For Your Safety

“The evil that is in this world almost always comes of ignorance, and good intentions may do as much harm as malevolence if they lack understanding.” - Albert Camus, 1957 Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature 

Supporters of the cap and trade bill before Congress claim it will save us from global destruction.

Here’s a brief explanation of how cap and trade works.

The government sets the amount of pollution that a business can emit, or a cap.  The government then taxes a business that pollutes over this cap by forcing the business to buy “credits” from another business that pollutes less than the cap.  This is the “trade” part.  Portions of the tax from this “trade” go to the government and portions go to the lesser polluting business.

The result of this scheme is a horrendously massive national energy tax on resources like coal.   Since coal fuels our electricity, we will pay this tax in the form of higher electric bills.  Some estimates have our bills going up $1,500 or more.

Resources like coal are targeted for this national energy tax because of the “pollutant” that coal emits.  The hope is that producing coal will no longer be feasible because of the tax, thus coal can no longer “pollute” the Earth.

This “pollutant” is carbon dioxide, which is supposedly destroying our planet.

If you’ll remember from grade school science class, carbon dioxide is produced every time we breathe and is consumed by plants so they can grow.  When plants consume carbon dioxide and grow, they produce oxygen so we can survive.  Thus, carbon dioxide is a necessary component in the cycle of life.

Further, human produced carbon dioxide, like burning coal, is only one-tenth of one percent of the atmosphere’s greenhouse gases.  Most carbon dioxide is naturally produced.

So, we are eliminating carbon dioxide because it is destroying the Earth; but how can it destroy the Earth when it is vital to the life cycle?  Further, if eliminating carbon dioxide is good for the Earth, then doesn’t that mean all humans must be eliminated, since we too emit carbon dioxide like burning coal?  And shouldn’t all animals be eliminated too since they also emit it?  Lastly, won’t eliminating carbon dioxide eliminate plant life?   

Carbon dioxide is not destroying the Earth.  Enacting policies lacking in common sense like this bill will harm the Earth. 

So, how does such nonsense pass the US House?  It is due to a phenomenon I’ve dubbed the “soft tyranny of good intentions”. 

Soft tyranny is like a frog in a pot of water.  In the beginning, the frog is fine because the water is cool.  Then you begin to warm the water ever so slowly.  With time, the water gets warmer, which makes the frog feel good.  Yet, with enough time and enough small increases in temperature you will eventually cook the frog without the frog even noticing. 

This is the type of tyranny we are suffering under in this country.  It is soft, creeping up on us ever so slowly and often time making us feel very good about it. 

Soft tyranny usually makes us feel good because it is applied with good intentions. 

The modern environmentalist movement is one of the best examples of the soft tyranny of good intentions.

Ideas like cap and trade are sold to us as life savers.  These ideas will save us from destruction.  They will protect us from greedy companies and protect us from ourselves.  According to the Obama Administration, cap and trade will even give us jobs. 

Saving us from destruction, protecting us from harm by others or our own self destruction, and providing jobs are all noble, well-intended efforts.  All of us can agree that safety, security, and prosperity are important goals for our society. 

Yet, what do we sacrifice for this supposed safety, security, and prosperity?  We sacrifice our liberty, our property, and eventually our lives. 

Cap and trade will take our liberty and our property from us in the form of higher taxes and restricting the choices we have to power our homes.  It will also destroy the livelihood of many of those who feed their families with jobs in the coal and gas industry. 

With time, our lives may also be on the line.  If we “logically” conclude that carbon dioxide is a pollutant that must be eliminated, then it is only a matter of time before this type of “logic” leads us to destroying animals and then humans because we too emit the “pollutant” carbon dioxide. 

Environmentalism isn’t the only issue where the soft tyranny of good intentions applies.  Most past and current actions by politicians on health care, education, foreign policy, and the economy can all be described by this phenomenon.  You may even call politicians pushing such actions “do gooders” or “true believers”.     

To be sure, not all politicians have good intentions when applying their soft tyranny.  Some are pure snake oil salesman with nothing other than corrupt and sinister intentions in mind.  Yet, in most cases they apply their soft tyranny by preying on the good intentions of others such as the general public. 

Also, we have had politicians in the United States apply hard tyranny instead of soft tyranny.  Hard tyranny is direct oppression, slavery, and torture. 

Using the frog analogy again, hard tyranny can be described as putting a frog in an already boiling pot of water.  If no lid is on the pot, the frog will jump out instantly because it knows that it will die if it stays in the water. 

There is no hiding hard tyranny.  It can be seen, felt, and heard easily.  Our immediate reaction is to flee or rebel against its painful sting.

We know of this type of tyranny from the Soviet Union, the kings and queens of old Europe and England, and Kim Jong-il’s North Korea as well as many others.  It has also existed in some instances in this country.  Slavery and the Jim Crow South are good examples of hard tyranny in the United States.  

Though the United States has seen some hard tyranny, we suffer much more from soft tyranny; and the argument can be made that the soft tyranny of good intentions is much more oppressive than the hard tyranny of evil and corruption.

C.S. Lewis, the famous writer of works such as The Chronicles of Narnia and philosopher, made such an argument about the soft tyranny of good intentions, “Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.  It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies.  The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity (greed) may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.” 

Doesn’t it seem that our government has transformed into the “omnipotent moral busybodies” as described here by Lewis?

And Albert Camus, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1957, had this to say about the phenomenon, “The evil that is in this world almost always comes of ignorance, and good intentions may do as much harm as malevolence if they lack understanding.” 

Good intentions just for the sake of good intentions are not sufficient and can lead to as much evil as more sinister intentions.

As the old cliché goes, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.”  That applies for not only our personal life, but also our public life as we consider our local, state, and national governments’ directions. 

We must be wary of the soft tyranny of good intentions.  Just as the frog in the pot of water did not foresee his eventual cooking, we will not either if we do not awaken from the warm feelings of our good intentions.  If we do not, we will certainly cook under the slow, yet ever increasing heat of the soft tyranny of good intentions.

We must fight back before it is too late.

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Contact Senator Robert Byrd here and Senator John Rockefeller here to tell them to vote NO on cap and trade! You can also reach them by phone-Senator Byrd 202.224.3954 and Senator Rockefeller 202.224.6472.