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My Kind of Environmentalist
Speaking at Georgetown University, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is pushing guiltless green. According to San Francisco Chronicle, Schwarzenegger nailed old-fashioned environmentalists
...as kind of weird fanatics.... You know the kind of serious tree huggers. Environmentalists were no fun. They were like prohibitionists at the fraternity party.
But that can all change.
"For too long the environmental movement has been powered by guilt," Schwarzenegger said in a keynote speech Wednesday at a global warming conference at Georgetown University.
"You know the kind of guilt I'm talking about: Smokestacks belching pollution and powering our Jacuzzis and our big-screen TVs and, in my case, powering my private airplanes. It's too bad for us that we can't live the lives of Buddhist monks in Tibet, but you know something, it doesn't happen."
He added, "I don't think any movement has ever made much progress based on guilt. Guilt is passive, guilt is inhibiting and guilt is defensive. ... Successful movements are built on passion, they're not built on guilt. They are built on passion, they are built on confidence and they are built on critical mass." ...
"We don't have to go and take away the muscle cars. We don't have to take away Hummers or SUVs or anything like this, because that's a formula for failure," he said. "Instead we have to make those cars more environmentally muscular."
My Roman Catholic and Jewish friends may beg to differ about movements being built successfully on guilt. But despite Schwarzenegger's touching faith in the efficacy of government action, I must confess myself charmed by his optimism. So much more inspiring than the usual green gloom.
Whole Chronicle article here.
|4.12.07 @ 5:27PM|#
Lame. A true leader would not attempt to sell the fantasy that we can clean up the environment but not actually have to sacrifice anything in the process.
|4.12.07 @ 5:30PM|#
Hooked:
How is it a fantasy? If we plow ahead with developing cleaner
energy sources, industrial techniques, and better ecological
engineering techniques, we indeed CAN have it all. Privation will
never work; it will only slow the inevitable.
Full speed ahead! The only way is through, boys, the only way is
through...
|4.12.07 @ 5:39PM|#
So, Arnold, what are we supposed to get passionate about? ...not
your silly hydrogen initiative, I hope.
http://www.hydrogenhighway.ca.gov/
|4.12.07 @ 5:50PM|#
Lame. A true leader would not attempt to sell the fantasy
that we can clean up the environment but not actually have to
sacrifice anything in the process.
Well, no leader will have to sacrifice anything in the process
(just look at Al Gore's insane energy consumption and enviornmental
irresponsiblity). Only the serfs like you are going to have to
sacrifice, in the way your glorious leaders dictate.
Stephen Macklin|4.12.07 @ 6:01PM|#
What a fool. I thought Arnold was smart enough to understand that the Church of Global Warming was not about saving the planet but ruling the planet. They don't want people with passion to solve the "problem." Solve the problem and the environmentalists don't get to tell the rest of how to live. Where's the fun in that?
|4.12.07 @ 6:02PM|#
My Roman Catholic and Jewish friends may beg to differ about
movements being built successfully on guilt.
Ouch!
I don't think Catholic Christianity is ultimately built on guilt,
but I know what you're talking about, so I'll give you a
pass...this time.
M|4.12.07 @ 6:10PM|#
Your Catholic and Jewish friends believe that the postlapsarian human condition has been (more or less) successfully built on guilt.
|4.12.07 @ 6:30PM|#
"We don't have to go and take away the muscle cars. We don't
have to take away Hummers or SUVs or anything like this, because
that's a formula for failure," he said. "Instead we have to make
those cars more environmentally muscular."
We just want to PUMP YOU UP!!! ;-)
Grotius|4.12.07 @ 6:35PM|#
Successful movements are built on passion...
Apparently Arnold has been reading a lot of Tocqueville.
Adolf|4.12.07 @ 7:10PM|#
"Conscience is a Jewish invention. It is a blemish, like circumcision." --Adolf Hitler
Paul|4.12.07 @ 7:18PM|#
O.K. Hooked, what would you be willing to sacrifice for
Gaia?
Creech, that's the wrong question. The proper question is:
What ARE you sacrificing NOW for Gaia?
|4.12.07 @ 7:35PM|#
I give him at least ten points for not saying "We have to terminate carbon dioxide"
|4.12.07 @ 7:44PM|#
I love heady rhetoric like this as well, but we'll see what happens when the light bulb ban and the plastic bag ban reach his desk.
|4.12.07 @ 7:47PM|#
I don't think the plastic bag ban has anything to do with environmentalism, it's supposed to be due to the fact that plastic bags clog up sewer drains. If anything, plastic bags are better for the environment than paper.
|4.12.07 @ 7:49PM|#
"Instead we have to make those cars more environmentally
muscular."
Wow.
Ladies and Gentlemen...the Governator.
|4.12.07 @ 7:54PM|#
Sewer drains are a big environmental issue, crimethink. You
think floods in urbanized areas give Gaia a bubblebath?
Say a Hail Mary.
|4.12.07 @ 7:55PM|#
"Instead we have to make those cars more environmentally
muscular."
I think Lexus has a 400 horse hybrid. That's friendly, right?
|4.12.07 @ 7:57PM|#
... that is just to say that efficiency leads to greater consumption. It would be bad to offset higher carbon costs with lower per mile costs. You might wash.
|4.12.07 @ 7:57PM|#
Apparently Arnold has been reading a lot of
Tocqueville.
More likely one of his speechwriters has been reading
Tocqueville.
Guy Montag|4.12.07 @ 8:56PM|#
So, I am I supposed to feel some silly "guilt" thing about
putting a 385 HP 440 six-pack in my '72 Charger?
Side note: my Jewish friends in HS talked me out of thinking that I
am Jewish as I am too cheap. They suggested that I am Scottish.
Mike Laursen|4.12.07 @ 9:40PM|#
Don't know if there's a "Church of Global Warming", but, if there is, he pretty much disqualified himself for membership by making this little speech. "Environmentally muscular" ... how wonderfully corny.
Bee|4.12.07 @ 10:52PM|#
Perhaps many environmentalists in California are not registered
to vote here. Or he just doesn't care about getting their undies in
a bunch. Although I do note that this speech was not given *in*
California.
Maybe I should apply to be a speechwriter. Quick, while this
iteration of Arnie lasts....
|4.12.07 @ 11:07PM|#
Newman,
Thank you. I bookmarked that link. Fabulous.
GM,
Ha! Muchos props por el chiste. ¡Qué raro!
|4.13.07 @ 12:25AM|#
Environmentalists were no fun.
And nothing has changed.
My Roman Catholic and Jewish friends may beg to differ about
movements being built successfully on guilt.
Because they, like Earth Daddy Al, know that the church will vanish
without the guilt. In Gaia-ism as well as Judo-Christian religion,
guilt is their reason for being.
But...I must confess myself charmed by his optimism.
Charmed by his what? This is pure and simple stupidity.
It's an attempt to white wash The Green Incarnation of The Theory
of Original Sin. [the theory of Original Sin has undergone many,
many reincarnations over the ages]
Rotten eggs still smell like rotten eggs, no matter how many
bottles of purfume you bring into the room. And we're announcing to
the world here that rotten eggs now smell a lot better to us than
they used to?
I'm pretty sure the Catholics at least tried this one already.
|4.13.07 @ 12:28AM|#
Some economists propose that carbon tax revenues be used to
finance equal cuts in income and payroll taxes.
And most politicians ignore such economists. You can say "it
doesn't have to be that way" all day long. But that's the way it
is.
SugarFree|4.13.07 @ 8:27AM|#
plastic grocery bag = bum condom
If you people really want more homeless babies on the street, you
must have the crazy in you.
|4.13.07 @ 8:49AM|#
SugarFree,
I thought that was Ziploc bags? Preferably with the green-seal for
added confidence.
|4.13.07 @ 8:52AM|#
You think floods in urbanized areas give Gaia a
bubblebath?
joe, you of all people should understand that human waste is far
better for Gaia than the harsh artificial chemicals in bubble-bath
soap.
SugarFree|4.13.07 @ 9:20AM|#
crimethink,
They're bums. How do you think they get money for fancy-pants
Ziploc?
For a guy named crimethink you sure don't think
too much, do you? (Har-dee-har-har.)
(I think I'm a little giddy from the Friday...)
|4.13.07 @ 9:24AM|#
How do you think they get money for fancy-pants
Ziploc?
How many ziploc bags do you think there are in the average
dumpster? You might be surprised...
For a guy named crimethink you sure don't think too much, do
you?
Wait, does everyone drink for that, or just me?
|4.13.07 @ 9:48AM|#
"If anything, plastic bags are better for the environment than
paper."
Plus, if anything, we'll need them for barf bags if Hillary gets
elected.
SugarFree|4.13.07 @ 10:24AM|#
The Hit & Run rules .pdf that I downloaded indicates both of
us. But only one each.
Section 3.4.1
If a posted comment is deemed by popular vote to be a joke that
references other verboten phrases in the rules that trigger a
drink, then the joker and jokee are both at fault and must drink.
(Sec.1.6: There is no good faith defense in cases of aiding and
abetting.)
Section 3.4.2
If a joke in violation of Section 3.4.1 is deemed by popular vote
to be at the expense of or propagating a meme about a
Reason columnist or contributor (hereafter: "staff") then
the Reason staff member must drink after three recorded
violations of Sec. 3.4.1 under conspiracy of aiding and
abetting.
Section 3.4.2
If a joke in violation of Section 3.4.1 or 3.4.2 is deemed by
popular vote to contain a violation of Godwin's Law (Sec. 2.1) or
is ruled a threadkiller (Sec. 6.1) then all posters on that thread
must drink and the joker sits out three threads in the penalty box
(feministing.com).
|4.13.07 @ 10:40AM|#
What a fool. I thought Arnold was smart enough to understand
that the Church of Global Warming was not about saving the planet
but ruling the planet. They don't want people with passion to solve
the "problem." Solve the problem and the environmentalists don't
get to tell the rest of how to live. Where's the fun in
that?
No wonder libertarians are so neurotic - I would be too if I
believed that nobody is sincerely concerned with any problem and
anybody who claims to be actually is plotting to control our lives,
simply for the sake of doing so.
VM|4.13.07 @ 11:07AM|#
um. Sugar - you're forgetting that David "Grylliade" W. will pistol whip you for using the word, "meme".
SugarFree|4.13.07 @ 11:12AM|#
Just because he was molested by a meme in that hell-hole of a Russian orphanage Angelina Jolie adopted him from doesn't mean he controls me.
Mike Laursen|4.13.07 @ 11:46AM|#
Hey, hey, hey, keep that broad brush away from all of us libertarians. The guy who made the Church of Global Warming comment was a sample size of one libertarian. And he might be a sample size of zero libertarians: his blog has a link to "Intellectual Conservative" and Michelle Malkin, fer godsakes.
|4.13.07 @ 12:11PM|#
|4.13.07 @ 12:28PM|#
Hooked:
Yes we are concerned about any politician that tells us they want
to control our energy, food, homes, transportation, light bulbs,
shopping bags, you know like control our entire fucking lives.
|4.13.07 @ 1:25PM|#
No wonder libertarians are so neurotic - I would be too if I
believed that nobody is sincerely concerned with any problem and
anybody who claims to be actually is plotting to control our lives,
simply for the sake of doing so.
No, it's the ones came with arms opened wide, professing to be here
to help us from the scourge of [insert scourge o' the day here],
when in reality, all they were doing is acting to increase their
powerbase. Natch, this was the aim all along. They just found
enough anxiety ridden/uncritical-thinking suckers to go along with
them.
Y'know, like war presidents and how Nifong was going to save us all
from the scourge of lacrosse-playing rapists.
|4.13.07 @ 1:30PM|#
No wonder libertarians are so neurotic - I would be too if I
believed that nobody is sincerely concerned with any problem and
anybody who claims to be actually is plotting to control our lives,
simply for the sake of doing so.
The religious right is genuinely concerned about the state of the
nation, just like Arnie.
Neither of them shies away from imposing their "concern" on the
rest of us.
Drowning Witch|4.13.07 @ 2:57PM|#
Arnie's blather looks kinda like that new bullshit feel good
diet "the secret"
here, "the secret" is that Hummers and SUVs are "the news" and
everyone will just have to find a way to accommodate them
anything else is "a formula for failure"
bah
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