The more perfect civilization is, the less occasion has it for government, because the more does it regulate its own affairs, and govern itself… All the great laws of society are laws of nature.
Thomas Paine
The Rights of Man
[I find it very interesting that there is a strong trend in those that support the Democrat party toward preserving nature and discouraging human intervention. Yet in human affairs there is a very strong tendency toward intervention in the activities of people and a general insistent on not letting nature take its course. It’s as if they have no coherent principles.
Yes, I’ve blogged about this before. And Kevin has a more recent post that is, in a slightly obscure way, on topic as well.–Joe]
Although the Dems give lip service to wilderness preservation, even there I think they try to demonstrate their superiority in intellect over the common man and even nature. “Preservation” is used as a cudgel to enforce social behavior – e.g., hiking good, mountain biking bad. The Wilderness Act was being interpreted for awhile (haven’t really checked into the outcome) such that fixed pitons that had existed for generations in popular climbing areas were going to have to be removed.
I just returned from a drilling project in California. We had to take particular care to not harm a specific endangered plant that supposedly grows only on this one hilltop – potential fines of $10K if you damaged a leaf on this shrub! According to the guys who work this site everyday (and my own observations) this plant THRIVES on construction activities. It quickly colonizes any soil that’s been disturbed, and prefers growing in nasty soil that little else will touch. The California and Federal bureaucrats who administer this site essentially use the plant as a tool to beat up on our client – whenever they need some cash influx or get bored, they go invent a few violations so they can maintain their fiefdom.
Never assume that “It’s for the good of nature” is any more altruistic than “It’s for the children!” Current wilderness policy is all about power and land grabbing.
“Current wilderness policy is all about power and land grabbing.
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Not all. Keep in mind that one of the goals of the radical left has always been to bring down the (capitalist) system. Anything they can do to muck up the works is a win for them, if only for that reason alone. Never forget it. It has been said that environmentalism is the new home of communism. That’s not really accurate either. In that it goes back much farther, it’s not “new”. Hitler was an environmentalist (oh Boy, here we go) and his National Socialism was nothing more than a stepping stone to full-on Marxism.