Posted on 08/25/2005 6:01:04 PM PDT by HeebrewHammer
The Only Thing We’re Short of Is Time by Rabbi Daniel Lapin President, Toward Tradition
With five single daughters, each more beautiful, brilliant, and gracious than the next, I am naturally interested in the topic of “meeting & mating.” Perusing various match-making websites the other day, I was baffled by how many women, who, as part of their “sell” proclaimed their political affiliation. Frankly, who cares? And didn’t their mothers ever tell them not to talk about religion, sex, or politics? What is more, almost to a woman, they all declared themselves to be “left wing liberal.” Now, why on earth would they want to discourage the entire universe of intelligent, handsome, and virile conservative bachelors?
A friend of mine, a single Jewish business woman, recently helped me understand the answer. She welcomed higher electricity prices, she said, since they incentivized her to cut down her power usage. Get that? Using lots of electricity is a problem, not because it is expensive, but because it is evil. She wanted electricity to cost more in order to discourage its use.
None of this was about saving money. This girl owns her own condo and wears four hundred dollar sweaters. She was talking morality—doing the right thing not the economical thing. As she sees it, it is obviously just plain wrong to use more than your fair share of electricity.
Are we really suffering from a shortage of electricity or other energy? Should we be rationed? The moral answer is yes if we are suffering an energy shortage and no if we are only imagining one.
This would not be the first time that we have imagined an energy shortage. Until the early 18th century, colonial homes were heated mostly by burning wood. Forests were vanishing and the rapidly growing colonies were running out of fire wood. Eliminate immigration and ration firewood, was the call of the day, until they found and began burning coal. As with anything new and untried, coal brought dangers. But these were soon overcome and by 1840 America was deriving energy from a million tons of coal a year.
William Jevons, an economics professor at University College, London, became famous on account of a paper he published in 1865. It was entitled The Coal Question: An Inquiry Concerning the Progress of the Nation, and the Probable Exhaustion of our Coal Mines. He predicted that British prosperity would end within fifty years when the nation ran out of coal and recommended an industrial slowdown in order to conserve what coal was left. We are just about into 2002 and Britain is still mining and burning coal.
America used to depend on whale oil for lighting. During the early 19th century, pundits warned that since whales were being harvested at an ever increasing rate, America would soon go dark. They recommended turning out all lights no later than ten o’clock in order to conserve what whale oil was left. They were right about running out of whale oil, but they were wrong about America going dark. In 1859 a railroad conductor called Edwin Drake had struck oil in Titusville, Pennsylvania. Lanterns started burning paraffin instead of whale oil until Edison’s electricity lit American cities.
Since the 1970s we have heard much about exhausting the world’s petroleum reserves. Just how soon has been debated, but nobody doubts that the amount of oil is ultimately limited, just as whale oil was. Should we therefore advise petroleum conservation as they once did with firewood, whale oil, and coal?
The truth is that although we do need energy, we have no need specifically for firewood, whale oil, coal, or petroleum. Each in its age suited our purpose. One of Judaism’s central messages is how uniquely human it is to use energy. Animals seek no external sources of energy. They hunt and gather, always expending slightly less bodily energy in the quest than they gain from consuming the quarry. But we humans possess a deep yearning to liberate ourselves from drudgery. Subconsciously this may be because we yearn to have the time to devote to more spiritual pursuits. We are capable of infinite creativity and invention, and need not contemplate energy shortage. It was our limitless human ingenuity that carried us from firewood to coal, and from whale oil to petroleum.
In each step we learned how to extract ever more energy from each pound of matter. Now we have nuclear power, the process that releases almost infinite amounts of energy. Could nuclear power perhaps be for us today what petroleum was to those who foresaw the end of whale oil? Soon, perhaps, we will no longer seek spurious moral redemption by conserving energy. We will find authentic moral purpose in our religious faith while we purchase energy just as we do clothing and coffee today—by consulting our budgets not our consciences.
You know why those single girls described their politics as “left wing liberal?” Because they think that is the best way to say “I’m a good, moral person who cares about others.” Let’s stop seeking moral approval by wearing a badge of ‘left wing liberal’. It may be our politics— it should not be our morality. That ought to be Biblical faith.
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Toward Tradition is a 501(c)3 organization based in Seattle, WA, dedicated to restoring America's culture and building the alliance between Jews and Christians. All gifts are tax-deductible. To contact us please write to P.O. Box 58, Mercer Island, WA 98040, or phone 206 236 3046.
Why shouldn't they? If North Carolina gets overcrowded, we can just move back to Oklahoma, with a total state population less than the Greater Charlotte Urban Sprawl.
And enjoy your Social Security benefits, contributed by my kids.
He's being facetious and flattering at the same time. It's a mild form of Orthodox Jewish humor.
"Gee... we don't have enough humans on this chuck o' rock - maybe we should double the population"
You're welcome to depart any time, if you feel there's not enough room for you. Planet Zongo is spacious, according to Mark Steyn.
MIT scientist are working on Cold Fusion (aka Low Energy Nuclear Reaction/LENR) technology. Think I'll subscribe to the magazine to keep abreast of their latest research. Give them some time. They may just perfect it.
It ain't about land mass/pop... it's about resources. And not just energy - although thats gonna be a bytch this winter.
One day human beings will settle Mars. We can export the excess to that planet. It's a little chilly there but they will adapt.
Nahhh... I'll stick around.
I'm halfway thru my trip, and have always been a frugal/spartan type - so the pinch won't really effect me.
But it should be fun watching the hoard fight over the scraps.
Pish-tosh. It's not often one encounters a ZPG-er on Free Republic. I think it's a sign from God that I need to retire with a good book.
Cheers, as much as you can experience in an overpopulated, underresourced world.
Horde.
Better the rabbi and people like him than the Islamofascists who produce large families.
I always consider it a polemic victory when my spelling is corrected!
That's a senseless statement.
I guess I hit a nerve.
Gee...what's the matter? The abortionists aren't going fast enough for you?
tra di TION!!! TRADITION!! L'Chaim!
(No, I'm not Jewish but I'm grafted onto their lineage. And I just LOVE Fiddler on the Roof!)
In my life, there have been predicted shortages of everything from food to oil to wood to steel to water to Portland cement. All the doom and gloomers have been wrong.
And I ain't no spring chicken.
Or maybe they love their father and understand that he is an author turning a phrase for effect. Sheesh...some people are wound way too tight.
What is really says is that she is a little stupid, thinks emotively and has few if any logical reasoning abilities. Or that she is an arrogant self annointed wannabe elite seeking same. Either way, it's a nice label that helps conservative men avoid expensive divorces.
Is turd spelled with an e or a u? I've seen it both ways.
Besides, you do understand that people actually die at the same time that others are being born...right?
Of course it's not.
Conservatism isn't about waste and gluttony and irresponsible reproduction.
It's about CONSERVING.
Being Responsible.
Foresight of the repercussions in one's actions.
I guess I hit a nerve.
Given the responses, I was thinking the same thing.
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