The latest edition of Max Borders‘ Ideas Matter update includes an item on environmentalists’ do-as-we-say, not-as-we-do approach to life.
“You should reduce your standard of living to make sacrifices for the environment. … Us? No, no. We’re the elites.”
This is fairly typical for world “leaders” whether they be U.N. watermelons or tin-pot socialists. Think about the most illiberal socialist dictators — like Kim Jong Ill. He lived lavishly while the rest of his country starved. So much for principles. They want to make paternalistic choices for everyone else, but they’re superior somehow.
Being an international nanny is hard work. They have to live it up a little more than the rest of us. What’s troubling about this is not just the hypocrisy. It reveals that human beings don’t want to practice lives of austerity — even when they moralize about it.
