People-First Critic/Environmentalist Both passages by Edward O. Wilson satirize the People-First Critic’s and the Environmentalists’ views in order to criticize how they both were unable to address issues directly, but instead attacked each other. Through the use of perspective, Wilson explains how their arguments about environmentalism ultimately lead nowhere. Edward O. Wilson’s first passage is concentrated on displaying the People-First Critic’s arguments against environmentalists.
He refers to them as “greens” and “whackos”, twice, to show us that the People-First Critics’ arguments should not be taken seriously because of the schoolyard “tactics” like name- calling. Wilson also calls them “extremist”, which relates to the extremist religions, which have a negative connotation. Wilson’s first essay criticizes the People-First Critics’ point of view by writing about how the Environmentalists have a “far left” “hidden agenda”. With this Wilson is able to show how the People-First Critics are unable to address the issue directly and instead focus on talking about what the other side is unable to do.
Like the People-First Critics, the Environmentalists are unable to concentrate on the issue of environmentalism directly. They use many of the same strategies as the People-First Critics do. Similarly to them, the Environmentalists use words, like “anti” and “rebels” throughout Wilson’s second essay, to have the reader subconsciously link any negative connotations with the environmentalists. His passage, through the perspective of the Environmentalists, continues with supporting the idea, that both sides generally have the same arguments, by having their intake on the Peoples-First Critics “right-wing” “hidden agenda”.
Like the first passage, this one only speaks of the other side’s faults and is unable to express their own position on environmentalism. Edward O. Wilson essays, through different perspectives, are able to show how ineffective both sides are in displaying their own idea on environmentalism. Both the People-First Critics and the Environmentalist also have the same means of attacking each other. Both name-call and both simply state what the other side’s fault is, rather than stating their position. Wilson satirizes both essays to criticize their ideas about environmentalism, which ironically, are not displayed.
