Today I caught the 2008 movie The Day the Earth Stood Still , with a surprisingly convincing Keanu Reeves portraying an alien whose declared purpose in landing in Central park in a really nifty space ship is to "save the Earth". Love the special effects, those spherical vessels were, well, awesome. In the end humanity is spared imminent destruction by very advanced intelligent beings concerned enough with our "misuse" of the good earth to purpose our demise, by the ministrations of an earnest spokesperson for our species who declares "we can change!" In the end they spare us but at the cost of the disabling of modern technology like the use of electricity and motorized transportation. Rousseau would have approved but then, Rousseau - the French revolution and all(after all). The heavy handed symbolism was manifest in the film.
It reminded me of how the left, clearly the creative force behind this work, demonstrates its disdain for human life and the blessedly evolved technological miracles which have transformed much of our life from one burdened by unrelenting physical labor to one which can be enjoyed by multitudes and masses with prolonged relative leisure. I'm confident that the most comfortable and learned of inhabitants of the Western world in the 1700's (some of whom have had something to say about how we arrived at this happy state) would have rejoiced to know that human well being would be so advanced.
The summary dispatch of our modern "conveniences" depicted in this pedantic entertainment puts me in mind of the Khmer Rouge's insane overnight depopulation of politically sinful Cambodian cities in the wake of Pol Pot's ( who might as well have been an alien) dreadful triumph. But then, perhaps not so; at least the criminally insane Pol thought he was doing eventual good for humankind. Not so the dear , hirsute young man I sat next to on a bus from Albany to Buffalo, N.Y. a few years ago. Our conversation quickly revealed that we both had enjoyed extensive experience of the wonderful Adirondack mountains just north of our bus's route. But then he opined that he favored the depopulation of the Adirondacks in order to preserve them ( I suppose, for brief sojourns for such as he and I in their sylvan and airy haven). There was no hint in his aspect of concern for the population of the area, eh, some of which has deep roots in that rugged, beautiful region. He gave the distinct impression that consideration of their values, feelings or material well being were of negligible import. I hope he has not ascended to the policy making level.
Physically luxurious Al Gore has held forth, to acclaim in some quarters , on the perfidy of the internal combustion engine which he nonetheless employs with alacrity in transporting his considerable girth to organized public excoriations of the means he himself employs to enjoy this life. He sneers and then, he makes wassail!
The left has been thoroughly discredited by history in the political and economic spheres, though some do retain perverse devotion to those regrettable efforts. Having been so (except in the American academy and the Cuban junta) the left has glommed on to "environmentalism" as its latest power grab, and "human generated global warming" as its newest rallying cry. In doing so it has laid bare its always misanthropic essence for all to see. Lenin, Stalin,Mao - they lived it and hundreds of millions perished. Saul Alinsky bade the left conceal it but he may be exiting the fevered leftist scene. Jack
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Jack, you put your finger on a very curious intellectual development: the genesis of human ideologies (as far as we know, all ideologies are human, but bear with me) that oppose humanity itself. The fundamental problem that I see with much environmentalist thought is that it posits the idea that "nature" excludes human beings. Thus, only when human beings are banished can nature flourish. But the truth is that human beings are just as "natural" as any other form of life, and we have just as much right (maybe more so, if the Bible is to be our guide) to continued existence and well-being as any other species. Moreover, as history shows, only a society that enjoys the material abundance of modernity would even THINK to worry about endangered species, or polluted rivers, or the state of the ozone layer. We humans create problems, yes, but we also solve them, and we're darn good at it!
Dr. Waddy: It is apparent that only those species which manifest characteristics which enable them to prevail, survive. If a transcendently intelligent being created this reality, it may be that it is "just". Humans have evolved to a point where multitudes can have lives productive of blessed pleasure. Do animals experience self satisfaction, if only manifested in salubrious physical conditions? My well fed cats would say so, I think, if they could. But we possess contemplative natures, due, some say, only to physically explainable attributes but also credibly sometimes credited to divine providence. Those who would banish humans from what is observably a world in which, with the exception of humans capable of sympathy and empathy, only the strong survive, err.
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