but secretly you long to discuss the merits of cloth vs. biodegradable bags at length with your fellow crunchies.
Yeah, this^. Me thinks our host doth protest too much.
Oh, please. Have you been with me so long?
but really, wouldn’t it be better if more people were engaged like this though perhaps not so intense and judgmental about it?
That’s the part that makes this so ridiculous: that they are being so intense and judgmental about things that really aren’t that important. It’s all about purity. Many people on the left roll their eyes at conservative interest in sexual purity, but man, when you read something like this, and see how collectively neurotic and disputatious these people are over plastic bags, you realize that a preoccupation with purity is a human thing, not a right-wing thing.
Al-Dhariyat says: I will never forgive you, Rod, (or myself) for “forcing” me to read that schlock.
JustMe says: Personally, I think the PSFC folks are kind of nuts and love to fight over little and big issues.
I can’t help but get the feeling that there has to be some kind of “prestige” associated with being a PSFC member. I mean, fulfilling their work requirements, putting up with draconian rules enforcers, and sitting through interminable meetings proves that you’re really “into” Park Slope in a way that other people aren’t. Because, otherwise, it just doesn’t seem to be worth the trouble. Me? Every time I hear the word “community association meeting” I get nervous.
And given all of that, I would have to argue that for the PSFC, the use of disposable bags, biodegradable or not, reflect an insufficient commitment to food shopping on the part of its members… reusable bags all the way.
Jaybird says: Just a little ribbing, relax.
Naturalmom says: Many people on the left roll their eyes at conservative interest in sexual purity, but man, when you read something like this, and see how collectively neurotic and disputatious these people are over plastic bags, you realize that a preoccupation with purity is a human thing, not a right-wing thing.
True. I think the reason we feel so aggravated at others’ “purity” obsessions we don’t share is that we recognize something fundamental about ourselves in it. We may rationalize that *our* purity obsession is really important to the Earth, society, human kind, democracy, whatever, but we we also know that we and our compatriots can get caught up in squabbles and minutia that are just as absurd.
We Quakers are notorious for engaging in a certain level of internal nuttiness over some issues. (We seem to be pretty self-aware about it — it’s a rich source of humor among ourselves — but that doesn’t stop it from happening.) Some of the issues we get nutty about are/were of vital importance, such as opposition to slavery in the 18th and 19th centuries, but let me tell you, I would NOT have enjoyed sitting through the discernment process that many of those old Quaker meetings went through to come to “unity” on that issue! Our own Meeting just had a series of discernments over a touchy subject. It was painful, often boring, and frequently eye-rolling. But sometimes that’s what it takes. If you want to avoid petty squabbles with other human beings, better plan on being a hermit.
Salamander says: My two older children attended a rather SWPL-y co-op preschool and the mandatory parent meeting were a lot like this. I remember one marathon session regarding the use of a bleach solution for sanitizing the lunchroom and bathroom that degenerated into the Pro-Bleach Germophobic Group (who wanted MORE bleach involved) vs. the Anti-Bleach Hippie Group who advocated dispensing with bleach in favor of some sort of herbal mixture. the debate raged on for three hours until someone finally pointed out that the state required bleach solutions and could we please get to the actual agenda items….
I opted not to send my third child there….it was a very nice preschool but I couldn’t seem to get that excited about bleach on a regular basis.
texasaggiemom says: Thanks for the laugh. Reminds me of some PTA board meetings I’ve been forced to endure.
Sam M says: “I wouldn’t expect to see Kevin Drum making fun of a meeting in Mississippi about, I dunno, crawdads or whatever it is that stereotypical liberals would think stereotypical conservatives would care about.”
Really? I think we see that all the time. maybe not Drum specifically, but something like Bowling for Columbine seems like it’s exactly this.
EngineerScotty says: Were the Park Slope Co-op, instead of a imminently mock-able collection of rich air-headed liberals, a kibbutz whose members were engaged in a theological debate, one that only makes sense to those within the community–would this thread still be posted?
If there’s any difference between PSFC and many religious communities, its that the latter often have more settles procedures for resolving disputes–often based on a leader who is empowered to render decisions. In the case of the kibbutz, the local rabbi would have the last word. The cultural arrangements undergirding PSFC don’t admit hierarchical leadership, so instead we have messy squabbles like this.
But if the point of this thread, and others like it, is to simply put down liberals by holding up extreme examples for ridicule–there’s plenty of opportunities for the left to play that same game with conservatives and/or the faithful, and many liberal publications enjoy doing so. I usually try to avoid such blogs or articles, especially when and where the conduct being mocked is a private matter.
I’d hope that this blog would strive to be better.
Hey, Scotty, did you enjoy my posting of the documentary about Pope Michael, a hyperconservative Catholic who is so narrow on the subject of religious purity that he believes he, his mother, and his lone disciple, out there on the Kansas prairie, are the only real Catholics left on the planet? Because, you know, that’s pretty much the same thing as the Park Slope Synod. I am fascinated by reductio ad absurdum behavior, and by manifestations of what Freud called the “narcissism of small differences.” One could argue that the entire GOP nomination process this fall is a broad example of this.
Dave D says: http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/02/03/48-whole-foods-and-grocery-co-ops/
It ironically makes the same point about religion, hint hint. Also it traumatized me by forcing me to remember carob bars. Ick.
Lord Karth says: One wonders what was really “genetically modified” in all this.
Your servant,
Lord Karth
EngineerScotty says: Yeah, I read about “Pope Michael”. Like Park Slope, an entity of little import which probably merits being ignored more than it merits commentary. Of course, ridiculing such things is fun and amusing, but maybe it would be better to have a single thread, every few days, where such things are gathered into one place–kind of like a “stupid pet tricks” for assorted whackjobs.
I’m not objecting to the current thread (and other material on Park Slope) because it makes fun of liberals–PSFC subscribes to a form of holier-than-thou postmodern political correctness that I have little use for (in large part because it resembles and reproduces some of the worst excesses of organized religion–so there!), but because there are more important things to talk about than what a bunch of Brooklyn yuppies get all worked up about, or about His Holiness the Bishop of Topeka (or wherever). 
freemansfarm says: Two hours and fourteen minutes is hardly interminable.Indeed, as public meetings go, that sounds rather brief. Didn’t see anything particularly “hillarious” or “horrible” either. Rather, just the kind of topics that one would expect a food co op to talk about were discussed. What kind of food to buy, what kind of bags to use, etc. What should they be talking about at the food co op meeting, if not these things? The editorial practices of gay cake magazine editors?
Then too, all we have are “tweets” from someone there to make fun of the proceedings. Off topic and sometimes bizarre comments from the audience are standard fare at most public meetings of any kind. But a real account of the meeting would give the actual agenda, what the board membes said in favor and against the proposed measures, perhaps a brief account of the audience remarks, and then the actual votes on the actual resolutions. Pretty easy to mock if you don’t do these things, and focus on the extreme views expressed by audience members instead.
“It’s all about purity. Many people on the left roll their eyes at conservative interest in sexual purity, but man, when you read something like this, and see how collectively neurotic and disputatious these people are over plastic bags, you realize that a preoccupation with purity is a human thing, not a right-wing thing.”
I guess the difference I see is that the right is concerned about the sexual purity of others, whereas the co op is about the “food purity” of themselves. They are deciding themselves what they want the conduct of their voluntary, collective institution to be. They are not attempting to impose their “purity” on the entire public.
When folks like this do try to impose their views, as with the anti smoking fanatics and the food “police” and so on, then they are ripe for satire. But, in this case, I have to say I really don’t get it. No one has to join the co op. No one has to shop there. No has to follow their rules. Therefore, it really is nobody else’s business what their policies are like and how their meetings are run.
“Honestly, I would rather survive on genetically-modified Cheetos and Mountain Dew purchased at the 7-Eleven than have to buy food from these people.”
But that’s just it, you don’t have to. Instead, you are going out of your way to expose yourself to “these people.”. No one forced you to find this tweeter account, or to read it, or blog it, much less to be there or buy food there.
John M. says: Yes, Rod I have been reading you for a long time, since Crunchy Con. PSFC’s culture is one of an echo chamber, where people who agree with each other on most things fight fiercely over the little ones, never letting any fresh air of fundamental difference into their conversations. Nevertheless, they are civically engaged and are authentically “Brooklyn.” I’m sure there are purists of various stripes in Mississippi who would fit that description as well, at least as irritating and yet also necessary in some fundamental sense if our communities are going to work.
JustMe says: I think the reasons people are a bit weirded out by the Park Slope series is because we can all feel Rod’s seething contempt dripping from every word for what is, pretty much, just average small town trivialities of the sort we would find in an HOA or zoning board meeting over whether to grant a variance to Mrs. Jones to allow her to build an apartment above the garage for her mother-in-law.
By contrast, the Goldman Sachs Elevator twitter feed, which Rod also featured, was a window into a culture of truly repulsive people, but Rod just laughed it off as a bunch of amusing brahs and shared in some of their joking.
catherine says: Rod, you love good food! You don’t like boring meetings. Good, don’t go to them. Be GRATEFUL that there are people who can cope with minutiae so you don’t have to.
Pingback: Randoms of the past week « Foseti
Dommerdog says: And nobody lying on the floor at the end had anything to say about all the electricity being burned in lighting the room?
Lightbulbs for dimwits…
I’m not even going to read it. I have too many better things to do with my time.
I think the reasons people are a bit weirded out by the Park Slope series is because we can all feel Rod’s seething contempt dripping from every word for what is, pretty much, just average small town trivialities of the sort we would find in an HOA or zoning board meeting over whether to grant a variance to Mrs. Jones to allow her to build an apartment above the garage for her mother-in-law.
By contrast, the Goldman Sachs Elevator twitter feed, which Rod also featured, was a window into a culture of truly repulsive people, but Rod just laughed it off as a bunch of amusing brahs and shared in some of their joking.
Boy, what an asinine observation. “Dripping contempt”? Please. I find these people to be insufferably ridiculous. I don’t take them seriously enough to hate them. Similarly, the Goldman people were also insufferably ridiculous, but at least there was a sense of humor there. Maybe the problem, JustMe, is that you find it impossible to laugh at liberals.
freemansfarm says: “’Dripping contempt?’ Please. I find these people to be insufferably ridiculous.”
Um, that sounds pretty contemptuous to me.
Here are some definitions of contempt:
“The feeling that a person or a thing is beneath consideration, worthless, or deserving scorn.”
“the feeling with which a person regards anything considered mean, vile, or worthless; disdain; scorn”
“Scorn” seems to sum it up nicely.
“I don’t take them seriously enough to hate them.”
You don’t have to hate them to scorn them.
“Maybe the problem, JustMe, is that you find it impossible to laugh at liberals.”
Or, maybe the problem is that this just isn’t really all that funny. Basically, liberalism “in action,” as it were, strikes you as amusing for no other reason than it being what it is. I have seen liberal bloggers (such “Sadly, No,” and the ALICUblog) do the same thing in reverse….”Ha, ha, ha! A conservative said this, conservatives did that! Ha, ha, ha!” But when confronted by folks who question just what exactly is funny, they really have no answer. And, so it seems, neither do you.
Ann says: Thank you for posting this link. Hilarious. It’s good to laugh.
Peterk says: “Many people on the left roll their eyes at conservative interest in sexual purity, but man, when you read something like this, and see how collectively neurotic and disputatious these people are over plastic bags,”
remember that many of these folks are members of the Church of Enviromentalism a religion identified by Michael Crichton an one he wrote about
http://youtu.be/Vv9OSxTy1aU
But Rod, think how much more boring our lives would be if we did not have morons like those to laugh at.