I thought the story that appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle about “the Compact”–“About 50 teachers, engineers, executives and other professionals in the Bay Area have made a vow to not buy anything new in 2006 — except food, health and safety items and underwear.”–introduced a commendable idea. Until I reached the following paragraphs:

“The Compact is part of the larger trend of consumers beginning to “tread gently on our planet,” said Peter Sealey, adjunct professor of marketing at the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley.”It sounds marvelous. It’s a wonderful example for all of us,” said Sealey, a former chief of marketing at Coca-Cola and Columbia Pictures. “It’s a crystal-clear statement about what can be done to get us away from being a disposable society.”

Excuse me, but the former chief of marketing of Coca-Cola is now lecturing us about “treading gently on the planet”? This is almost as bad as George Soros warbling on about the evils of unfettered capitalism.Dick “Elmer Fudd” Cheney, once made the notorious comment that conservation serves as a signal for personal virtue. Well, as the film says, even a stopped watch is right twice a day…