Friday, April 3, 2009

Green, another word for righteous inferiority

Clean water is great. I like water that won't kill me or leave me glowing in the dark, although it would save on flashlight batteries. Of course clean water is not green. I normally won't drink green water.

It may be more a left coast phenomenon but I suspect the whole country (and many others) has found shelves stocked with Green products which tout their greenness rather than their effectiveness. It is rare that things which say right on the label, "Green, earth friendly, no animals trees, chemicals or anything else used in this product. It won't hurt anything and you can eat it safely", are worth the money. I'm beginning to think that companies which have an abundance of products which don't work are slapping "We're Green" labels on them to exploit the madness and recoup the investment in bad goods.

People feel good that they are somehow honoring the earth goddess by sacrificing money and usefulness with such purchases. They generally don't feel great that the cleaners won't clean.

I'm sure there are some great substances which include only ingredients like eggs and lemons which do work for a specific purpose, although I am hard pressed to name them at the moment. But by godt, we are being good to The Earth, which, of course, we all love dearly. When you really think about it honestly, it is a love-hate situation.

Everyone loves the earth when insulated from its wrath, whether it be little bitey bugs, cold, hot, rain, toranadoes, earth quakes, fires, animals that want to eat you or your food, land that can't be tread in its natural state, etc. The entire game of being human is to protect ourselves from Mommy Dearest--The Earth--so we can mate in clean comfort.

We may as well like it because it is the only planet we have, for now. Loving it or hating it makes no sense to me. Not destroying any source of resources is just rational self interest. Worshipping it and feeling guilty for making use of what's here or for making life a little tougher for creatures who would love to eat us does not seem natural or reasonable.

If people truly want to get back to nature they'd be chasing away every creature that gets in the way, and they'd clear tons of fire breaks in the forest and brush, and make sure their own species comes out on top, with no shred of guilt. Nature is about beating the other life forms in the game and ensuring survival of the species. That's what every life form does to some degree. All they care about is making more of their own. Sometimes a cooperative interaction serves the purpose. Humans and dogs, horses, cows, pigs, etc.; those fish that clean barnacles of other fish, or whatever the deal is.

Not every effective chemical, which one way or another came from the earth, is a sinful devil potion. It takes very little for things to earn that label though. I remember in the 70's when some members of Congress insisted we not allow or work with Boeing in the launch of their SST because they claimed super sonic transports would cause skin cancer and other ills. I'm not making this up. Of course then that opened the door for the French thing that managed to fly here for awhile. Boeing's looked like it would have been a better aircraft.

There is a balance, and it is not anywhere to be seen. Ruining a water supply and such is not good sense, but withholding worthwhile remedies and processes which actually save lives and enhance standard of living makes no sense either. Much of that thinking has only kept primitive third world cultures in poverty more than would be the case if a little evil chemical had been used. In many cases the "science" which was cited to ban a very useful product proved bogus and agenda driven.

More and more the cries for tiptoeing around the holy environment push practices which aren't natural at all. I don't think one could say that forced socialism is at all natural either. Free trade and barter of one's own volition is natural. If 50 people were somehow isolated in the woods with nothing, pretty soon those good at one thing would be trading that for goods and services produced by people good at that. Some would do more building, some more hunting or gathering, and so it goes. Those who couldn't contribute would probably be cared for if they had a decent attitude. It's human nature, but it is by choice.

I don't think the mass hysteria will last forever. I hope the class envy thing ceases before long. That is dangerous.

OK. I'm rambling, but the various elements of passing off tomato juice as dishwashing liquid, and confiscation of wealth and arbitrary distribution of same as humane, seem to reflect a similar mentality. It is somewhat oppressive and no fun.

2 comments:

  1. "Somewhat oppressive and no fun"? That line should win you the Understatement of the Year award!

    For those most vocal about a "green" economy, it's all about wringing money from others with no effort. Get that guilt trip going, and you can assume the right to tax people for their supposed noxious emissions.

    If there was some miraculous way to instantly "go green," governments and people like Al Gore would fight it. Their source of free money from "carbon footprints" and "earth-friendly" products would vanish.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I had not thought of it in these terms, but now I have heard Rachel (Silent Spring) Carson referred to as a genocidist because of the tens of thousands of people who have died from malaria because of her efforts.

    ReplyDelete

Can't make comments any easier, I don't think. People are having trouble--google tries to kidnap them. I'll loosen up one more thing and let's see. Please give it a try

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