Posted on 08/25/2005 6:01:04 PM PDT by HeebrewHammer
The Only Thing We’re Short of Is Time by Rabbi Daniel Lapin President, Toward Tradition
With five single daughters, each more beautiful, brilliant, and gracious than the next, I am naturally interested in the topic of “meeting & mating.” Perusing various match-making websites the other day, I was baffled by how many women, who, as part of their “sell” proclaimed their political affiliation. Frankly, who cares? And didn’t their mothers ever tell them not to talk about religion, sex, or politics? What is more, almost to a woman, they all declared themselves to be “left wing liberal.” Now, why on earth would they want to discourage the entire universe of intelligent, handsome, and virile conservative bachelors?
A friend of mine, a single Jewish business woman, recently helped me understand the answer. She welcomed higher electricity prices, she said, since they incentivized her to cut down her power usage. Get that? Using lots of electricity is a problem, not because it is expensive, but because it is evil. She wanted electricity to cost more in order to discourage its use.
None of this was about saving money. This girl owns her own condo and wears four hundred dollar sweaters. She was talking morality—doing the right thing not the economical thing. As she sees it, it is obviously just plain wrong to use more than your fair share of electricity.
Are we really suffering from a shortage of electricity or other energy? Should we be rationed? The moral answer is yes if we are suffering an energy shortage and no if we are only imagining one.
This would not be the first time that we have imagined an energy shortage. Until the early 18th century, colonial homes were heated mostly by burning wood. Forests were vanishing and the rapidly growing colonies were running out of fire wood. Eliminate immigration and ration firewood, was the call of the day, until they found and began burning coal. As with anything new and untried, coal brought dangers. But these were soon overcome and by 1840 America was deriving energy from a million tons of coal a year.
William Jevons, an economics professor at University College, London, became famous on account of a paper he published in 1865. It was entitled The Coal Question: An Inquiry Concerning the Progress of the Nation, and the Probable Exhaustion of our Coal Mines. He predicted that British prosperity would end within fifty years when the nation ran out of coal and recommended an industrial slowdown in order to conserve what coal was left. We are just about into 2002 and Britain is still mining and burning coal.
America used to depend on whale oil for lighting. During the early 19th century, pundits warned that since whales were being harvested at an ever increasing rate, America would soon go dark. They recommended turning out all lights no later than ten o’clock in order to conserve what whale oil was left. They were right about running out of whale oil, but they were wrong about America going dark. In 1859 a railroad conductor called Edwin Drake had struck oil in Titusville, Pennsylvania. Lanterns started burning paraffin instead of whale oil until Edison’s electricity lit American cities.
Since the 1970s we have heard much about exhausting the world’s petroleum reserves. Just how soon has been debated, but nobody doubts that the amount of oil is ultimately limited, just as whale oil was. Should we therefore advise petroleum conservation as they once did with firewood, whale oil, and coal?
The truth is that although we do need energy, we have no need specifically for firewood, whale oil, coal, or petroleum. Each in its age suited our purpose. One of Judaism’s central messages is how uniquely human it is to use energy. Animals seek no external sources of energy. They hunt and gather, always expending slightly less bodily energy in the quest than they gain from consuming the quarry. But we humans possess a deep yearning to liberate ourselves from drudgery. Subconsciously this may be because we yearn to have the time to devote to more spiritual pursuits. We are capable of infinite creativity and invention, and need not contemplate energy shortage. It was our limitless human ingenuity that carried us from firewood to coal, and from whale oil to petroleum.
In each step we learned how to extract ever more energy from each pound of matter. Now we have nuclear power, the process that releases almost infinite amounts of energy. Could nuclear power perhaps be for us today what petroleum was to those who foresaw the end of whale oil? Soon, perhaps, we will no longer seek spurious moral redemption by conserving energy. We will find authentic moral purpose in our religious faith while we purchase energy just as we do clothing and coffee today—by consulting our budgets not our consciences.
You know why those single girls described their politics as “left wing liberal?” Because they think that is the best way to say “I’m a good, moral person who cares about others.” Let’s stop seeking moral approval by wearing a badge of ‘left wing liberal’. It may be our politics— it should not be our morality. That ought to be Biblical faith.
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Toward Tradition is a 501(c)3 organization based in Seattle, WA, dedicated to restoring America's culture and building the alliance between Jews and Christians. All gifts are tax-deductible. To contact us please write to P.O. Box 58, Mercer Island, WA 98040, or phone 206 236 3046.
I bet Cold Fusion technology saves us. The technology is already being reviewed by the Dept. of Energy.
http://www.infinite-energy.com/
I'm not a nanny state lover who wants to tell folks how to spend their $$$, but wanton gluttony just strikes a discord in my "politics".
Good question! On the other hand, an oversupply of "left-wing liberals" should create a seller's market for Rabbi Lapin's daughters (and mine :-).
When you have eight children, you have to drive a 747 or walk. And you can't walk on the Interstate.
ping
Call me crazy - given that the world's population has tripled in 72 years, and is now racing towards 7 billion - having eight kids is ANYTHING but Conservative.
Liberals either have 1 or 2 children or none at all while Conservatives tend to have 3 or more. Rabbi Lapin kept trying until he had a son, which was his last child.
The good news is that a new analysis predicted it will level off around 7 billion. But as a skeptic, one single study doesn't impress me. (Sorry, can't recall where I read this...)
Spoken like a "morally" superior liberal.
Think about that for a minute.
The only way the world pop is gonna stabilize is by death - war/famine/disease - take your pick.
Or a conservative who actually understands the meaning of the word.
We consider it extravagant, thanks.
I don't think it's unreasonable to think that it's a good idea to use less power. But why on earth does this stupid woman need to have her electric bills skyrocket before she can start saving power? Why not just go out and buy energy saving bulbs, check the insulations, etc., etc., BEFORE the price shoots up, if she thinks that's the virtuous thing to do?
Or does she enjoy watching everyone suffer? Probably, knowing how warming many liberals find that experience.
I know a politically conservative family with four children. The lady of the house has had nasty things said to her in the past out in public because she has that many in tow.
Socialists (aka Liberals) hate children but use them for their political agenda even though they claim to care for them and ask people to vote "for the children."
Teddy Roosevelt believed it was the obligation of the right sort of people (such as himself, and Rabbi Lapin, and me) to reproduce generously.
I find this statement to be so curious. Not only is it a very self-aggrandizing statement for a holy man (or any man for that matter ) to make, but this putz has just given all but his youngest daughter a terrible insult, one which would be impossible for the older ones to overcome. Gee thanks, dad!
How odd...
Nuclear energy should be and should have been the answer years ago were it not for the nutjob "no-nuke" environmentalists. My father worked at one for years, I worked there for a short time. The ultimate answer for the future is diversity, a combination of nuclear, solar, wind AND petroleum. Maybe "hot fusion" using plasma, but I don't know if cold fusion will ever come to pass. The crux of the whole thing is that there really is nothing to worry about, there are plenty of answers already. Our doomsday will not come about because of an energy crisis.
I just hope your 64 future grand-children appreciate their apportioned elbow room.
It's called "Jewish Guilt" and if it leads you to living like a caveman more power (pun intended) to you!
And the only reason your doing it... is for the children.
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