Radical Environmentalism Revealed: Ending Sovereignty and Private Property

NewsBusters ^ | Mark Finkelstein

[governsleastgovernsbest]

Scratch a radical environmentalist, find a radical, full stop. Case in point: Boston Globe columnist James Carroll. In his New thinking to save the earth [is that all?], Carroll calls for nothing less than the end of the United States as we know it, and a yours-is-mine socialism.

Carroll claims that "if the earth is to survive as a human habitat," the meaning of four subjects "must be transformed." Among the things Carroll wants to redefine are "nation" and "property." Ominous enough, but getting down into the details is even more chilling.

Nation: A 19th-century notion of national sovereignty allows sub groups to pursue agendas without regard for their effects on the whole. But this wrongly assumes that the health of the whole is a matter of indifference to the group. The United States has long refused to temper its claim to radical independence from all other nations, but that both defines the source of America's disproportionate ecological destructiveness and impedes every effort to mitigate it. There will be no stopping environmental degradation until nations stop thinking of independent sovereignty as an absolute. Climate change respects no borders.

Consider the condescension. Those benighted people who believe in the notion of the USA are hopelessly stuck in the 1800s, unlike the enlightened Carroll and his green fellow travelers. That "claim to radical independence"? Most of us would simply call it independence and sovereignty. And the implication of his statement that climate change respects no borders is clear: we shouldn't either.

Property: In America, where full citizenship was originally granted only to property owners, we are what we have. The pursuit of happiness equals the accumulation of possessions. This cult of "more" drives an economy that defines its health by growth, its market by the globe. In families, the success of a second generation is defined only by its surpassing in affluence the first. This merciless consumption divides people into "haves," "the have less," and "have nots," but it also eats the environment alive. Sufficiency, simplicity, and a sense that the treasures of the earth are the property of all people must become notes of the new America.

Carroll makes Americans out to be little more than cargo cultists. As for success being defined only in terms of affluence, says who? America is filled with people who in their professional and/or private lives devote themselves to helping others. And his line about "the treasures of the earth" being "the property of all people," is nothing less than unreconstructed Marxism.

Thanks go to Carroll for his candor. He confirms what so many have suspected: that radical environmentalism is little more than a cloak for socialism and not mere anti-Americanism but quite literally the abolition of the United States of America.

Finkelstein lives in Ithaca, NY, currently in the grip of a heavy snow storm. Contact him at mark@gunhill.net

[governsleastgovernsbest]

Radical-environmentalism-revealed ping to Today show list.

[rbg81]

Create an artificial crisis. Scare people to death, and then use that fear to push your radical agenda. Global warming is right out of the Clinton playbook. Al Gore and his merry band of global socialists learned well.

[Lord Basil]

Thar be a watermelon (as described by Walter Williams).

[Leftism is Mentally Deranged]

Communism didn’t disappear. It changed its name to feminazism, environmentalism, PC, and the Dem party.

[wolfcreek]

“Create an artificial crisis. Scare people to death, and then use that fear to push your radical agenda”

Funny, the Libs accuse the Bush Admin of the same thing.

[Obadiah]

Communism didn’t disappear. It changed its name to feminazism, environmentalism, PC, and the Dem party.

Yep, and that's what this whole globull warming scam is all about. If you force globull warming, you then control the agenda, the means of production, taxation, property ownership, and the whole ball of wax. Globull warming is dangerous, like the watermelon described in this article.

[ChessExpert]

“Create an artificial crisis. Scare people to death, and then use that fear to push your radical agenda”

Funny, the Libs accuse the Bush Admin of the same thing.

True. They often have a tit-for-tat mentality. Clinton lied, therefore Bush must have lied, etc. Sometimes it’s liberal projection: that is what we would do, so you must be doing it.

I don’t know if there is any alternative but to evaluate arguments. This takes time. but here is my thumbnail sketch. In the 70s one could fear soviet nukes targeting US cities, or fear global cooling. Now one can contemplate real Islamic terrorist events going back decades, and daily barbarity, or one can "believe in global warming."

In addition to the arguments in the various cases, there is the track record. There has always been tyranny and government murder, despite the fact that many can’t look at it and would like to live in denial. The track record of environmental doom and gloomsters (starting with Malthus) is established too, and it is very poor.

[chessplayer]

As Carroll abhors private property, I take it that he does not own a house.

[MarkL]

Which is why many call these so called "environmentalists" "watermellons." Because they're green on the outside, and red on the inside. It's quite apparent that with the collapse of soviet communism, European communists took over the "green party" and have been preaching the same goals as the communists, but using "saving the planet" as a cloak to hide their true goals.

Anybody else notice how people like this tend to assume that they need to speak to the masses, but they get so surprised when they're the first up against the wall after the revolution?

Mark

[libstripper]

Yep, and that's what this whole globull warming scam is all about. If you force globull warming, you then control the agenda, the means of production, taxation, property ownership, and the whole ball of wax. Globull warming is dangerous, like the watermelon described in this article.

CO2 is life's great conveyor belt, allowing plants to consume the carbon that's essential to form their structures and allowing animals to breathe the oxygen that they've fused with carbon while metabolizing nutrients. Life on earth would be impossible without it. Carbon is emitted and consumed with every one of life's activities. Hence, if carbon emission and consumption can be controlled, all of life's activities, down to the most minuscule, can be controlled. That absolute control is what the Marxists are trying to achieve through the hysterical "global warming" scam. It's the most serious assault on our fundamental liberties ever to occur in my life, and I'm 64 years old.

[Aikonaa]

The country with by far the worst environmental record is the dead-and-buried Soviet Union. And yet the watermelons blame it all on the evil US.

[piytar]

The country with by far the worst environmental record is the dead-and-buried Soviet Union. And yet the watermelons blame it all on the evil US.

That's because it isn't, and never has been, about the environment, as the article demonstrates...

[sportutegrl]

It is snowing right now in southeastern PA. It has been 20 degrees below normal for 2 weeks now, and the weather channel says it will stay that way for at least another week. I’m beginning to think that the powers that be, (who know global warming is bunk), will not let it be summer until the enviro freaks shut up. Yesterday, Heidy Cullen said that one of the negative effects of global warming is more rain and less snow. So, to shut her up, I guess, it started snowing last night and is still snowing now. (Either that or Heidy is really the White Witch/Queen).

[longtermmemmory]

bump

[Nevadan]

re: As Carroll abhors private property, I take it that he does not own a house.

No. Of course he owns property. It is okay for the elite to hold private property because they know how to do it the right way. Some animals are more equal than others.

[metmom]

ping

[Behind Liberal Lines]

The snowstorm coming the same weekend as their latest “global warming” protest must have them sufficiently addled to accidentally admit their actual motives.

[metmom]

As Carroll abhors private property, I take it that he does not own a house.

Probably several. All this thinking and decisions from the self-appointed elite are meant for the great unwashed masses, never for themselves. After all, someone has to run things, all for our benefit, of course.

[metmom]

Yesterday, Heidy Cullen said that one of the negative effects of global warming is more rain and less snow.

And the net precipitation total is the same. Snow melts. It doesn't matter if it comes down frozen or not. ***bangs head on desk***