“Consumerism” is one word they use. They talk a lot about “responsibility” and “society” and the “global” nature of the matter. Their point is that our lifestyles are “unsustainable” - that the way we live cannot continue indefinately, for a number of reasons; therefore we should be “responsible” and “change” accordingly. And because this change is one which is required by the entire community (a communist ideal), and a change required by society (a socialist ideal), it is asserted that INDIVIDUAL liberty on the matter (serving a libertarian ideal) and corresponding individual actions in that regard are “irresponsible” and should therefore not be honoured.

Let me give you an example. Since SUVs are cars seen by these people as unneccessarily big in most instances, and since the cost of that size is a lower number of miles accomplished per gallon of fuel, and since these lefties think that fuel will be running out shortly and that the continued burning of such fuel is causing damaging climate change; the resulting belief is that the driving of SUVs by individuals is “irresponsible” and that the desire of many people to own them and drive them should not be honoured. In short, the law should create huge penalties for driving SUVs, and that these penalties will be collected, at gunpoint, if necessary, to ensure that many people will be forced to stop driving them. The position held is that the current level of fuel-usage is “unsustainable” due to the fact that it is running out, and the “responsible” answer is to coerce the general public by means of force. One gets the impression that their ideal would be no cars whatsoever, for the above reason. And yet there are as many opinions to the contrary which are not heard as loudly - probably because the voice of the Left is simply trendy at the moment. Let me list a few of those that spring to mind:

1) The source fuel is oil, a fossil fuel which is asserted to be running out shortly; yet in almost every decade since the mid-twentieth century, the same assertions have been made by the same groups of people, affected only mildly by the discovery of yet MORE oil by the free market

2) The link between climate change and the actions/lifestyles of man is, at best, sketchy theory, which has been touted to a much greater degree than it has been proven - in fact most of the evidence suggests that our planet has, by its own natural cycles, been heating up and cooling down for millenia without the very recent developments of industry

3) If we ARE running out of oil, and if we ARE causing unwanted climate change, then the same free market that provided the technology to drill for oil and use it to our advantage will also automatically have adapted to provide the solutions we all will need in that eventuality - already there are interesting technologies emerging from Toyota and Honda with regard to running fast, powerful cars (of which there are already existing prototypes) entirely on WATER using hydrogen fuel cell!

It is my view that most of the proponents of such political tomfoolery are simply not at home with the suggestion that we can have our cake and eat it. They look at modern day consumerism, capitalism, the vastly higher prosperity that exists because of such liberty; and it does not compute. There must be some higher cost that we are all paying in some way, if not by us, by future generations. This also explains their unwillingness to believe that such wealth has been created - to them it MUST have been taken at the expense of someone else. Who? Oh - the third world, of course! It would never be anything to do with the LACK of liberty which is the result of third world politics. Anyway, the result is that almost any excuse to coerce the individual, almost any reason to curb our spending, to enfringe on our lifestyles or to limit our productivity is virtually guaranteed in their policies.

In all truth, I think most of these policies are worthy of being taken in one’s hand, doused in flammable liquid and blown up in a dramatic manner.

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John Wright

johnwright@softhome.net