Rod – I completely agree with your skepticism on the airport v. fuel efficiency thing. But airports and energy policy, while certainly related to “the moral, spiritual, and political challenges posed by the consumerist ethic,” also have a lot to do with other things which might not make them the perfect examples to get at the heart of Crunchy Conservatism.
As for your reader. Uh, not so much. His argument seems to boil down to: “I want to make ‘Small is Beautiful’ a conservative slogan without other conservatives making fun of me.”
But, yes, we can agree to disagree about that another day. While I may not be an adherent to Crunchy Conservatism nor to the philosophical principles and assumptions which seem to underly it, I’m a huge supporter of thee. And I do certainly hope your book sells well. So I will wait until after it’s out to add to the controversy of the thesis by — I’m guessing — disagreeing with it, after I’ve read the book.