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STRIKES_BACK

                                              November 14, 2006

Tales of the newest of new lefts...

If you look around a bit,
you can find an interesting
spectacle: old left reactionaries
objecting to young lefties
betraying the grand old cause...


For example, the new lefties like
to talk about "green capitalism",      Notably, the Greens are
and so on...                           not people who think that
                                       capitalism must be over
They're excited about                  thrown; instead they argue
selling socially and                   it needs to be adjusted,
environmentally                        e.g. with carbon taxes
responsible products                   to compensate for the
to niche markets that                  "externalities" of pollution.
they then hope to
expand.

The old left sneers
at this as trying      Consider that
to change the world    "Ben and Jerry's"
through shopping.      ice cream was
                       a great politically
   A hot topic         correct hit --
   is Walmarts         so they got            (In my experience,
   move into           bought by Dreyers.      many people still
   Organic                                     don't know this.)
   produce.

   Is this a sign that the
   movement is winning?
   Or has the movement
   been co-opted?


Notably, some environmentalists
are taking the global warming
scenario very seriously, and
it's at long last sinking in        NUKE
that Nuclear Power is not the
ultimate evil, certainly            Though the way some
not compared to coal.               people spin this is
                                    that "the problems have
                                    been fixed" with new
                                    technology.

                                       My take: yeah, the new tech is
                                       probably even better, but the
                                       the old tech was okay, too.

      Helen Calidcott's latest
      book objects strenuosly
      to the notion that nukes
      might be Green.

         She claims that *really*
         nuclear power requires
         *lots* of fossil fuel       Even without checking
         to mine and transport       the numbers...
         the nuclear fuel.
                                        Pretend that you've
                                        just made a similar
                                        argument against some
                                        spiffy new rooftop
                                        photovoltaic solar cells.

                                        What answer do you
                                        expect in response?

                                        "Well, yeah, *these*
                                        were manufactured with
                                        fossil fuels, but if
                                        we crank out enough of
                                        them we can phase that
                                        out..."

                                           Another way of
                                           phrasing it:
                                           Does it produce
                                           power, or not?

                                           If it doesn't
                                           generate a net
                                           gain of energy,
                                           why would anyone
                                           bother with it?


    Myself, I take these
    various disputes as an
    encouraging sign that          Unlike, for example,
    the Left is open to            the libertarians who
    intellectual change.           appear to be
                                   degenerating into
                                   conservatives under
                                   another label.

                                      And the conservatives
                                      themselves are having
                                      trouble grasping that
                                      the Republican party
                                      has had it's brain
                                      eaten by crazed weasels
                                      from hell.




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