"The Road to Serfdom" by Fredrich Hayek, interpreted in one sentence by P.J. O'Rourke: "The worst possible world would be created by taking the most prominent experts in every field and giving each one absolute power over his area of expertise." For a century, an ambitious, arrogant, unscrupulous, knowledge class arrogated to themselves the right to rule either in the name of the oppressed working class (communism) or, in its more benign form, by virtue of their superior expertise in achieving the highest social progress by means of state planning (socialism.) Just as the ash heap of history beckoned, the intellectual left was handed the ultimate salvation: environmentalism. --Charles Krauthammer 6/1/08

Global Climate Change--A synonym for "From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs." -Jimmy Vallentine.

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.
--H. L. Mencken

For some people, environmentalism is collectivism in drag. Such people use environmental causes and rhetoric not to change the political climate for the purpose of environmental improvement. Rather, for them, changing society's politics is the end, and environmental policies are mere means to that end.

The unending argument in political philosophy concerns constantly adjusting society's balance between freedom and equality. The primary goal of collectivim -- of socialism in Europe and contemporary liberalism in America -- is to enlarge governmental supervision of individuals' lives. This is done in the name of equality.

People are to be conscripted into one large cohort, everyone equal (although not equal in status or power to the governing class) in their status as wards of a self-aggrandizing government. Government says the constant enlargement of its supervising power is necessary for the equitable or efficient allocation of scarce resources.

Therefore, one of the collectivists' tactics is to produce scarcities, particularly of what makes modern society modern -- the energy requisite for social dynamism and individual autonomy. Hence collectivists use environmentalism to advance collectivizing energy policy. Focusing on one energy source at a time, they stress the environmental hazards of finding, developing, transporting, manufacturing or using oil, natural gas, coal or nuclear power.

--George Will
December 16, 2005 & quot; In proportion, as you give the state power to do things for you, you give it power to do things to you." --Albert Jay Nock, 1870-1945.