When the State Enforces an Idea, Doubt It

~ H.L. Mencken

Those with ambitions for power over their fellow humans continue to speak of the threats of “climate change” and “global warming” as though they were expressing revealed truths. Religious dogmas can find their roots in scientific as well as theological thinking. Questioning either the “intelligent design” or “big bang” explanations for the origins of the universe can evoke angry responses from true-believers on either side of the issue. In the case of the High-Church Warmingists, a verifiable fact (i.e., increased temperature) is merged with an empirically unfounded assertion (i.e., human activity is the causal explanation) to provide true believers the rationale for their rule over mankind. Those who deny this article of faith are targeted for dismissal in academia and even televised weather shows. was a core principle of what used to be celebrated as a “liberal arts” education. But in an age in which politically correct ideologies have so infected academic life, the tools with which the Warmingists operate tend to be quite superficial.

Richard Weaver’s classic work, Ideas Have Consequences, extended the principle into the realms of philosophy and ideology. At a time when socialists and other central planners ask us to substitute their illusions for the informal and spontaneous orders that sustain us, it is timely to recall the consequences of political systems and programs that did so much to destroy the lives of so many. The Soviet Union, Maoist China, Nazi Germany, and the present difficulties now being experienced by people in Venezuela, provide some of the most familiar examples of the consequences of empowering a few to dominate and rule the many by force.

The global warming that melted the great ice sheet that confined my Iberian ancestors, allowed them to move into other regions in Europe, thus enhancing their opportunities for living well. Perhaps there is a lesson for us all in this example. Will “global warming” have consequences? Of course, it will, just as did earlier periods of “global cooling.” If the planet is a living system – as I believe it to be – then we should accept fluctuation and variation as expressions of what it means to be alive.

As with my ancient ancestors, our mutual descendants may benefit from global warming. Just as central Europe and Scandinavia became available for earlier expansions of life, our posterity may find heretofore frozen territories becoming available to them. Perhaps such places as Greenland, Siberia, and Antarctica might become sites for human beings to live well. Who can effectively argue with such a possibility?

The post When the State Enforces an Idea, Doubt It appeared first on LewRockwell.