Stop All Human Activity Now!!!

Founded entirely on a falsehood, more and more people believe that human productivity and advancement are, with some sort of puritanical self-hatred, little more than a guilty pleasure to be kept in secret. To wit, the German stereotype of having a reputation for cheerless kinkiness is held up rather nicely.

In Baden-Württemberg the dilemma is more apparent than ever. Many want the dangerous dynamic of modernity to be held back by the Greens, and their motives are decent enough. But they are the same people who, while they do indeed want to take to heart the limits to growth in their daily lives, are extremely relieved that the financial crisis is slowly giving way to economic recovery. Baden-Württemberg owes its remarkable prosperity to its industries. Its chemical industry alone — not exactly a friend to the environment — employs nearly 100,000 and brings in 28 billion euros in annual sales.

Unlike sin, there is no redemption here – no matter how modestly one lives, no matter how rough ones’ hair-shirt has become, merely being has effects that must be “mitigated” for the sake of the new omission against gaia: emitting carbon dioxide, one of the earth’s most abundant elements.

Otherwise... Live a little! Take a bus somewhere and chill out!

So how can nature be “wrong” without millions of Besserwisser heads exploding? I don’t know, but I may start carrying an umbrella.

Just how much sustainable lifestyles are grounded in the gains in freedom afforded by prosperity can be observed at any organic market in the Western world, but especially prettily in the Vauban district of Freiburg. The neighbourhood is named after a French marshal, and after the French troops left in 1992 their barracks were converted into a kind of model settlement for ecologically minded townspeople. In the regional elections on Sunday the Greens in Vauban won 72.2 per cent of the vote. These are all very nice, friendly people in Jack Wolfskin jackets; but anyone who has ever strolled through Vauban knows what the gentle “virtue terrorism” of our time looks like.

I prefer to call it terroirism, but like whatever, bro. As long as there are Americans and Asian to buy their goods, I’m not too sure that they care when they lecture us about the use of the vehicles that they export.

Elsewhere: hysteria! Run for your empty, repetitive, welfare-parasite lives!

Europe “in a state of nuclear emergency”