In some ways the affinity of Greens for red-pink causes that title implies should surprise us. Officially the Greens are ecologists and as such they are committed to maintain natures balance. Accordingly resources should be carefully used and the equilibrium of unspoiled nature should be preserved. In the light of this the systems by which communities are organized to provide the goods that assure survival should be scrutinized.
The logic of the foregoing suggests that systems are to be graded according to their efficient utilization of nature. By green standards the less nature" is consumed or denaturized to create a unit of value the more favorable should be its rating. In other words the more economical a system of production the less it impairs nature by damaging its sustaining resources.
With the above in mind one is led to take a look at the ecological footprint different systems of production have left since the Industrial Revolution. Capitalism and socialism need to be evaluated. This assessment is to consider the interaction of two factors. One to what degree were material needs satisfied. Two how much destroyed nature" did it take to create a unit of satisfaction.
Regardless of the prevailing economic-political order Econ. 101 tells that different mixtures of the factors of production (land" labor capital) will be found. That applies to the entire economy and to its diverse branches. This mixture will emphasize differing components that reflect knowledge and skills as well as technology and the social order. Labor can replace missing capital such as when a swarm of diggers do the job of the missing excavator. Low wages may enable an industry to overcome the disadvantage of missing skills; the handicap of backward technologies can be undone by using much energy or raw material in the production process.
As argued having more of a factor of production makes its user less reliant on others. An abundant supply of oil will enable its owner to build automobiles whose primitive technology and simple manufacture resulting in high consumption makes them locally competitive against high-tech low consumption makes. This is the juncture where we return to the question raised at the outset.
Capitalism given the profit motive as a system of production is motivated to use the factors of production effectively. The greater the efficiency the higher the gain for the supplier of goods. Especially the private ownership of capital will motivate its effective insertion to add value. Where the state owns societys capital - all economies are capitalistic- the decision-makers motivation decreases to use it or nature" sparingly. Ultimately what does not benefit an economic actor will be neglected. This being the case and also due to the lack of competition by independent producers there is no pressure to innovate to reduce the share of labor and natures resources through innovation -generated by capital. Rather than to submit to the stress of constantly changing everything through innovation the interest of the state-manager is to keep things as they are and to project the present into a safe" future.
Consequently socialisms footprint has been regardless of the beasts slow movement gigantic. Attribute the abusive overuse of natural resources and low-paid labor to bad management and the lack of motivation to prevent waste. As a class-alien" teen this writer built Socialism" by digging holes seven feet deep with a shovel for about half a dollar a day. The abusive misallocation of resources is well illustrated by the Soviet-dominated Easts" automobiles. Clinging to pre-WW2 German models built in war booty plants one had twice the Wests fuel consumption for half the performance. Few things have destabilized East Germany more than did the Trabant car. After a ten-year wait you got high consumption a top speed of 55mph little space and a polluting antediluvian 26 hp. two-stroke two-cylinder engine. When compared to a VW even a red flag had to blush.
A personal experience tells it best. Around 1990 I crossed the old Iron Curtain on a motorcycle. Soon a stench of fumes told me that my machine has developed engine trouble. Once stationary I examined my vehicle -and found nothing. Then it dawned on me. It was the stinking exhaust of local traffic that caused my alarm.
Now then if socialist practice pollutes and abuses nature then the Greens should be wary of it. What makes them to advocate politics that contradict their seeming cause? The answer is nasty. Unwrapping a concealed truth that veils a fib always is. What appears to be an inconsistency is not that at all. As so often the goal of those that pull the strings and the official platform is not identical. The Nazis were not for Germans but for an imaginary race. The Bolsheviks promised homesteads to peasants but favored collective farms. Now to the Greens.
Socialisms record of pollution and its conflict with Green ideals might appear to be significant. It is outweighed by the similarities of the world-views and the resulting projects regarding their ideal societys order. Mainly as all creeds that fight human nature the utopian appeal of Red Green recruits from the same pool of people.
Aside of the terminology used Green and Marxist assumptions are being collectivistic close. The Greens assume that the climates change is man-made. Pollution destined to destroy civilization is a byproduct of industrialization. That in turn is a result of capitalism. That evil is tied to democracy in which unqualified know-nothings pronounce judgments over the findings of qualified specialists.
The attentive identify some tell-tale totalitarian indicators. Typically mankind is in a final crisis that will bring about its end. The crisis is a clash of good and evil and manifests itself through contradictions" that must lead to the destruction of one of the parties involved. The prevailing system undermines itself and that leads to its destruction. Saving the world depends upon demolishing its order and replacing its governing values. Thus exploiting the loopholes of the system to bring about its overthrow is not only legitimate but also a moral command.
The depicted struggle is conducted by an engaged and through its clear grasp of reality special group of the enlightened and the morally superior. Its main enemy is not the systems power but the ignorance intellectual laziness of the obedient mass. Bringing enlightenment into this somnolent throng in order to mobilize it is in democracies theoretically possible but in practice not feasible. Thus converting the mobilized elite into a numerical majority through democratic politics is unlikely to succeed. Injecting the elites correct consciousness is only possible once the old system is destroyed. Therefore only the removal of the existing order can create the conditions by which the right truths can be implanted into the mind of the majority.
This amounts to needing power to overrule the presents immature majority. The need requires and justifies the control of all aspects of life. That is a course which is validated not only by the movements truth but also by a future majority destined to arise on the debris of the destroyed old order. Taking power by any method is to create a New Man" by using the force of the overthrow to reeducate society. That will be completed once what had to be imposed had become the free will of the slow-witted in need of rescue from a fate that they were not qualified to fear.
Moral supremacy is the start-line of the totalitarian path. Attributed virtue is converted into total power because it is asserted that a cataclysm must be fended off by those that are enabled to foresee it. No special vision is needed to identify this script as a cosmetically renovated version of an old story. As before the might of those with a claimed vision acquired to save the sightless will cause the greatest suffering imaginable.
Knowingly to its advocates or not the argument recalls Lenin. He refused to submit to a numerical majority" and advocated the dictatorship of the proletariat". In its Marxist version the exercise of power by philosopher kings" might have failed. Sold as burn capitalism not coal" a new order with the enlightened in charge to save the panda will contest power. Beware of the new beginning that repeats what has once been dominant albeit not final. The morally superior in possession of the only truth must demand total power to fulfill its mission. The rest the preview we get to see is an old re-colorized film. It is re-run with new subtitles in subdued pale red to present the plot. Hopefully only the color blind will be fooled.
In some ways the affinity of Greens for red-pink causes that title implies should surprise us. Officially the Greens are ecologists and as such they are committed to maintain natures balance. Accordingly resources should be carefully used and the equilibrium of unspoiled nature should be preserved. In the light of this the systems by which communities are organized to provide the goods that assure survival should be scrutinized.
The logic of the foregoing suggests that systems are to be graded according to their efficient utilization of nature. By green standards the less nature" is consumed or denaturized to create a unit of value the more favorable should be its rating. In other words the more economical a system of production the less it impairs nature by damaging its sustaining resources.
With the above in mind one is led to take a look at the ecological footprint different systems of production have left since the Industrial Revolution. Capitalism and socialism need to be evaluated. This assessment is to consider the interaction of two factors. One to what degree were material needs satisfied. Two how much destroyed nature" did it take to create a unit of satisfaction.
Regardless of the prevailing economic-political order Econ. 101 tells that different mixtures of the factors of production (land" labor capital) will be found. That applies to the entire economy and to its diverse branches. This mixture will emphasize differing components that reflect knowledge and skills as well as technology and the social order. Labor can replace missing capital such as when a swarm of diggers do the job of the missing excavator. Low wages may enable an industry to overcome the disadvantage of missing skills; the handicap of backward technologies can be undone by using much energy or raw material in the production process.
As argued having more of a factor of production makes its user less reliant on others. An abundant supply of oil will enable its owner to build automobiles whose primitive technology and simple manufacture resulting in high consumption makes them locally competitive against high-tech low consumption makes. This is the juncture where we return to the question raised at the outset.
Capitalism given the profit motive as a system of production is motivated to use the factors of production effectively. The greater the efficiency the higher the gain for the supplier of goods. Especially the private ownership of capital will motivate its effective insertion to add value. Where the state owns societys capital - all economies are capitalistic- the decision-makers motivation decreases to use it or nature" sparingly. Ultimately what does not benefit an economic actor will be neglected. This being the case and also due to the lack of competition by independent producers there is no pressure to innovate to reduce the share of labor and natures resources through innovation -generated by capital. Rather than to submit to the stress of constantly changing everything through innovation the interest of the state-manager is to keep things as they are and to project the present into a safe" future.
Consequently socialisms footprint has been regardless of the beasts slow movement gigantic. Attribute the abusive overuse of natural resources and low-paid labor to bad management and the lack of motivation to prevent waste. As a class-alien" teen this writer built Socialism" by digging holes seven feet deep with a shovel for about half a dollar a day. The abusive misallocation of resources is well illustrated by the Soviet-dominated Easts" automobiles. Clinging to pre-WW2 German models built in war booty plants one had twice the Wests fuel consumption for half the performance. Few things have destabilized East Germany more than did the Trabant car. After a ten-year wait you got high consumption a top speed of 55mph little space and a polluting antediluvian 26 hp. two-stroke two-cylinder engine. When compared to a VW even a red flag had to blush.
A personal experience tells it best. Around 1990 I crossed the old Iron Curtain on a motorcycle. Soon a stench of fumes told me that my machine has developed engine trouble. Once stationary I examined my vehicle -and found nothing. Then it dawned on me. It was the stinking exhaust of local traffic that caused my alarm.
Now then if socialist practice pollutes and abuses nature then the Greens should be wary of it. What makes them to advocate politics that contradict their seeming cause? The answer is nasty. Unwrapping a concealed truth that veils a fib always is. What appears to be an inconsistency is not that at all. As so often the goal of those that pull the strings and the official platform is not identical. The Nazis were not for Germans but for an imaginary race. The Bolsheviks promised homesteads to peasants but favored collective farms. Now to the Greens.
Socialisms record of pollution and its conflict with Green ideals might appear to be significant. It is outweighed by the similarities of the world-views and the resulting projects regarding their ideal societys order. Mainly as all creeds that fight human nature the utopian appeal of Red Green recruits from the same pool of people.
Aside of the terminology used Green and Marxist assumptions are being collectivistic close. The Greens assume that the climates change is man-made. Pollution destined to destroy civilization is a byproduct of industrialization. That in turn is a result of capitalism. That evil is tied to democracy in which unqualified know-nothings pronounce judgments over the findings of qualified specialists.
The attentive identify some tell-tale totalitarian indicators. Typically mankind is in a final crisis that will bring about its end. The crisis is a clash of good and evil and manifests itself through contradictions" that must lead to the destruction of one of the parties involved. The prevailing system undermines itself and that leads to its destruction. Saving the world depends upon demolishing its order and replacing its governing values. Thus exploiting the loopholes of the system to bring about its overthrow is not only legitimate but also a moral command.
The depicted struggle is conducted by an engaged and through its clear grasp of reality special group of the enlightened and the morally superior. Its main enemy is not the systems power but the ignorance intellectual laziness of the obedient mass. Bringing enlightenment into this somnolent throng in order to mobilize it is in democracies theoretically possible but in practice not feasible. Thus converting the mobilized elite into a numerical majority through democratic politics is unlikely to succeed. Injecting the elites correct consciousness is only possible once the old system is destroyed. Therefore only the removal of the existing order can create the conditions by which the right truths can be implanted into the mind of the majority.
This amounts to needing power to overrule the presents immature majority. The need requires and justifies the control of all aspects of life. That is a course which is validated not only by the movements truth but also by a future majority destined to arise on the debris of the destroyed old order. Taking power by any method is to create a New Man" by using the force of the overthrow to reeducate society. That will be completed once what had to be imposed had become the free will of the slow-witted in need of rescue from a fate that they were not qualified to fear.
Moral supremacy is the start-line of the totalitarian path. Attributed virtue is converted into total power because it is asserted that a cataclysm must be fended off by those that are enabled to foresee it. No special vision is needed to identify this script as a cosmetically renovated version of an old story. As before the might of those with a claimed vision acquired to save the sightless will cause the greatest suffering imaginable.
Knowingly to its advocates or not the argument recalls Lenin. He refused to submit to a numerical majority" and advocated the dictatorship of the proletariat". In its Marxist version the exercise of power by philosopher kings" might have failed. Sold as burn capitalism not coal" a new order with the enlightened in charge to save the panda will contest power. Beware of the new beginning that repeats what has once been dominant albeit not final. The morally superior in possession of the only truth must demand total power to fulfill its mission. The rest the preview we get to see is an old re-colorized film. It is re-run with new subtitles in subdued pale red to present the plot. Hopefully only the color blind will be fooled.