The masses have amassed too much .. Mark Steyn

The National Post ^ | 2 September 2007 | Mark Steyn

[Rummyfan]

There's no such thing as "sustainable" development. Human progress and individual liberty have advanced on the backs of one unsustainable development after another: When we needed trees for heating and transportation, we chopped 'em down. Then we discovered oil, and the trees grew back. When the oil runs out, we won't notice because our SUVs will be powered by something else. Bet on human ingenuity every time. We're not animals, and it's a cult as deranged as the screwiest fringe religion to insist we are. Earth's most valuable resource is us.

Thank you Mark Steyn!

[Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus]

Just goes to show, if you give Mark Steyn a hammer, he’ll nail it every time.

[The Ghost of FReepers Past]

Steyn is so talented.

[goodnesswins]

bump for later

[KEmom]

That is a great post!! Thanks for sharing!!

[M203M4]

BUMP. Great article.

[goldstategop]

I'm a futurist. Ever since I read the Tofflers' works, I was hooked. They describe a future of ever expanding technological and social innovation - an Age Of Prosperity. Any conservative who is not a futurist is not a conservative. The Left in contrast, wallows in doom and gloom and sees only a future of decline - no they don't see any future for mankind at all on the planet that includes a more bountiful and happier existence for every human being on the planet. I admit I like modernism and its aesthetic and technological applications. These can put in the service of traditional values. Its the duty of conservatives to take advantage of mankind's progress but fill the content with values that will ensure that progress serves us rather than our becoming slaves to it. The world we seek is far removed from the Left's Metropolis' dystopia waiting around the corner.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[oblomov]

Steyn hits the nail on the head. The objection of the left to wealth is not (as they claim) that so few are affluent. Their objection is that anyone is affluent.

[goldstategop]

Exactly. We don't want every one to be poor. We want every one to live their dreams and be prosperous. We think the riches of our planet are the birthright of every human being and a life of ease is not just for the idle rich. The difference between us and the Left is we don't believe the size of the pie is fixed. We believe there is enough pie to make every human being on earth prosperous, healthy and happy.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[RicocheT]

Mark Steyn is one of the most intelligent and funny writers of our age. If he wasn’t so sensible and could embrace the idiot culture of the left, he would now have been given all the literary and culture awards our leftist intelligentsia bestow upon themselves, plus a pile of PBS fund-raiser cash.

[CharlesWayneCT]

24-hour lesbian wrestling channels on Premium Cable.

Hmmm.

[goldstategop]

Beautiful women in cat fights. Like the famous Miller Lite beer commercial. Tastes great, less filling. Mass culture has never been so risque - or entertaining.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[Barney Gumble]

Steyn is the man!

[CharlesWayneCT]

He’s got some great points, and I certainly don’t want to go back to a pre-technical era.

But there IS something to the idea that our technology hasn’t made us happier, and that with the GOOD use of technology to provide us more leasure time came a BAD use which ate up that time with things designed to enslave us.

I love when the power goes out, and suddenly there are neighbors out in the streets, kids playing ball, adults talking, maybe even picking up a deck of cards — we can entertain ourselves with others, or we can let the TV entertain us by ourselves.

If I could bring myself to do it, it seems that living in the modern age, but living LIKE it was 50 years ago, I could have saved enough money to retire by now.

[phillyfanatic]

Mark has made sure that the secular humanists that has become the Democrat Party are the ones who have what freedom , liberty and capitalism has given them: wealth untold without the spiritual foundation to stand for America. Good heavens, what dolts these liberal pigs have become snorffling at the feeding grounds of freedom and throwing their offal at the nation which has bred them. They are shameful and shameless but please, do not ever question their patriotism.

[Ramius]

Serendipitous it is that only a couple of weeks ago bought a DVD of Metropolis and watched it. I'd seen clips from it since forever, but never the whole thing. It's really, really odd. Not the story I expected.

[Ramius]

There’s something to what you say. As an IT management type, I’m immersed in technology so much of the time I find myself rebelling from time to time and doing something retro.

My latest retro rebellion was to install a chalk board on the wall in my office. Not a white board, or a meeting board with a printer and a network connection... a good old fashioned chalk board. And lots of different colors of chalk. And an eraser.

Lovin’ it. :-)

[Red Boots]

George Monbiot, celebrated doom-monger of Britain's Guardian, agrees: "It is impossible not to notice that, in some of the poorest parts of the world, most people, most of the time, appear to be happier than we are. <>In southern Ethiopia, for example, the poorest half of the poorest nation on Earth, the streets and fields crackle with laughter. In homes constructed from packing cases and palm leaves, people engage more freely, smile more often, express more affection than we do behind our double glazing, surrounded by remote controls."

Their happieness comes from being free of the nanny state, not electricity, George !

What's next, mandatory happiness ?

[rb22982]

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