Who Will Defend Industry from Eco-Terrorism

The Ayn rand Institute ^ | Tuesday, February 14, 2006 | Onkar Ghate

[Reform Canada]

Who Will Defend Industry from Eco-Terrorism? Tuesday, February 14, 2006 By: Onkar Ghate

Man's method of survival--transforming nature to meet his needs--must be defended against environmentalism's attack.

The good news: a federal grand jury in Eugene, Oregon, has indicted 11 people on charges that they committed acts of domestic terrorism on behalf of the Earth Liberation Front and the Animal Liberation Front. Moreover, now one of the FBI's "highest domestic terrorism priorities," according to director Robert S. Mueller III, is to prosecute people who commit crimes "in the name of animal rights or the environment."

Nevertheless, it remains worrisome that we still dismiss such terrorists as deranged individuals who pervert the ideology of environmentalism. Even more worrisome is that few of us intellectually grasp, and then rise to defend, the irreplaceable values under attack by environmental terrorists. Their targets are not, fundamentally, a particular ski resort, logging company, meatpacking center or medical research project, but what these represent: human technology, human progress, human life.

Man's life is sustained--and made longer, healthier, happier--by industrial development and technological progress. The hospitals, antibiotics and chemotherapy treatments which keep our bodies free from disease--the pesticides, bioengineering and shopping malls which make possible our consumption of almost any food imaginable--the oil rigs, dams and nuclear power plants which keep our lights on and washing-machines running--the trucks, telephones and computers which make an hour of our time vastly more productive--the large homes, MP3 players and ski resorts which make our newfound recreational hours more enjoyable--it is these products of industrial civilization that are responsible for the vast increase in the quantity and quality of life that we enjoy today.

[ken21]

the american media never reported on the eco devastation by communist governments.

[Reform Canada]

ping

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

Nor the human devastation. What’s a hundred million or so murders in the interest of creating Utopia on Earth?

[BlazingArizona]

Fortunately, religious hatred of technology is largely a Boomer phenomenon. It’s hard to be a terrorist when you’re in your sixties with bad knees.

[SteveMcKing]

Nevertheless, it remains worrisome that we still dismiss such terrorists as deranged individuals who pervert the ideology of environmentalism. Even more worrisome is that few of us intellectually grasp, and then rise to defend, the irreplaceable values under attack by environmental terrorists.

By analogy, Islamic terrorists aren't deranged within the context of Islam. Yet people treat them as crazy, ignoring the religion that motivates them.

Regardless, militant radicals don't generally make any cause "look good" within a peaceful society. Engaging in a philosophical debate about environmentalism (which Ghate seems to assume we would "win") is just what any terrorist wants: to be taken seriously.

Practically, it may be wiser to treat them as nuts, and let them besmirch their own cause by mere association. You're not going to get 50% of people to think more deeply than that when it comes to installing good policies.

[SteveMcKing]

So to answer the question posed — state and local police, maybe the FBI, and lots of queer old rent-a-cops.

[Caipirabob]

Shoot, Shovel and Shut-up. Remember: It is an eco-terrorist's ultimate goal to "feed mother earth" in the form of a compost mound.

[davidlachnicht]

. new poster