MUENCHHAUSEN

AN ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER ABOUT ENVIRONMENT,
RENEWABLE RESOURCE TECHNOLOGY,
AND RELATED TOPICS

By BOOTSTRAP PRESS, INC.
BETHESDA, MD
JJGREENBARON@VERIZON.NET

FOR COMMENTS: GREEN_BARON99.MUENCHHAUSEN@BLOGGER.COM

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MAY 31, 2007
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WELCOME!

The Green Baron welcomes one and all who take the time to read Muenchhausen. He aims to “tell it like it is” as much as possible, and avoid advocacy and ideological positions. There are enough of those to go around in other publications.

The Green Baron also welcomes comments from anyone who may read Muenchhausen. Please send comments to the e-mail address above or to Green_Baron99.muenchhausen@blogger.com.

WAR DOESN'T HELP THE ENVIRONMENT



Neither do dictatorships, especially totalitarian ones. The Green Baron departs from his usual topics and addresses the strong, nearly inevitable possibility of war because in much of the world, the environment will suffer acutely. But why does The Green Baron foresee general all-out war? Because in his view, currently, there are two basic ideologies among the human population that are mutually irreconcileable, and thus cannot coexist on this planet. Barring a sudden collapse of one of those ideologies, all-out world war must ensue. What is not yet certain is what form this war will take, where its battles will take place, and what types of battles they shall be.


What are these basic ideologies (which, on both sides, have numerous subcategories, to be sure)? In general, one sets forth the idea of the free will, certain basic human rights and freedoms, God-given or otherwise, and the intrinsic value of the individual and the opportunity to be all one can be. The other designates the individual as a cog in a huge machine--i.e., mass man--who has minimal, if any intrinsic value as a person, and whose sole function is unquestioning service to his despotic or theocratic leader. It matters little whether this tyranny is labeled fascism, communism, Islamism, or what have you: The ideologies of individual freedom and worth and those of totalitarianism ultimately cannot coexist.

When The Green Baron looks over the broad scope of human history, he comes reluctantly to the tentative acceptance (apologies to Charles Fort [1874--1932]) that the relative freedom under which we, as Americans, live, and the high estimate of the intrinsic value of the individual are, alas, anomalies. From deepest antiquity until the Renaissance, with some rare exceptions, the concept never arose (perhaps we shall mention an exception or two later). Moreover, a regime of comparative liberty of the American type essentially did not exist at all until the 18th century.

SEEN AS AN ABOMINATION

The American experiment in establishing its type of free republic likely would never have occurred were it not for several ambient circumstances. Britain still was recovering from the effects of the French and Indian Wars (1756--1763) in North America and the Seven Years' War in Europe. Also, although Britain had a strong military force in its American colonies, it did have a long, arduous way to go to resupply its troops, who could not subsist entirely by living off the land. Nevertheless, the Colonists would have lost were it not for their dogged determination, partly occasioned by their belief in the words of the 1776 Declaration of Independence; some military errors by the British side, and aid to the Colonists by the French, who likely did not much care for the new American ideology, but wanted to "stick it" to their then-arch-rival, Britain.

If The Green Baron had been among the European elite classes of the late 18th century, he likely would have been horrified at the ideology of the American Revolution and its outcome, and considered it a gross abomination. In his view, this new society would have been turning long-established socio-economic order on its head. Indeed, he suspects that this attitude still obtains among the European (including British) "chattering classes". Why, then, did they not attempt to strangle this newborn perceived monstrosity in its cradle?

Indeed, some did try. Britain and America went to war in 1812 over impressment of American sailors, at sea, into the Royal Navy to fight against France in the Napoleonic Wars. (France was doing the same thing, but Britain was guiltier of this offense.) And Britain likely have defeated the fledgling United States, were it not for having to expend most of its efforts against France, as well as overcoming the problem of long and treacherous transatlantic resupply lines.

In addition, the new America was not without its own warts. One reason the United States could grow as it did was a seemingly endless supply of natural resources, with no perceived need to conserve them. Another was the relatively easy, and mostly merciless subjugation of indigenous Amerindian tribes whose technical development was far, far behind those of the European settlers. A third factor was the presence of a wilderness and a frontier; these allow newcomers to live farther apart from each other and less supervised by authority than in the old country. Moreover, during the USA's early days, slavery and indentured labor did in some ways contribute to the nation's growth.

One could go on forever about America's good and bad features, but the "bottom line" is that a set of peculiar, low-probability factors produced a nation with an uncommon level--now beginning to vanish--of personal liberty and laissez-faire. It is The Green Baron's reluctantly arrived-at position that socioeconomic elites in most of the world came to find the development of America's type of society--imperfect though it may be--with disdain and even alarm, as a continuously ongoing threat to social order. Starting in 1843, Karl Marx and his successors also attacked the American system, though perhaps for different reasons too numerous to list here. These elites and the followers of Marx, though they may dislike each other heartily, nevertheless tacitly make common cause in their desire to put paid to the American approach once and for all.

The Green Baron will add his "j'accuse": that the world's elites (including some Americans) and the Marxists find in today's Islamic extremists an unspoken ally in the campaign to destroy any semblance of democratic capitalism in America. Suppose they succeed in this combined effort: what war or wars will ensue when the Islamists turn on the elites and Marxists, as inevitably they would? Please bear in mind that the Marxists and their successors fight for the imposition of their ideology for humanistic reasons, whereas the Islamists, doing battle for God, will be more motivated and not inhibited in how they do it. Whereas Marxist types and Islamists may agree generally that the ends justify the means, the Islamists place fewer limits on the means they would use than would the Marxists (and they are not all that inhibited themselves!). Effects of the environment essentially would be deemed as being of little or no consequence.

The Green Baron is the first to admit that there was much that America had to be modest about, to quote Winston Churchill (his characterization of Labor Party leader Clement Atlee in the late-1940s UK). But Churchill himself observed that although the American system may leave much to be desired, "It is the best there is."

More to come in future postings of Muenchhausen.

WHAT IS BOOTSTRAP PRESS?

Bootstrap Press is a nonprofit organization founded in Bethesda, Maryland, U.S.A., to promote the development and management of technology and businesses based on renewable resources. We also encourage the preservation of our Earth's natural habitats and its plant and animal species. So do a lot of other organizations, and more power to them for doing so!

Bootstrap Press is different because its members believe that the development of renewable resources and the preservation of habitats and species are receiving far more lip service than the financial and technical support needed to achieve these goals. We also think they will continue to be subjects of more talk than action until someone can show how renewable resources and the diversity of biological species can be the basis for potentially profitable businesses as well as a matter of ethics. Bootstrap Press intends to provide a forum for the discussion of how to build up such business, and of related topics.

There's one more thing we should mention about Muenchhausen and Bootstrap Press. We try to present only the scientific and technical facts that are correct to the best of our knowledge, belief, and good faith. It is up to Muenchhausen's readers to draw their own conclusions and make their own judgments.

NOTE: The mention of a product or service in Muenchhausen is in no way to be regarded as an endorsement of that product or service by Muenchhausen, Bootstrap Press, the Green Baron, or any other contributor to Muenchhausen. Also, the views expressed in Muenchhausen are The Green Baron’s own, and are based on the best of his knowledge, belief, and good faith.