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. Consider, too, the clear implication of his statement that climate change respects no borders: 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
—Mark Finkelstein is a NewsBusters contributing editor and host of Right Angle. Contact him at mark@gunhill.net.
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Socialists Indeed!
April 16, 2007 - 07:49 ET by c5thenHe shows that the environmental movement has been hijacked by the radical socialists. Their goal is the abolishment of any national sovereignty under an all-powerful UN. The Irony is that the UN derives any of t's powers and sheer existance from those sovereign nations that are members. Without them, the UN ceses to exist.
They refuse to believe or acknowledge that the flow of sovereignty goes from GOD > People > local government > Federal/national government > Internarional bodies. The UN is at the end of the line, not the beggining. If you remove any of the bodies in the middle, all to the right cease to have any authority.
It's amazing that these people live in the USA and enjoy and take advantage of all of it's rights and protections yet disagree with the founding principle that allows those rights and protections to exist.
SWEET! I need a new car!
April 16, 2007 - 08:07 ET by blackrain4xmasDoes Mr Carroll drive nice one? I'll even take a hybrid. Hey what mine is yours, and what's yours is mine. I've a wonderful 1994 Chevy Beretta he can use anytime, and I'm looking forward to driving his beemer!
Gotta think different Mr Carroll...What's yours is mine, and what's mine is yours.Be afraid. Be very afraid.
April 16, 2007 - 08:29 ET by motherbeltBe afraid. Be very afraid.
I wonder if Comrad Carroll wa
April 16, 2007 - 08:46 ET by ThisnThatI wonder if Comrade Carroll was ever offered an annual pay raise at the Globe? If so, I wonder if he took it? If he took it (rather than give it away), I wonder why in the world anyone would ever listen to him -- he's a raving hypocrite! Carroll, and other like him, are always telling us we should give away what we have "for the common good" (sound like Hillary?). I say we should stop buying the newspapers, and stop giving away our votes to these slimeballs -- for the common good.
(BTW, It's soooo good to have a responsive server back. Thanks NB!)
You've got it slightly wrong
April 16, 2007 - 09:05 ET by c5thenCorrol and others like him don't want you to give away what you have for the common good. My god man, that way they have no say in who gets the stuff! They want the government to take it all, and then listen to them how to re-distribute it.
Al Gore is a willing partner in this drive for World Socialism
April 16, 2007 - 09:15 ET by RJAnd the following shows that Al Gore is a willing partner in this drive for World Socialism. He's deliberately trying to tap into their movement and is willing to give up U.S. sovereignty for his own selfish purposes.
"Did we think Kyoto would [reduce global warming] when we signed it? . . . Hell no!" -Al Gore
"The former vice president....explained that the real purpose of Kyoto was to demonstrate that international support could be mustered for action on environmental issues."
How much more proof does on
April 16, 2007 - 10:23 ET by Dave RHow much more proof does one need to see that the GW scam is nothing more than an attempt to impose a Marxist/Leninist form of government on Western Society and to destroy the greatest experiment in self-government the world has ever witnessed, the United States of America.
This republic will not survive the continued neglect of its people.- Neal Boortz.
an attempt to impose a Marx
April 16, 2007 - 10:28 ET by Jack Baueran attempt to impose a Marxist/Leninist form of government on Western Society
And by using the classic Stalinist tactics of supression, censorship, threats, intimidation, blacklisting and ignorance.
So we have the trifecta of leftist failure:
Marx (intellectual), Lenin (organizational) and Stalin (dictatorial) all in one neat package called the Great Manmade Global Warming Swindle
Carroll
April 16, 2007 - 10:45 ET by iveseenitallCarroll represents our media, our college professors, our school teachers, and the socialist/communist in our government. They walk among us. Did we really win the cold war or did we just send these creeps away for a while to re-group? Many will laugh and mock you if you say communism is alive and well. Just elect Hillary or Obama and see what happens. Read Witness by W. Chambers or J.E. Hoover's Masters of Deceit and, as Motherbelt says, be very afraid.
NEVER,NEVER trust a liberal
In the spirit of furthering h
April 16, 2007 - 12:01 ET by ChrisMatthewsiswackIn the spirit of furthering his "whats yours is mine" socialism, perhaps Carrol would be willing to use his own money to pay off my student loans.
I love the way he talks abo
April 16, 2007 - 14:42 ET by lnthompI love the way he talks about "America's disproportionate ecological destructiveness" and apparently believes it. He has clearly never visited a developing country or a communist country, if he really thinks our "ecological destructiveness" is "disproportionate" and that we "impede[] every effort to mitigate it." I've seen the ecological destruction in South Korea, Panama, and Bosnia with my own eyes, and we have nothing that comes close. I've seen plenty of pictures from North Korea and China boasting about their progress, where what you see in the pictures is unmitigated ecological disaster in favor some construction project or other.
We do more and spend more in this country to mitigate damage to the environment than almost anyone, and most developing and communist countries do NOTHING AT ALL to mitigate ecological damage.
The really scary thing is, he is only one of many who believe America is single-handedly destroying the environment while the rest of the world is an ecological paradise.
Lee T.
U.S. Navy (ret.) / Hillsboro, Oregon
The history of the race, and each individual's experience, are thick with evidence that a truth is not hard to kill and that a lie told well is immortal.-- Mark Twain