Who is Responsible? Who Will Answer?

By Rich Kozlovich 

In one of Thomas Sowell’s Random Thoughts on the Passing Scene he made this comment; “Upon learning that the Constitution requires a president to be a natural born citizen, a college student said: "What makes a natural born citizen any more qualified than one born by C-section?"

Although this is humorous I have to ask; is anyone really shocked or even surprised at this? Over educated, under smart, misinformed and uninformed seems to be the pattern. Most disturbing is their lack of common knowledge ….you know….the kind of stuff that was taught in grade school at one time. Whenever on the street interviews are conducted with college students they fail in the most basic knowledge; supposedly what is considered part of our society's “common knowledge”. Furthermore, their knowledge and understanding of history is abysmal. Even their knowledge of the world’s geography is startlingly deficient. Why?

When my sons were small we used to attend teacher conferences to go over what was being done in the schools to educate our children and what we all could do to help. I commented to the geography teacher about an article that I had just read showing that students today were failures at knowing where almost anything was in the world, including places that were in the news daily. She acknowledged that this was a problem. I told her that I could fix that problem in one year. She smiled politely asked how I could do that. I said…draw the countries! She seemed somewhat surprised and asked for clarification. I said draw the countries!

When I went to grade school we studied one or two countries each week. Initially we drew them and then covered the particulars of those countries. We loved it. Drawing a new country each week and then being graded on our art work was great fun…and it worked! We knew where everything was in the world long before we went to junior high school. How long did it take for her to implement this plan? Never!

It is bad enough that organized education has never taught kids how to think, they don’t even teach them what to think, unless it has to do with the latest form of greenie socialism. In England almost all the kids believe CO2 causes global warming, and yet approximately half of them also thought that Winston Churchill was an astronaut.

Of course the young have always thought they were the bearers of “new knowledge” and a “new understanding” that would lead to “better solutions” to the world’s problems than their parents, in spite of the fact that they have little experience in life by which to weigh their views. And we all go through that brilliantly stupid stage. We talk in a demanding nonsensical patois completely unaware that we don’t have a clue. We not only don’t have the solutions, we don’t even know the right questions at that age.

In days gone by that didn’t matter so much because the adult population was much larger than the young population and could easily absorb them ….at least until the baby boomers came on the scene! All of a sudden we had a gigantic explosion of the young and dumb telling the world the way everything should be. This was the population the green movement exploited and continues to exploit. As a result it has expanded outrageously and powerfully. The green movement is so large that these groups, as a whole, bring in more money than 60 of the world’s nations.

There is a difference between traditional wisdom and conventional wisdom. Traditional wisdom has stood the test of time. Conventional wisdom is merely the latest philosophical flavor of the day and may not last as long as our memory of the last Super Bowl winner. Unfortunately, the young are quick to embrace the latest philosophical flavor of the day, and because their numbers are so large it soon becomes policy; and while waiting for the test of time to prove out these policies devastation may be left in their wake.

In his book, Economic Facts and Fallacies, Thomas Sowell defined a logical fallacy in this manner:

“Fallacies are not simply crazy ideas. They are usually both plausible and logical – but with something missing. Their plausibility gains them political support. Only after that political support is strong enough to cause fallacious ideas to become government policies and programs are the missing of ignored factors likely to lead to “unintended consequences,” a phrase often heard in the wake of economic or social policy disasters. Another phrase often heard in the wake of these disasters is, ‘It seemed like a good idea at the time.” That is why it pays to look deeper into things that look good on the surface at the moment."

What is the most frightening about this group is that they don’t seem to understand or care what tragic impact their policies may inflict on humanity. They seem to think that “all problems” are “due to other people not being as wise or as noble as they are.”  

I wouldn’t mind that so much if they were the ones who had to pay the penalty for being wrong. Unfortunately billions of others have to pay the penalty for their wrong headedness….and that penalty is often deadly.

In the U.S. the green movement is:

“exempt from false advertising, transparency and other laws that govern for-profit corporations”. They have “failed to apply ethical standard to themselves, despite ample precedent set by the legal, accounting, medical, public relations and other professions. As a result, say many critics, the activists NGO’s have for too many years had free reign to misrepresent facts, hide their financial dealings, blackmail companies, ignore needs and desires that conflict with their own, and avoid accountability for the adverse consequences of agendas they promote of impose.” 1

That is always a problem when you never have to face the consequences for your actions…you don’t have to care, you don’t have to suffer, you don’t have to be responsible or bear the blame for those actions; especially when you believe that you are involved in a noble experiment that will save the world; with humanity as the guinea pig. After all, their intentions were good. 

Along with those who have been sickened by those policies, I am really tired of hearing that. As for those who have died as a result of their policies - they can’t hear it.

We absolutely know this; all the evidence we need in order to come to a correct understanding of what the green movement represents is available for all to see…. and yet …..we accommodate them, we excuse them and now even worse, we're crawling into bed with them.

Those in leadership positions in our industry are older and now have enough experience in life which should enable us to weigh reality against each new philosophy that comes down the pike. We are no longer among the young and dumb. The young at least can be excused for their foolish enthusiasm regarding these things simply because they are young. We no longer have that excuse. I have serious misgivings about those who have led the pest control industry down this path. I have to ask; are we then willing to bear the guilt for the consequences of the green movement’s actions?

1. Eco-Imperialism, Green Power, Black Death by Paul Driessen, page 12. Also see “Rules for Corporate Warriors”, by Nick Nichols for additional examples of false or deceptive advertising, factual misrepresentations and extortionate activities by activist NGO’s.