Lol, nice one Ken, and can believe the pictish reiki shamanism. The landowner is of late a devotee of the Hindu mystic 'Sadh Guru', with full-on new convert zeal. The new wife introduced him, and now they have a shrine to the man in front of which they meditate several hours a day. I've been checking him out recently and can't believe how shallow and platitude-ridden his patter is, eg:
His politics are dodgy as f* too, lining up with extreme hindu nationalism, urging violent clampdown on leftist protests, belittling concerns about Modi's citizenship test, even praising a military air assault on Pakistan:
You hit the nail on the head with 'collective action over anything is futile and that its all about your own personal morality and salvation: an air of impotence disguised as virtuous "quietism"'. I've had in mind the Lierre Keith quote about liberal withdrawal:
The landowner wears an XR pin but is critical of any action or rhetoric on their part which perpetuates a 'drama triangle' - ie: actually blaming something or someone external to you for a particular problem. We've all got to take responsibility for our own emotions, you see, because ultimately we are the only ones who can create our own misery. [barf]
Derek said: 'I don't buy that. Labour costs in any ideal should come first because the most important asset is the worker. Particularly for quality of work.' - thanks, a good point which I'll try to remember. Funny you pick up on the advertising angle as it's been observed that with our landowner practically everything he says is a kind of marketing for something or other. Even when he's talking about species extinction or climate change it somehow always ends up with him berating you for not wanting to change your bank account, or for eating meat or whatever BS lifestyle change he's read about that's going to save the day, but only if we all do it together.
Respect for refusing to have the fruits of your labour appropriated - some cheek on their part! You might be right about allotments or homegrown being the only really sustainable solution. It's the only way I can get my head around the problem of non-plastic packaging for perishable items or transport using fossil fuels or the myriad other problems that come from trying to turn veg growing into a money-making enterprise. If everyone was growing their own it might solve the problem of unequal access too (ie: only the well-off being able to afford organic), though available time and land access are other limiting factors there.
Anyway, thanks for giving me the opportunity to let off steam. Nice that we can talk about these subjects on this board!