Current Events — HabitableZone

Current Events » in reply to Fast track

Evolution of Liberal thought
Robert — (archived)

It's true that environmental concerns joined the stream of Liberal thought relatively late in the game, but that's hardly damning. Liberals have been observing for a long time how our obsessively materialistic consumer society robs people of dignity ("consumer" is really no more complimentary than "peasant") and turns them into complacent couch potatoes, vulnerable to demagoguery and deception. Loss of critical thinking skills among Americans represents a fundamental threat to democracy, and the responsibilty properly is laid at the door of free-market capitalism. (Next time you want to denounce Hollywood for rotting our brains, do remember that Hollywood is a business and it's doing just what it's supposed to do...under the rules of free-market capitalism.) Bottom line, it's worked a little too well, and since the 60s we've started to understand more and more of the downside to FMC.

To discover that there are materially dangerous consequences to consumerism in addition to the moral and social dangers only reinforces the view that free-market capitalism is in need of some serious reforms before it kills us all. Time and circumstances change, and a system that was a powerful tool for resource extraction and exploitation in a world with seemingly-unlimited frontiers and wealth has become its own worst enemy now that the world has filled up and we understand that the resources are finite. Species that don't adapt to changing circumstances go extinct. That's The Law, whether your ideology likes it or not.

Log in or register to post.

The whole thread (43 posts)