Forward motion

Although the magazine Adbusters has a tendency towards the apocalyptic, I've been appreciating lately the environmental, social and personal responsibility and proactivism it encourages. Here's a sample:

"Let's convince our friends and family, our neighbors and our classmates that the mental environment is as precious, and as vulnerable, as the lushest stretch of rainforest. Let's get people thinking about their mental health in the same way that they think about their physical health: two sides of the same tarnished coin.

Get households banishing TV pollution at the same time they banish toxic detergents. Get parents watching their children's commercial intake as closely as they watch their sugar intake. Challenge students to say no to corporate curricula with the same fervor they say no to oil spills.

Let's train people with mood disorders to reduce their mental burden, in the same way that people with allergies reduce their chemical burdens. Let's turn psychologists into mental ecologists, pioneers of a new and vital social science. In other words, let's get into detox before there's no turning back."

-From the Media and Culture section of the Jan/Feb 2006 issue