[MarkL]

I've heard the "Green" party referred to as the "Watermellon Party." Green on the outside, red on the inside. It seems that's where the hard left of the world have found a home. Interestingly enough, it was the eastern european communist countries that were some of the worst ecological disasters before the Iron Curtain fell

(Winston Churchill, we need you now!)

Mark

[ReignOfError]

Interestingly enough, it was the eastern european communist countries that were some of the worst ecological disasters before the Iron Curtain fell

Not at all surprising. When the folks who are supposed to maximize profit and efficiency (business) and the folks who are supposed to protect the common good (government) are the same folks, they don't do either job well. The greatest happiness and prosperity come from both in balance -- not a static balance, but a constant, and constantly shifting, state of creative tension.

That's why I distrust utopianism, whatever the vision of utopia. Utopians believe that we can one day reach a state where all such conflicts will cease. I don't think that jibes with any sane reading from any page of history. Radical statism and radical laissez-faire are both states of imbalance, and human nature won't let them last long.

If you read Thomas Paine and Karl Marx side by side, it's astonishing how similar their visions of the future are. Both believe that we can throw off the shackles of the current order, a bunch of stuff will happen in between, and then we'll all live together in an enlightened state, with a government that need only provide minor administrative support and courts to settle disputes.

The difference is the stuff in between -- and because I don't believe it's possible to achieve Utopia, that difference is all the difference. In the 20th century, it was the difference between living in a free and democratic (to varying degrees) society and living in a bleak Communist hellhole.