CONTROL NOXIOUS WEEDS!, west of Minam, east of Elgin . . .
CONTROL NOXIOUS WEEDS!, west of Minam, east of Elgin . . .
All the way from Fargo, North Dakota, across the whole of
Montana and Idaho, and now circumnavigating the Wallowas,
this is hands down the most striking weed sign I've encountered.
As you can see, I was lucky enough to get a photo of the sign
before it fell, or somebody knocked it over. Notice that its
seven word message if full of metaphysical assumptions, like
'control,' and 'your responsibility.' But it does nicely fit the
controlling metaphor of war, as in, war on weeds. The enemy
is to be shot on sight (mistaking effect for cause), and the
responsibility for both (that is, both the shooting and the cause) is
ours, ie., the little guy, you and me, the consumer with a few
dimes in his or her pocket, and the rancher with a few cows and
160 acres.
The language hides—not in a deliberate, but still, in my view,
insidious way—the dirty details of a vastly oversized livestock
herd in North America (100,000,000 animals), a good 100 years
or more of both culturally acceptable and systematic overgrazing,
and, as the general economic motor which underlies all of these
imbalances, an artificially created demand for, and addiction to—
cheap, or industrial, junk, or trash food.
That would make quite a sign, wouldn't it?:
STOP WEEDS! BOYCOTT MCDONALDS!
Now, that really is my responsibility.
Viva la 'slow food!'
Here are a few more recent
'weed' photographs . . .
,
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