If You Want to Be Green, Stop Liberalism

In plain language:

Liberalism is the idea of granting total autonomy to the individual, so that society facilitates the individual in the pursuit of individual goals, generally expressed through material comfort.

99.9% of individuals, given the chance between living in poverty and having a first world lifestyle, will choose the first world lifestyle.

That means that everyone on earth wants a house with a flush toilet, an SUV, a computer, a television, food that comes in cans and plastic packaging, electricity and what's required to support that -- an infrastructure of roads, power plants, oil wells, nuclear plants, hospitals, manufacturing, stores, parking, and so on.

Even more, liberalism encourages pluralism, or the idea that we can each choose an idea of what we want independent of social consensus, and pull in that direction. The result is constant conflict and waste.

Pluralism in turn encourages multiculturalism, which is another word for third-world immigration to first-world nations. This creates a bigger population in the first world, and causes the third world to breed even more to make up the loss, all while first-world lifestyles are exported to the third world.

We call this growth, and it is the enemy.

Number of People x Resources Required = Total Footprint

If we reduce resources required, but number of people rises, there is no net gain.

Since number of people is in the billions, and at most people will reduce resources required by half, we cannot win at the game of reducing resources per person.

We need to reduce number of people.

The most humane way of doing this is to stop aiding the third world in growth (first-world populations have stabilized), and to cut back on people by encouraging a more rigorous lifestyle that discourages the dumb, criminal, and otherwise useless-to-our-future people from breeding.

Even more, since individuals will 99.99% of the time choose a more opulent lifestyle, we need governments and a social structure which can tell them the magic word NO and back it up with force.

This is the only solution to our environmental problem: end the liberalism that makes every person a king or queen, able to do whatever they want cheaply, so we reverse growth and reduce our footprint, liberating more land and sea for natural species.

This is compatible with this vision:

We believe that true ecological sustainability may require a rethinking of our values as a society. Present assumptions about economics, development, and the place of human beings in the natural order must be reevaluated. If we are to achieve ecological sustainability, Nature can no longer be viewed only as a commodity; it must be seen as a partner and model in all human enterprise.

We begin with the premise that life on Earth has entered its most precarious phase in history. We speak of threats not only to human life, but to the lives of all species of plants and animals, as well as the health and continued viability of the biosphere. It is the awareness of the present condition that primarily motivates our activities.

We believe that current problems are largely rooted in the following circumstances:

The loss of traditional knowledge, values, and ethics of behavior that celebrate the intrinsic value and sacredness of the natural world and that give the preservation of Nature prime importance. Correspondingly, the assumption of human superiority to other life forms, as if we were granted royalty status over Nature; the idea that Nature is mainly here to serve human will and purpose.

The prevailing economic and development paradigms of the modern world, which place primary importance on the values of the market, not on Nature. The conversion of nature to commodity form, the emphasis upon economic growth as a panacea, the industrialization of all activity, from forestry to farming to fishing, even to education and culture; the drive to economic globalization, cultural homogenization, commodity accumulation, urbanization, and human alienation. All of these are fundamentally incompatible with ecological or biological sustainability on a finite Earth.

Technology worship and an unlimited faith in the virtues of science; the modern paradigm that technological development is inevitable, invariably good, and to be equated with progress and human destiny. From this, we are left dangerously uncritical, blind to profound problems that technology and science have wrought, and in a state of passivity that confounds democracy.

Overpopulation, in both the overdeveloped and the underdeveloped worlds, placing unsustainable burdens upon biodiversity and the human condition.

As our name suggests, we are influenced by the Deep Ecology Platform, which helps guide and inform our work. We believe that values other than market values must be recognized and given importance, and that Nature provides the ultimate measure by which to judge human endeavors.

Deep Ecology

Liberalism empowers individualism which empowers apathy which creates reckless, pointless growth, without the kind of cultural consensus that can oppose such valueless living.

To support culture, support nationalism:

Nationalism develops from the idea that the nation, in contrast to the nation-state, is formed of the indigenous people to an area. It is the longest-lasting and most sensible form of government, for it groups together people who have culture, heritage and language in common. The modern nation-state imposes political boundaries on an area, moves people into it, and declares it a "nation," but without this lack of inherent consensus such states become marketplaces instead of living cultural entities.

In a world where human thoughtlessness in the name of enhancing personal wealth is ruining our environment and turning our lives into passages between grey concrete tunnels to fulfil ultimately meaningless tasks, nationalism is a re-assertion of the organic bond between individual and society. By placing culture before commerce, nationalism advocates a more meaningful daily life. It ends the bad judgment and ugly cities justified by someone somewhere being willing to buy something, regardless of its eventual utility or indirect, socialized costs. Nationalism makes the state serve the people, where nation-state systems make the people serve the state.

We are told that we have economic freedom, social freedom and options for living, but the small print says this is only within the context of a market-driven nation-state where the economy and what people are willing to purchase with their votes predominates over any lasting value. Thoughts of "what is right" take a distant backseat to what is popular, and what will be voted for by a crowd in the mode of their lowest common denominator, as well as what is profitable. What is profitable is often destructive in the long term, as global climate change and increasing dissatisfaction show us. We need a new plan. Nationalism is that plan.

Nationalism was the most successful political force of the 19th century. It emerged from two main sources: the Romantic exaltation of "feeling" and "identity" and the Liberal requirement that a legitimate state be based on a "people" rather than, for example, a dynasty, God, or imperial domination. Both Romantic "identity nationalism" and Liberal "civic nationalism" were essentially middle class movements. - Modern History Sourcebook

Pan-Nationalism

A return to values: "do the right thing" not "empower the individual" is what is needed, since 99.99% of individuals do the wrong thing unless encouraged otherwise by a strong social order.

If you want to end the environmental crisis, end liberalism.