Dark Green Barbarians

[John McVey]

Phwoah!

Check THIS out - an article in The Australian newspaper, summarising a lecture presentation by a national politician (Dr Craig Emerson, Labor Minister for Small Business), trashing environmentalism and openly calling for an enlightenment based on reason and - get this - an integration of this enlightenment with a renewed respect for de-regulated economics codes ("Economic Rationalism" is an Australian term for the low-taxation and de-regulation sentiment of the 80's). Here is a politician who appears to understand the connection between reality, reason, freedom, capitalism and prosperity! (Hat-tip: Tim Blair's blog)

This period of rapidly improving living standards began with the Enlightenment in Europe in the 18th century. New ideas were encouraged and a critical mass of thinkers and inventors was achieved. Enlightenment thinkers repudiated the mysticism and superstition of pre-Enlightenment Europe, advocating instead personal freedom, open, competitive markets and scientific endeavour.

...

But now mysticism and superstition are making a comeback. Their revival began in the '80s with attacks on economic rationalism. Rational economic thinking was condemned in favour of economic irrationalism: ongoing protectionism, deficit financing by printing money, maintaining airlines and banks in public ownership and expanding the role of the state in the commercial world through clever devices

This would be shocking enough were it to come from our centre-right Liberal Party in Australia, but this is coming from a front-bencher in the Australian Labor Party. A few possibilities come to mind. The first is just as what many commentators there have suggested - that he is someone who has finally summoned up the courage to say the unfashionable things that needed to be said. This I think is the most likely. He does have form for not doing what he was expected to by the people who put in in positions of authority - he got his seat by dint of electioneering by a major union in his electorate, but then angered that union's boss by not voting for the party leader the boss wanted him to! More generally, like all major parties the ALP is split into factions, and Dr Emerson is known to be a member of the "hard right", which has its origins in the pro-industry trade unions. He is not alone in recognising environmentalism's threat to jobs, and what he is doing economically is echoing the slightly-hands-off approach of the Hawke/Keating years in the 1980's. I hope he wont be the last of this faction to publicly call out against eco-nonsense.

The second is also what others have suggested, that he wont be in that party for long. I discount this one as it would be too obviously ideologically motivated if he were booted out for speaking his mind. Again, as noted, he is not really as alone as some of the commentators have suggested, an increasing number of people are seeing ever more clearly that greenism is a naked threat to jobs and standards of living, and so there would be a noisy fight were the party to try to censure him.

The third is that he has been deliberately let do this. I don't think it would be an exercise in window dressing, ie in the manner of mentioning something to be later dismissed as 'dealt with', because the import of this is too great. It would be too obviously seen in advance for the major crack-in-the-dam that it is, because there is a substantial pro-industry anti-environmentalist sentiment in this country and they'd know that this is going to get traction. Rather, if he was deliberately let do this then it occurs to me that it is a set-up so that KRudd&Co can back out of their commitments and promises while putting the blame for this on the ALP's right faction. While it's a possibility, and I did see that one person on Tim Blair's blog thinks KRudd is "setting up to triangulate the Greens, Dick Morris style," I don't think this one likely because it is a serious slap in the face to a major element of the ALP leadership (Penny Wong and Peter Garrett, for instance) and its arguments would bolster Emerson's faction over theirs. I also think the Australian electorate are more than sophisticated enough to see that kind of faction-motivated BS for what it is - it might get votes because the Coalition are buffoons, but it would also undermine KRudd's public support and hence internal party support because of the threat that the Coalition might get its act together.

It is hardly a perfect piece. He does mention personal freedom positively, but he is not standing up for anyone's actual rights never mind calling for anything remotely approaching laissez-faire. A frequent target of his ire is businesses and consultants, not on the grounds of them individually doing wrong but on the soft-paternalist grounds that profit-driven activities has an inherent tendency to pander to and promote irrationality - he wouldn't be able to last five minutes in the ALP without actually believing that. To that end he wants the Australian Enlightenment so that people can be better informed when they engage in debate regarding public policy (ie government regulation). Given that this article is a summary of a presentation he made to the Australian classical-liberal thinktank The Centre for Independent Studies, I am guessing that as a trained economist he is either a Millsian utilitarian or at least considerably sympathetic towards it, with all the philosophical flaws this entails. Nevertheless, I give major kudos to this guy for understanding and actively promoting reason and science, openly recognising the rationality of economic freedom, that they all go together, and that environmentalism is a threat to all of it because it is mysticism at root. As is commonly said in these circumstances, MORE, AND FASTER PLEASE!

JJM

[K-Mac]

I hope it builds some momentum, and quickly as you said.