Jenna's House of Idiosyncrasies Version 10.0 [Focus.]

Only the good part though. I can't help it, it's just too classic. You read it one way, and it's a well thought out, carefully worded answer, you read it another way and it's just thinly veiled but quality bullshitting.

If I were a “consulting anthropologist” hired by a “prominent conservation group” to design a public outreach program here in the Southeast, I would use the argument of esthetics in my campaign. From a marketing perspective it seems the most feasible in a culture that is, if nothing else, obsessed with youth and beauty. Americans are selfish with their resources, insofar as they will be happy to help with the conservation of biodiversity, as long as it doesn’t interfere with their lives, and especially if it is personally beneficial. Campaigning for more beautiful surroundings as opposed to personal responsibility (ethics) or the next possible cure for cancer (economics) is less abstract, requires less footing in any strong principles, and appeals to our more visceral qualities.

Additionally, specific to the Southeast, our biodiversity is iconic to our landscape—magnolias, dogwoods, Spanish moss—and being a prideful people who think of ourselves as rooted and going back generations, we have it in mind to have our icons preserved.