NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #30/NN_1992_30.iso/spool/sci/environm/13527

Internet Message Format | 1992-12-15 | 1.8 KB

From: [e-mail] (Alan McGowen)
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1992 20:24:58 GMT
Subject: Why do they hate us?
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Chuck Paquette wonders:

>Also, I'm somewhat surprised by the free-enterprise/libertarian
>critique of U.S. environmental organizations.  Most of us compete in
>the marketplace without significant government support or endowments.
>We also tend to emphasize private action and monitoring of government
>policy.  And most of our active organizational opponents are or
>represent beneficiaries of government policies and public assets.  Just
>an added thought.

It's no mystery why these right-wing extremists hate environmentalism. They
hate it for the same reason they hate democracy. If someone wants to enrich
himself by destroying the last old-growth of the Pacific Northwest, for
example, and the rest of us pass a law to prevent him from doing so, that
is what they call "coercion" -- which they abhor. I.e. in their view,
democracy = coercion. They identify with the guy who wants to enrich himself
at everyone else's (and nature's) expense. They believe, sometimes validly,
more often illusorily, that if there were fewer restraints they would be
among those who would succeed in pushing their way to the hog-trough and
gorging themselves. They think of themselves as very strong, and they hate
it above all else when those whom they think of as weak band together in
democracies to prevent them from riding roughshod over everybody and
everything.

*Naturally* they hate environmentalism. It's to be expected. It's in the way
of their (real or imagined) self-aggrandizement.

-------------
Alan McGowen