So Saturday is the big "turn off all your lights for one hour to show you care about global warming, saving the planet, blah blah blah. Well here is what I'm going to do. during this one hour anti capitalist protest I will turn on every one of my lights, my TV, my stereo, I'll leave the fridge door open, run my heat with a door open and let my car idle for that hour in the driveway. I think I will also go in my shop turn all of those lights on and fire up my welder at its 230 v and weld for a full hour straight.
Why, you ask? Well as I said earlier this global initiative is a bunch of America hating capitalist despising control movements. It's an assault on freedom. Don't think so? First I'm not going to debate the idiocy of the global warming theory. But what I will contend is that someone telling you what to do in the name of the Environment is fear mongering manipulation at its core. They say the whole world will participate, lets say 2/3 because the other 1/3 is so primitive they don't even have electricity! they have never felt the comfort and joy of central air conditioning on a 95 degree day. They have never reached into the freezer on that same day retrieve some ice cubes, drop them in a glass and pull the ice cold filtered water from the refrigerator and drink it down. They don't stay up past sundown and enjoy a good book or cook some Cornish hens on the gas grill with its built in light and rotisserie. They can't open a bottle of 1978 Chateau Margeaux and sip it with that fine meal because it would have to be shipped by plane, truck and car to get to their table.(not to mention the cork screw to open it)
They can't order a pizza. They don't have phones or batteries or pizza ovens running at 500 degrees all day long to bring them one of the finest dishes in the world. yes I'm still talking about pizza, not to mention how well that bottle of '78 would go with it. Shall we talk about flush toilets? In India over half the population just "goes outside" do I need to be any more graphic then that? Lets hope they don't shut the runway lights off when you are about to land coming home from that business trip that took you to Rome, Frankfort, London then back to Chicago so you can earn that six figure income you've grown so accustom to. All this (and so much more) brought to you by that little thing called Energy. You know that evil thing they want you to shut off for one hour in protest.
Think about this for one moment, What has energy, in all its forms, given to the world? I have named just a few. The list would consume volumes. Look at every thing around you from a pencil, your food, your car, everything, it all is derived from the use of energy. I drove by an 18 wheeler today and just started looking at all the parts that went into creating that beautiful truck. I mean from the lug nuts to the lights on top of the cab not to mention what it was carrying. Instead of turning off your lights Saturday night and sitting in the dark contemplating how greedy and wasteful we are "compared to others" keep them on and look at all that, Energy, has created, How it has bettered the lives of all who have contact with it. Energy and the resources it takes to produce it are all a gift from God for us to use, flourish and enrich our lives. Those who want you to "turn off" to save the Planet have just come up with another method of punishing the successful. Remember when people believe every one should be equal they mean equally miserable. As Tom Bodett says at Motel 6, "We'll leave the light on for ya".
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It’s so difficult ---after reading your rantings on turning off the lights---where to start. Whatever I say will likely be dismissed anyway, so I feel daunted to proceed. Nevertheless, I could point out a few things. First of all, you not only have a victim mentality, but you, as young as you are, seem to be living in the past, or at least refusing to recognize change, as well as the fact that you seem to have embraced wholeheartedly all of the advertisements that have bombarded your brain since you were a wee little boy. In your mind, it’s the 1950s, with cheap and seemingly endless sources of energy for America. It was that time in our country when all of the good things in life were brought to us by GE. I can see in my mind’s eye, the advertisements of the white middle-class housewife with the starched white apron cooking on her new electric stove (after all, gas is so dirty), while gazing out the window at her husband dutifully mowing the lawn with a new gas lawn mower. Never mind that he could use the exercise if he mowed it by hand, using his own God-given energy. This country and especially the generations after my parents have been so manipulated into a false scenario of what constitutes the good life that we now consume 26%
ReplyDeleteof the entire world’s energy while constituting only 5% of the total population. Talk about feeling entitled.
The whole idea of the blackout, as the people who organized it said more than once while promoting it, was not to make people feel guilty, but just to raise awareness of energy issues, and give us ( that are interested in these things) a feeling that we are not alone. I take this approach when I’m teaching environmental issues in the classroom. It is a cleaner and less emotional approach not to lay blame or to make little kids feel guilty. That is not the point. The point is to come to an understanding of the converging forces that could cause future problems for the well-being of people on this planet, and that goes for white, entitled people with money and who work hard, as you do. We are not out to get you, as Rush Limbaugh would have you believe. He preys on people’s fears because he makes big bucks doing it, but hey, let him rave on; as he is now doing the Republican Party, what I hope is irreparable harm. (I recommend you read David Frum’s “A Conservative’s Case Against Limbaugh” --- http://www.newsweek.com/id/188279 ---) If you want true freedom, free yourself from demagogues like Limbaugh and corporate public relations people whose messages only differ from that of snake oil salesmen in that they have more sophisticated tools to dish out their crap. This planet has now shrunk by probably 1000 new souls since I started this letter, and if you chart population growth from the 1900s onward, you can see that the growth is now nearing a nearly vertical line heading towards 2050. Things have changed, and the biggest factors are: the industrial revolution, medicine, and the invention of fertilizer. Civilization, as we know it, is a double-edged sword.
I was in Africa for a while, living among poor uncivilized souls, as you might put it, that had no electricity or running water. If you mean by the word uncivilized, people without civilizing influences, then what does that mean? One of the definitions of civilized is: a situation of urban comfort and technological development. Those characteristics were certainly not present in the time and place that I lived in Africa. However, other definitions of civilized are notions like: refinement, restraint, and culture, the characteristics of which I found in abundance when I lived there. I could easily compare my days in Africa, shopping, cooking, braiding hair, talking, laughing, and watching the stars at night with the behaviors that play out everyday in “civilized” America. Things like: lying around half drunk, watching the shopping channel in the middle of the night and buying absolutely useless crap, or attending a meeting at Enron headquarters and rubbing one’s hands in glee at the money being made in utilities while a large swath of California goes dark and Grandma Millie is left freezing, and can just shove it up her ass; or how about closeting oneself in the basement watching kiddy porn, while one’s children are upstairs. This is our civilization. All brought to you through the magic of technology, but where’s the refinement or the restraint?
We are not the only ones on this planet, and although I don’t believe in God, I do believe that we have to share. You know, like when you were in kindergarten, and the teacher was trying to get you to understand the civilized notion of: you’re not the only one in the room, and you must learn to share the resources that are in the room? Does this mean that I don’t fully enjoy the blessings that have been given to me? No. I love every convenience that I have, and I love technology, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t realize that there may come a day when it is not possible for a burgeoning world population to partake of all those things you hold so dear, because they could be gone. It does mean, though, that I don’t take what I have for granted. I try to have respect for the resources that I consume, and I do try to keep a mindful eye on how much I consume if for no other reason than that it is a good exercise for the soul. How much do you need?
As ever,
Kay
Kay, if you don't believe in God why do you think you have a soul to exercise? How much do I need? Why don't you tell me obviously I can't decide that for myself. What makes you think I get my information from Rush Limbaugh? This is where the left believes those on the right cannot think for themselves. Rush Limbaugh is an entertainer. Those on the left can't see that. I certainly don't have a victim mentality, quite the opposite I fight against those who demand we do what "they" feel are good for us ("how much do you need" comes to mind). You cast judgement against all those who do not believe as you do. Just because people have not spent time in a hut braiding hair and walking 2 miles for a bucket of water doesn't mean we are not in touch with societies needs and desires. We work constantly to improve those needs and desires. It is funny you say I am lost in the fifties when you are glorifing having no modern convieniences and saying the world is an overpopulated catastrophy. Now if that isn't victimizing I don't know what is. There isn't an energy shortage! We have all the energy we want or need if only it was allowed to be produced. Are you next going to reccomend that the Government start telling people how many children to have? Because don't forget they will also tell you who lives and dies ie. socialized healthcare. Though on second thought maybe that would be the way to fix social security and medicare/medicaide, let the seniors die instead of treating them what do you think? You must always take things to their ultimate ends or extremes as you may call them because that is where they all end up. It will usually show you the absurdity of the proposal. I'll give you an example, Gay marriage. If same sex couples can have legal "marriages" then when can I marry my pet monkey or maybe my dog or gold fish. I want them to be afforded the same rights as anyone else. Not to be discriminated against. I want them to have the same medical benefits I'm entitled to. How about an inheritance or insurance? I want them to be taken care of in case I die or when socialized health care decides I am no longer worth the money to keep alive. Absurd? Yes. Possible? You bet it is. One last point on victims and fear mongering. When children are taught in school that the Global warming debate is "over" as Al Gore says in his cheery little movie and that if we don't change now we are doomed in ten years that is fear mongering at its finest. Lest we not forget that in the seventies the ice age was upon us, the debate was closed, grab your parkas and snow boots! Why not teach children that conserving energy saves money? You then roll this concept into a course on entrepenuers showing if you can save money on energy consumption you can use that savings to start a business or a charity thereby providing a service or good that people can use to improve their lives. This thrift concept can be carried throughout your entire business model creating yourself more wealth and enabling you to hire more people to create more goods and services to help make others lives better? Is that fear mongering or would you be giving your students real life knowledge they can actually apply? It is the height of narcisism to think we can predict what the earths "normals" are out of billions of years this planet has existed. The reason I don't have the guilt is because I do believe in God. God has given us the talent, ingenuity, and creativity to exist on his planet. I beieve the Lord revels in our freedom and advancements, it gives him great pleasure to see us prosper. This same prosperity has enabled us and you in particular to go to Africa and help those less fortunate and at the same time for some to preach the gospel to them. Now you may think they are living a better life then us for whatever reason but the fact remains the same they appreciate the help, given freely with no expectations. That is the greatness of freedom. It is a word easily thrown about but never really thought of in depth.
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