NBC news continues its relentless and one-sided
propaganda for “going Green.” Tonight, they were touting the wondrous
qualities of eco-hangers, an alternative to metal hangers for
dry-cleaners to use. The reporter mentioned some possible modest
money-savings in adopting these completely “biodegradable” hangers. If
they work well to fulfill a task and save people cash, too, then
wonderful. Great. Go for it.
But...proclaiming that people — or worse, “society” — should do “X”
because that action is “good for the planet” is the biggest pile of
crap uttered by the eco-nauts in their relentless quest to sail us into
their Utopian and destructive vision of the future.
In case no one has noticed:
The planet does not care about ANYTHING.
In order to do “good” for something, that thing has to be capable of utilizing
values. As Ayn Rand made abundantly clear,
only living entities can have values.
Hello! Knock-knock! The planet — the earth — is not alive. There is
nothing “good” that can be done for it or that it would “know” about or
“benefit” from. Values do not apply to “the planet.”
Yes, yes. The “earth” includes plants and animals and bugs and
microbes. (Though to the really radical eco-fascists, people don’t
qualify as part of “the planet.” They are merely intrusive invaders
deserving of having their numbers culled by disease and devastation or,
better still, have them all eliminated from “Gaia.”)
But notice the collectivism inherent in reifying “the planet.” The ecos
do not talk about doing “X” as something good for a particular plant or
animal or even for people. That is not their guiding principle. No.
They talk about “Gaia” or “the earth” or “the planet” as though
everything that exists here — plants, rocks, animals, people — are all
an undifferentiated mass, no part better or more worthy than another.
Egalitarians of the darkest kind, eco-fascists seek to degrade human
uniqueness under the suffocating mantel of what is “good for the
planet.”
Now, I am with Rand, who supposedly said that if we each cleaned in
front of our own homes, there would be no need for street sweepers.
What she meant, of course, is that we should all practice individual
responsibility. Clean up your own litter. Pay for hauling away your own
garbage. Don’t pollute (and let us not forget that “waste” is not the
same as “pollution”). Use as much water or food or plastic or energy as
you desire...
as long as YOU pay the (unsubsidized) cost.
Using what is “good for the planet” to guide one’s choices and actions is a
horrible
principle to follow. It drops the context of values, that is, what is
good to whom and for what, and substitutes a collectivist anti-concept
that is antithetical to actual living, breathing human beings.
Attempting to follow such an “ideal” will most certainly lead to a
worsening and diminution of the quality of life for us and our descendants.
The real principle to follow, of course, is:
WHAT IS GOOD FOR (INDIVIDUAL) PEOPLE.
This should be considered, naturally, in the
full context of
human life. Living in a cesspool or dumping your junk on others’
property or drinking tainted water are hardly in keeping with
rational values.
But violating individual rights, stealing individual property by
passing stupid “recycling” laws or mandating gas mileage standards or
having State-owned garbage collection or sewer treatment plants or
stealing money from one group of people to subsidize water usage or
anything else is exactly the
wrong way to deal with the environmentally related issues facing us today. Indeed, involving the State in such concerns in
any fashion
beyond protecting rights and property virtually guarantees making
matters worse and resulting in negative unintended consequences...which
will then be used to justify still more destructive government
intervention.
So — given the way the eco-fascists misuse the phrase above —
screw the planet.
Freedom and property (including one’s money) and
rational values are the only tools we need to handle these kinds of problems.
People first. Always. And forever.
(from
Don't Get Me Started!, 8-23-07)
