George, apropos of your post:
Just as the communists wanted to change humanity so as to create “New Soviet Man,” the environmentalists want to change humanity so as to create “Environmentally Conscious Man.” Massive coercion was employed in the former effort and massive coercion is envisioned for the latter.
As Dar?o Fern?ndez-Morera observed in American Academy and the Survival of Marxist Ideals, the New Soviet Man is not merely analogous to the “Environmentally Conscious Man,” but a forerunner of him. The New Soviet Man was such a colossal failure that it required a complete rethinking of Marxist premises: either admit it was a colossal failure, or move the goalposts such that what then was regarded as failure ? i.e., privation, economic devastation, the devolution of civilization back to a state of rutting nature ? would be regarded as lofty goals.
Fern?ndez-Morera called it the “Misery As An Ideal” approach.
