Wikipedia defines conservatism as a political view based on tradition and maintaining the status quo. This is exactly the problem with conservatives in today political environment in the United States. If you want the status quo, shut your face and /or get the fuck out. The status quo is what 32 years ago the public opted for in lieu of Jimmy Carters attempt to get us going towards an alternative energy policy. Those of you who are old enough may remember that he put solar panels up at the White House. Ronald Reagan had them taken down and now they sit as an exhibit in the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library.
Had the conservatives (and general public apathy) not won in that particular political game, the nation would not have fought three wars and spent trillions of dollars on fostering our dependance on foreign oil and trying to stabilize a region of the world that has never in the recorded history of mankind ever been stable.
Finally, we are throwing significant amounts of cash (about 100 times more than Carter) at alternative energy. The idea is a solid one, Carbon emissions (even admitted by conservatives) can not be sustained at current levels if we intend to continue to survive on this rock. Conservatives will say we are spending ourselves into the poor house and not offer any other solutions for curbing our dependance on foreign oil (other than tearing up Alaska) or reducing carbon emissions.
So yes, we are spending debt. However, with a switch to alternative energy sources we do a couple of different things that the conservatives have conveniently swept under the rug, have addressed with fear mongering rhetoric, or not addressed at all. First, we will save ourselves from our own destruction by halting our (albeit admittedly on accident - at least at first) re-engineering of the planet's climate that allowed us to get here (i.e. evolve) in the first place. Second, we will no longer have to spend the money we are currently spending to stabilize the middle east or try and overthrow the Venezuelan government with our not so hidden war in neighboring Columbia in the name of keeping drugs off the street. (Which is working really well by the way - can you sense the sarcasm). Finally, we will create an economy that is based on innovation (ie not the status quo) and environmentally sustainable resources. Which ultimately will make all the money we spend on "going green" back with the interest and then some. So, conservatives, please forget about tradition and the status quo and think about your children's children and what the world will look like when you are buried in it rather than walking on it.
There is another tangent to this. And let me go slow because it is a bit difficult to get there. We are not talking about your traditional conservative definition of "tree hugging" "standing in the way of progress" Conservation when we talk about going green or using alternative forms of energy. Those who are aware, could give a flying fuck in a rolling donut about the spotty wooded owl if the space is better used for a geo-thermal plant, a wind energy farm or a very large array of solar panels that will provide millions with electricity and create thousands of jobs at the same time, not to mention not spewing toxins into the atmosphere or ground water. That type of conservation (the tree-hugging kind) ignores the overriding theory of evolution and is really no different that the political conservatism that we started off talking about. You two are bed fellows - who knew?
There is a reason we are smart enough to alter our environment. There is a reason Panda's won't screw to save their own species and the Tazmanian Devil is dying off of a genetic disease. These things are not worth saving over saving our own skin. So don't think for a moment that going green is about saving the planet as it is today. It is not. The planet, as well as us will continue to evolve. If ultimately that means we are not on it or a part of the biosphere, so be it. Life evolves. By the way, in case you didn't know, from an evolutionary standpoint history has taught us that the last species of any given genus is usually doomed to extinction over time. Homo Sapiens (you and me) are the last species of our genus. Think about it.
Nietzche invoked what most saw as the concept that gave rise to the Nazi's (the Ubermensch), much like the conservatives that are comparing what current administration is trying to do. Those that think that (Rush Limbaugh pay attention here) did not read Nietzche with a critical enough eye to understand what he was really talking about. What he was talking about was in fact Evolution in the Darwinian sense.
Oh but I forgot, we don't believe in that either....
hmmmm....
ReplyDeletei was mostly with you, and i think i agree in spirit. i'm not crazy about the republican party platform. i don't know about "conservatives" in general. i am, however deeply distrustful of "liberals," and rhetoric which identifies other rhetoric as "fear-mongering." i think both camps rely on fear to promote their agendas. i'm not sure they do this willfully or with any kind of self-awareness, with deception in mind. i think anyone who watches television is in some sense "deceived." i think media itself is "deceived." it's deceived itself so deeply it believes its own bullshit, and the people in the respective u.s. political parties get their opinions - even their opinions of themselves - from the television. i'm not sure if i'm making this idea clear, but i think o'bama's politics are informed by the television version of o'bama's politics, which were sort of set in stone by the time o'bama was 11 or 12 years old. what was the einstein quote you used to cite "few are the people who feel with their own hearts and think with their own minds?" something like that.
and i'm with you on taking care of the planet, but perhaps not for the same reason. you said "if ultimately that means we are not on it or a part of the biosphere, so be it."
i'm not sure what you mean by that, but i don't like the sound of it. faulkner said, in his nobel address, "i decline to accept the end of man. It is easy enough to say that man is immortal simply because he will endure: that when the last ding-dong of doom has clanged and faded from the last worthless rock hanging tideless in the last red and dying evening, that even then there will still be one more sound: that of his puny inexhaustible voice, still talking. I refuse to accept this. I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance."
he also said "the last sound on the worthless earth will be two human beings trying to launch a home made spaceship and already quarreling about where they are going next."
i like that very much.
eventually, the whole planet can go to hell. our job is to get off of it, to go to some other planet and (quite possibly) trash it as we make ourselves a permanent feature in the universe, in defiance of nature, if neccessary.