The New Religion of Environmentalism

I heard an interesting comment the other day. It went something like this: "Isn't it odd how the extreme left have become more [small-c] conservative than anyone else in society?!" What the speaker was referring to was the fact that the new generation of socialists/environmentalists/limousine liberals are absolutely unwilling or unable to have anyone challenge what they're espousing.

Does this remind you of another group infamous for having their own set of blinders on?

If you meet a devout religious person, especially one on a personal crusade, you know that it'll be very unlikely (read "hell freezing over") that you're going to change any of their views. They sincerely believe that they are following the Word of God and you are but one challenge put in their way by God to test them. In a literal sense, they MUST disagree with you to PROVE their commitment to God.

I got to thinking about this because of this posting from David Berner. He related a story from a few years back about how the Green Party wanted to recruit him as a candidate. But at their very first meeting, it became clear within minutes that this group would not allow him to have any view of his own if they deviated from theirs. In fact, he had to even speak like them or else they wanted to have nothing to do with him.

One must pause for a second to consider the full voracity of this scenario. Here we have a fledgling political party that is trying to recruit a man who has made his mark for decades for being outspoken and thinking quickly on his feet. Yet right off the bat, they tell him that they don't like what he's saying. Do you realize how absurd that is?!?

Getting back to the religious fundamentalists, such is the case with these Green Party folks. I don't mean just this little group that David met with, but ALL OF THEM!!! They may not be religious; in fact, most of them are probably devout atheists. But, they've adopted a new religion called Environmentalism and the first of many devils they must slay is called "Global Warming". Their "god" is Mother Nature, their pope is Al Gore, and their Canadian archbishop is David Suzuki.

If you dare say anything to them that deviates from the "narrative", they will rebuke you or possibly even kick you out of the cult ... errr group.

Up until my late teens I was a very devout Catholic. I even strongly considered becoming a priest, until I became aware just how much I liked women. :-) When I was young I accepted everything I was taught pretty much verbatim. But as I got older I started asking questions. Lots of 'em. And I didn't like the answers I was getting back. More often than not, no credible answers came back at all. My very scientific mind just wouldn't accept this. So I left the church.

I've long believed that there's a natural human inclination to belong to something larger and to be accepted by this group. Each of us tends to think of ourselves as individuals yet there are countless examples of pack mentality all around us. For example, not so long ago, the only people who had tattoos were ex-sailors and radical artists. Then a few glitterati like Angeline Jolie and Colin Farrell proudly displayed theirs. Suddenly, most every person under 30 had to have one. What at first was a symbol of individualism has now become a symbol of conformity.

This desire to be part of the herd seems to be a key factor in why so many people, who you think would be fairly intelligent, have absolutely closed their minds and just gone along with the group think about global warming. As Gore & Suzuki have said, "the debate is closed". Such words are manna from heaven for environmentalists. For it provides a quick & simple way to shut down all discussions they don't like.

If you'd like to watch an interesting, thoughtful discussion about global warming then I'd strongly recommend watching this interview with Michael Crichton.

Similarly, this Sunday, Corus radio host Roy Green will have as a guest one Bruce Pardy, an environmental law professor from Queens University. I heard him on CBC Radio 1 and recommended that Roy have him as a a guest too. Pardy is very pro-environment but is realistic about the fact that Canadians could stop consuming all energy tomorrow and it would barely make any difference for the world as a whole. His words will have the Greens seeing red! You can listen to Roy's show on CKNW between 11am - 2pm PDT, as well as on other Corus stations across Canada.