p. 220
“

Right now, plenty of people feel the peacefulness of their lives degraded by sprawl, or worry about the way consumerism has eroded the quality of our communities. For them, the idea of enough is not completely alien or distasteful, though it remains difficult to embrace. We've been told that it's impossible – that some force like evolution drives us on to More and Faster and Bigger. 'You can't stop progress.' But that's not true. We could choose to mature. That could be the new trick we share with each other, a trick as revolutionary as fire. Or even the computer.

— Bill McKibben

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "Right now, plenty of people feel the peacefulness of their lives degraded by sprawl, or worry about the way consumerism has eroded the quality of our communities. For them, the idea of enough is not completely alien or distasteful, though it remains difficult to embrace. We've been told that it's impossible – that some force like evolution drives us on to More and Faster and Bigger. 'You can't stop progress.' But that's not true. We could choose to mature. That could be the new trick we share with each other, a trick as revolutionary as fire. Or even the computer." in the context of "p. 220" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

Source: Wikiquote: "Bill McKibben" (Quotes, 2000s, Enough: Staying Human in an Engineered Age (2003)) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Bill McKibben

About Bill McKibben

Bill McKibben (born December 8, 1960) is an American environmentalist and writer who frequently writes about global warming and alternative energy and advocates for more localized economies.