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Paul K. Driessen and Ayn Rand: A Book and a Campaign to Change the World "Now observe that in all the propaganda of the ecologists—amidst all their appeals to nature and pleas for “harmony with nature”—there is no discussion of man’s needs and the requirements of his survival. Man is treated as if he were an unnatural phenomenon. Man cannot survive in the kind of state of nature that the ecologists envision—i.e., on the level of sea urchins or polar bears. We have a private "joke" at home. Whenever we hear of the famines in the world or see the TV-spots of "charity institutions" showing starving children and mothers in Africa and elsewhere, I ask my wife: "Have they tried Capitalism?" to which she, dutifully, replies: "Of course not!" which, then, brings forth my comment: "Well, then these poor people lack every possibility to cure their dire situation." The reader should keep this in mind as he reads on. For what will be presented and suggested in this writing, I recommend the Objectivist members of Rebirth of Reason to urgently read Paul K. Driessen's "Eco-Imperialism. Green Power. Black Death." (See http://www.eco-imperialism.com/main.php). Since Driessen was unknown to me, and being myself of German origin, the German edition of the book caught my attention at a bookstore where I live. It contains a very positive comment by Robert Bidinotto and a dismantling accusation against what I call "the Greenies" by Dr. Patrick Moore, the co-founder of "Greenpeace U.S.A." This is not the first book on environmentalism and against the so-called "Green-Movement" I have read nor will it surely be the last. My library is shelf breaking filled with them. There are many other books on the subject, intelligent and well written (those by the late Dixy Lee Ray, Wallace Kaufman and Bjorn Lomborg, two environmentalist who look very, very critically at all the damages the movement has done and does, Jack W. Dini and, of course, "Rational Readings on Environmental Concerns" edited by Jay H. Lehr). There are also many in German language, though this may surprise the reader since nowadays most European are painted green, by Thüne, Gärtner, Blüchel, Bachmann, Hug, those written by these great defenders of individual liberty: Maxeiner and Miersch and, of course, what Vaclav Klaus, the President of the Czech Republic and a strong defender of Capitalism, wrote on the subject in his book "Blue Planet in Green Shackles". Stating all this as a proof that I know what I am talking about, should suffice as an introduction of what is to follow. For it was Driessen's book denouncing what the Western bureaucracies and the wrongly-called "environment defenders" are doing against the poverty-stricken people in Africa, Asia and Latin America and, thus, simultaneously acting in favor of the secular and religious rulers, dictators and tyrants in the regions named, what brought my blood to boiling point. And this led me to the proposal I present in this article. The Eco-Imperialism, operating on a world-wide basis through the generally mendacious media (For "If it's in the newspaper, it must be true, mustn't it?"), the governments and the NGO's of every color and variety, are effectively killing millions of people by forbidding them: a) the use of products developed by science to protect human life against an early death, and b) blocking every possibility of social betterment, such improvement being in itself a powerful tool to protect and extend the human lifespan. Though this is incredible, it is precisely eliminating human beings what the "green movements" and their associates are after, thus identifying themselves - while they would never admit this - to be on an equal standing with those mass murderers I commonly call Stalitlers. Prince Philip of England, in his Foreword to "If I were an Animal", said: "In the event that I am reincarnated, I would like to return as a deadly virus, in order to contribute something to solve overpopulation" and Dave Foreman, founder of "Earth First!", stated: "Phasing out the human race will solve every problem on earth, social and environmental." There are many more such statements, all of them nauseating to the Objectivist mind. Whenever and wherever I read them I automatically think: "Well, since this is what they want, and as they themselves belong, as unfortunate as this is, to the human species, why don't they start by eliminating themselves first?" But, of course, such people don't adhere to personal integrity. They want everybody else to be eliminated, as the Stalitlers did and do, to then remain surrounded by all the slaves they would require to "enjoy" their idleness and worthlessness. When you read their curriculum vitae you will find that most of them occupy haughty positions, paid by the taxes or the well-meant donations of hard-working people, with whose lowly status they would surely not prefer to come into contact. As Ayn Rand commented in her "The Anti-Industrial Revolution": " - that the feudal baron (does) not need electronic factories in order to drink his brains away out of jeweled goblets, and neither (do) the rajahs of the People's State of India." Driessen clearly points out that imposing the EU- and the USA "standards" of environmentalism hurts and, beyond this, condemns the poor (I would add that, if they have their way, it will run us all into poverty and early death) of the world to a permanent state of hunger, illness and, thus, desperation and hate against the Western world, since cutting the general population off from the road of progress is a prospect particularly horrifying to the Objectivist mentality. Prohibiting the use of genetically engineered food and medicaments pushes more and more people to sickness and a lack of bodily sustenance, which, in addition, provides a fast growing basis for all the hate mongers that want to destroy the civilized world. Such a situation engenders wars (which is what environmentalists want, for war is one of the "tools" to "phase out the human race" while giving sustenance and increasing the power and the wealth of dictators and tyrants that thrive on the despondency of their subjects). James Shikwati, director the Inter Region Economic Network in Nairobi, Kenya, said very clearly that "Corporate social responsibility ought not to be used to impose policies that kill people. It should not be used to render poor populations sick, unproductive and perpetually destitute… For rich countries to tell poor nations to invest only in alternative energy and ban chemicals that help control disease-carrying insects - and then claim to be responsible, humanitarian and compassionate - is to engage in hypocrisy of the most lethal kind." While I don't think that Driessen knows or would favor Objectivism, since he favorable cites a religionist, C. W. Lewis, in his book, words that he himself mentions are still fully compatible with the Objectivist ideology: "Free people and markets generate optimism, possibilities of development, innovation, well-being, health and environmental quality." As the solution to the ethical, economic and ecological problems, the ecology-centered followers of the corporate social responsibility demand a way of thinking that operates in favor of an ideology of pessimism, privation and indifference towards the needs of thousands of millions of people. These ideologists despise the market for new ideas, intellectual divergence and the individual's right to think for himself, to take his own decisions, to set his own priorities and to solve his own problems. I think that it is here that Objectivists have an extraordinarily great opportunity, not to donate (for money always ends in bottomless pockets and don't enhance the self-confidence of the intended receiver), but to spread the Objectivist ideas on a worldwide basis, as applied to a most worthwhile cause: to raise the poor from their poverty on their own bootstraps by proposing the application of Objectivism, a truly dignifying set of ideas, and its economic "tool": Capitalism. May the Objectivists take up this proposal and expand such a meaningful opportunity throughout the world. If we do so Objectivists and the work of its adherents will survive, to paraphrase what Dixy Lee Ray said in one of her books. Articles and even books (though this is expensive and not available to everybody) written by Objectivist academics, scientists, newspapermen and women in favor of DDT and other life-saving and life-extending products and measures, and advising the implementation of the life-enhancing social system of Capitalism, which should be distributed via e-mails and all the additionally existing Internet possibilities by the Objectivist organizations and the authors themselves, could and would render, among many more, the following benefits: - Since the present behavior of the media, of Western governments and of the NGO's against the use of effective chemical life-saving and life-enhancing products and measures, effectively promote the total hatred of the poor against the West and provide ample basis for people-damaging religions and organizations to recruit people for their purposes of destroying it, this Objectivist campaign, to which Capitalism favoring, non-Objectivist organizations could also adhere, will do much to revert the existing trend and establish a firm basis for people to recognize Objectivism as a people-friendly movement. - It could and would change, in due course and in accordance with the growth of the campaign, the now existing Western government's and media attitude in favor of the "Greenies" towards the individual-oriented position of Objectivism. The eventual accusation, which will surely come up, that Objectivism does all this for egoistic motives, looses all of its venom since we Objectivists ARE egoists and never deserted from this position nor ever will. Hence, here we have another point in our favor that allows Objectivists to shrug off attacks that will certainly be launched against this proposal while, at the same time, revert it in our favor: WE WANT PEOPLE TO LIVE AS LONG AS POSSIBLE AND AS PROSPEROUS AND HAPPY AS THEY CAN AND WILL. I consider that the articles to be written by Objectivists would all clearly point out the correctness of our principles, promoting the worldwide establishment of societies composed of peaceful, productive individuals creating a cornucopia of well-being, in accordance with Ayn Rand's magnificent view of a truly human society.
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