The Zookeeper's Wife

I just watched a Book TV interview with a Diane Ackerman who penned a tomed called The Zookeeper's Wife. The story is about a Zookeeper who hid Jews at the Zoo during the Nazi occupation of Poland.

The book is $15 at Overstock.com.

In the interview, Ms. Ackerman started talking about the really bizarre spiritual environmentalism of the Nazis. They had all sorts of weird ideas built around evolution and probably would have felt more comfortable posing their smug spiritual superiority at gaia.com than in ranting with the loons at the Republican Convention.

Any idea or sentiment can be perverted.

I have been a dedicated conservationist. In the past I've been properly labeled as an "eco-jabbering meadow muffin." I consider myself a full blown "cactus hugger" with a disdain for those wimps who stop at hugging thornless trees.

So here is my quandary: If all ideas, including conservation, have the potential of being radicalized and perverted, then how does one go about the process of having ideas in ways that preserve the idea from being perverted?

I believe that preserving the environment and conserving resources are both extremely important ideals. A tome on the travails of a zookeeper trying to save animals and people from the radicalism during the Nazi occupation of Poland would be an interesting and relevant read.