# To Our Ancestors: Thank You for Beating the Earth Like a Rented Mule into Submission **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 6, 2015, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-our-ancestors-thank-you-for-beating-the-earth-like-a-rented-mule-into-submission/719390 "2015-05-06T15:18:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2015, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-our-ancestors-thank-you-for-beating-the-earth-like-a-rented-mule-into-submission/719390/1 "2015-05-06T15:18:54Z")
I got a new car recently and I’ve been taking road trips around the state just for the pleasure of seeing what I can see. And I have to say – I like it. It looks rather like a well-tended garden. I imagine that from space it looks like a civilized planet _should_ look – wide expanses of agriculture with dots of urban civilization scattered about, and webs connecting them all together. Yeah, yeah, I hear that species are dying everywhere, water and air are getting … unpalatable, but fuck it. If we have to build domes over our cities, we’ll look even cooler from space! And I’m a city boy. I like my wildlife caged, or better yet packaged and microwave-ready. Many of you will be pleased to learn that I’ve had a vasectomy and will not be passing on these ideas to offspring. And I understand that not having offspring is about as environmentally friendly as you can get, thus decreasing any vestigial guilt I might feel about grooming the Earth like a hairstyle. Perhaps your grandchildren will fix everything up and they can live in an Ecotopia, but I feel like I’m living in a Paradise right now, lacking only flying cars and better sex robots. That is all. Thank you for your attention. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2015, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-our-ancestors-thank-you-for-beating-the-earth-like-a-rented-mule-into-submission/719390/2 "2015-05-06T15:47:02Z")
You’re welcome. Now get the Hell off my lawn you runny-nosed little rugrat! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2015, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-our-ancestors-thank-you-for-beating-the-earth-like-a-rented-mule-into-submission/719390/3 "2015-05-07T18:05:22Z")
Have you ever visited Great Britain? My impression, based on a far too brief visit, is that England, at least, makes any place in the US look like a howling wilderness. Pretty much every scrap of land over there seems to have been tended by a meticulous gardener since long before the first Pilgrims landed here and said “this rock looks like a good tourist trap”. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2015, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-our-ancestors-thank-you-for-beating-the-earth-like-a-rented-mule-into-submission/719390/4 "2015-05-07T18:13:33Z")
We had to do this to make room for the people to live and to raise the crops to feed them and to mine the resource to built the transportation systems to deliver the food and other goods needed by the people to build our great economy. There’s no reason to regret this, it was necessary. But other countries shouldn’t be destroying their own ecologies to have that same opportunity, that’s just wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2015, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-our-ancestors-thank-you-for-beating-the-earth-like-a-rented-mule-into-submission/719390/5 "2015-05-07T18:31:08Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > We had to do this to make room for the people to live and to raise the crops to feed them and to mine the resource to built the transportation systems to deliver the food and other goods needed by the people to build our great economy. There’s no reason to regret this, it was necessary. But other countries shouldn’t be destroying their own ecologies to have that same opportunity, that’s just wrong. Well, is there anything wrong with saying, “Hey, we made some mistakes along the way and you guys might want to avoid them.”? ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2015, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-our-ancestors-thank-you-for-beating-the-earth-like-a-rented-mule-into-submission/719390/6 "2015-05-07T18:32:13Z")
> [@Finagle](#): > > Have you ever visited Great Britain? My impression, based on a far too brief visit, is that England, at least, makes any place in the US look like a howling wilderness. Pretty much every scrap of land over there seems to have been tended by a meticulous gardener since long before the first Pilgrims landed here and said “this rock looks like a good tourist trap”. No I haven’t been there. It is true that on my travels I’ve seen areas of land, mostly forested, that look rather like untrimmed nose hair. Defintely we could use some more grooming. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2015, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-our-ancestors-thank-you-for-beating-the-earth-like-a-rented-mule-into-submission/719390/7 "2015-05-07T18:36:17Z")
> [@Finagle](#): > > Well, is there anything wrong with saying, “Hey, we made some mistakes along the way and you guys might want to avoid them.”? That’s not very imperialistic. It would just make us look weak. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2015, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-our-ancestors-thank-you-for-beating-the-earth-like-a-rented-mule-into-submission/719390/8 "2015-05-07T18:46:32Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > That’s not very imperialistic. It would just make us look weak. True, and we can NEVER admit mistakes. That would imply apologies might be in order, and apologies are a non-starter for America