History is the pathway of the past; and should be the stepping stone to the future. We keep hearing the activists demand that more products be removed from the market because they cause terrible health problems in children. This, in spite of the fact that when this has been done in the past there were terrible consequences to the health of children!
They make all of these claims that it is “for the children” and yet I have to ask; if they are so concerned about the children in the first world, why do they distain the lives and health of the children in the third world?
Huge numbers of children have suffered and died unnecessarily from “green” policies that banned pesticides and genetically modified foods. Yet we only continue to hear all sorts of theoretical, speculative claims about pesticides and GMO’s causing a host of potential disasters from the media. Even if there was a grain of truth in these claims, the benefits would seriously outweigh any potential risks. Why do we keep ignoring the facts?
The events surrounding pesticide bans in the undeveloped world should be lesson enough to show that these types of actions are detrimental to the public health; yet we still go along with the activist’s nonsense. We all want to be green; yet we have no idea what that means today; and I can guarantee you that we will be shocked as to what that will mean tomorrow!
Everyone from my generation remembers that great comic strip “Peanuts”. One scenario was repeated over and over again was Lucy offering to hold the football for poor Charlie Brown to kick. Charlie always knew that Lucy would pull the ball out just at the last minute and he would fall on his back. Why was that funny? Because they would go through this dance about how she “always” pulled the ball out at the last minute and she would swear that this time it would be different; and he fell for it every time. Believing that activists can be believed to keep a bargain is exactly the same.
No agreement made with the activists will be kept by them because they have no command and control structure. If one group makes a deal with our industry another group will attack them and us. No agreement will be honored by them and no matter what agreements are made with governmental authorities; they will be overturned when some activist group demands it.
What probably sickens me the most of all is the worldwide media! In spite of the vast amount of evidence that the activists are directly and indirectly responsible for the death of tens of millions; and the needless suffering of hundreds of millions more because of the implementation of environmentalist’s policies, the media mostly remains silent. By remaining silent or promoting greenie ideas they are as blood guilty as Walter Duranty was when he won the Pulitzer Prize for say that Stalin wasn’t starving his people to death.
Industry information sources also do not challenge these people because they say that we can’t win in the court of public opinion, or they are not in a position to do so. If we never challenge them every time they make outrageous claims, how do we know? At the very least we could make information available to those inside the industry that will give them the ammunition to defend the industry.
It is painfully obvious to me that environmental activists intend to destroy developed societies; no matter what the cost may be in human suffering. It is also painfully obvious to me that the pesticide application, distribution and manufacturing industries will not have any problem compromising; no matter what the cost may be in human suffering.
I can at least understand the youthful following of these groups, “who are attracted by the romantic radicalism and emotional appeal of the ‘movement’”. “The "movement" provides them with an outlet" “They protest against the seeming inertia of the politicians of the older generation." "It is a truly religio-psychological phenomenon.” The clouded vision of the green movement is one of bio-harmony; like a beautiful rainbow. That is romantic nonsense and Industry has no reason, nor excuse for such embracing such delusions.
Greenies demand perfection. The best we can hope for is the most acceptable imperfections. That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t attempt to improve what becomes the acceptable level of imperfection, but the solutions presented by the greenies ignore and abandon the most effective system for overcoming imperfection the world has ever known. Capitalism! Imperfections are weeded out by the profit motive. If something isn’t working it is dismissed and replaced by something that does. And if the dominant companies refuse to innovate…someone else will come along and innovate and the dominant companies will be out of business or cease being dominant.
IBM gave Bill Gates DOS because “because everyone knows that the money is in the hardware”. Much of what Microsoft and Apple used as the basis for their empires was thrown away by IBM and Xerox.
My mother hates Wal-Mart because it put small businesses out of business. So? Many of those people went to work for Wal-Mart and ended up in a better financial situation than they did working sixteen hours a day for themselves. Wal-Mart is today what Sears was fifty years ago. And fifty years from now someone else will be what Wal-Mart is today.
When Rockefeller’s Standard Oil of New Jersey monopolized the oil industry did things get better or worse for the nation? Let’s take a look at this. Rockefeller believed it was necessary to take over the oil industry because he believed it was the patriotic thing to do. Shocking isn’t it? In reality he was right! Because the price of oil was based on availability, and no one knew when the next gusher was going to come in. The fluctuation of the price of oil was so dramatic that it was difficult for industry to plan. Rockefeller reasoned that if he controlled all the oil it would stabilize the price; and it did. It might be noted that he didn’t crush all the oil companies…many of them asked to be taken over because it would stabilize their profits. Before he monopolized the oil industry the price of oil in 1860 was $12.00 to $16.00 a barrel. Between 1879 and 1900 it dropped to under $1.00 a barrel in every one of those years.
The Standard Oil of New Jersey story is often touted to show that breaking up monopolies works because the five companies that Standard Oil was broken up into became much, much larger than Standard Oil ever was. That is a logical fallacy because they leave out the most important part of the story. What was the number one product of Standard Oil? Kerosene! And gasoline as a byproduct that was thrown away because they had no use for it. Obviously that changes the values of the story. They didn’t become so much larger because they were the product of a Sherman Anti-Trust Act breakup; they became so much larger because the number one product became gasoline. That is, as Paul Harvey used to say; “the rest of the story!”
We need to start telling the story, the whole story. Our whole story, and we need to do it by attacking the lies told about pesticides.
- The activists attack us and we remain silent or we try to convince everyone to like us.
- The activists attack us more, and we adapt and change and continue to tell everyone that we are really nice people.
- They attack us some more, and we appease them all the more with the excuse that at least we had some input in the legislation.
- They attack again, and we still think that we “need to compromise”.
- We adopt their philosophies and become compliant, subservient and obedient and tell everyone that this is why they should like us.
What I don’t know is this; does that make us slaves, fools, cowards? Or does that make us all three?
Comments will not be accepted that are rude, crude, stupid or smarmy. Nor will I allow ad hominem attacks or comments from anyone who is "Anonymous”.
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