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FrankRep
06-06-2013, 07:18 PM
http://www.thenewamerican.com/images/stories2011/00columnists/walter_williams.jpg



In order to understand the liberal and progressive agenda, one must know something about their world vision and values. Let's examine some of the evidence.


Understanding Liberals and Progressives (http://www.thenewamerican.com/reviews/opinion/item/15621-understanding-liberals-and-progressives)


Walter Williams | The New American (http://www.thenewamerican.com/)
05 June 2013


In order to understand the liberal and progressive agenda, one must know something about their world vision and values. Let's examine some of the evidence.

Why the 1970s struggle to ban DDT? Alexander King, founder of the Malthusian Club of Rome, wrote in a 1990 biographical essay: "My own doubts came when DDT was introduced for civilian use. In Guyana, within two years, it had almost eliminated malaria, but at the same time the birth rate had doubled. So my chief quarrel with DDT, in hindsight, is that it has greatly added to the population problem."

Dr. Charles Wurster, former chief scientist for the Environmental Defense Fund, was once asked whether he thought a ban on DDT would result in the use of more dangerous chemicals and more malaria cases in Sri Lanka. He replied: "Probably. So what? People are the cause of all the problems. We have too many of them. We need to get rid of some of them, and (malaria) is as good a way as any."

According to Earthbound, a collection of essays on environmental ethics, William Aiken said: "Massive human diebacks would be good. It is our duty to cause them. It is our species' duty, relative to the whole, to eliminate 90 percent of our numbers."

Former National Park Service research biologist David Graber opined, "Human happiness, and certainly human fecundity, are not as important as a wild and healthy planet.... We have become a plague upon ourselves and upon the Earth.... Until such time as **** sapiens should decide to rejoin nature, some of us can only hope for the right virus to come along."

Speaking of viruses, Prince Philip — Duke of Edinburgh and patron of the World Wildlife Fund — said, "If I were reincarnated, I would wish to be returned to earth as a killer virus to lower human population levels." The late Jacques Cousteau told The UNESCO Courier: "One America burdens the earth much more than twenty Bangladeshes. This is a terrible thing to say. In order to stabilize world population, we must eliminate 350,000 people per day. It is a horrible thing to say, but it's just as bad not to say it."

That represents the values of some progressives, but what about their predictions? In 1972, a report was written for the Club of Rome to warn that the world would run out of gold by 1981, mercury and silver by 1985, tin by 1987, and petroleum, copper, lead and natural gas by 1992. It turns out that each of these resources is more plentiful today. Gordon Taylor, in his 1970 book, The Doomsday Book, said that Americans were using 50 percent of the world's resources and that "by 2000 (Americans) will, if permitted, be using all of them." In 1975, the Environment Fund took out full-page ads warning, "The World as we know it will likely be ruined by the year 2000." Harvard University Nobel laureate biologist George Wald in 1970 warned, "Civilization will end within 15 or 30 years unless immediate action is taken against problems facing mankind." Former Sen. Gaylord Nelson, quoting Dr. S. Dillon Ripley, warned, in Look magazine (1970), that by 1995, "somewhere between 75 and 85 percent of all the species of living animals will be extinct." In 1974, the U.S. Geological Survey said the U.S. had only a 10-year supply of natural gas. The fact of the matter, according to the American Gas Association, is that there's more than a 110-year supply.

In 1986, Lester Brown, who had been predicting global starvation for 40 years, received a MacArthur Foundation "genius" award, along with a stipend. The foundation also gave Dr. Paul Ehrlich, who predicted millions of Americans would die of starvation, the "genius" award in 1990. Note that these $300,000 to $400,000 awards were granted well after enough time had passed to demonstrate that Brown and Ehrlich were insanely wrong.

Just think: Congress listens to people like these and formulates public policy on their dire predictions that we're running out of something.

John F Kennedy III
06-06-2013, 09:06 PM
Bumpity. Good read.

mad cow
06-06-2013, 10:54 PM
This has been the Progressive M.O. for a hundred years.Many of them claim to love 'Nature' and 'Mother Earth',but basically they just hate mankind.And if a million people a year have to die because of their totally false belief that it is saving the birds from DDT and saving the planet from 'Global Warming',so be it.

Every once in a while,the mask slips.

Oh,and I gotta spread the rep,but thanks for the post.

Anti Federalist
06-07-2013, 11:03 AM
The Progressive Death Cult.

LOL - But Alex Jones is a nut for saying progressive elites wish to exterminate 80-90 percent of the population.

cajuncocoa
06-07-2013, 11:36 AM
This has been the Progressive M.O. for a hundred years.Many of them claim to love 'Nature' and 'Mother Earth',but basically they just hate mankind.And if a million people a year have to die because of their totally false belief that it is saving the birds from DDT and saving the planet from 'Global Warming',so be it.

Every once in a while,the mask slips.

Oh,and I gotta spread the rep,but thanks for the post.Just a little tweak: they hate so-called unenlightened mankind. They have no intention of eliminating their own (the so-called elite).

Anti Federalist
06-07-2013, 11:39 AM
Just a little tweak: they hate so-called unenlightened mankind. They have no intention of eliminating their own (the so-called elite).

Good to point that out.

Of course, you are correct, their attitude is, "Wayyyy too many of you, just enough of me."

tod evans
06-07-2013, 11:45 AM
The Progressive Death Cult.

LOL - But Alex Jones is a nut for saying progressive elites wish to exterminate 80-90 percent of the population.

Hell I'm far from a "progressive" and I'd like to eliminate 80-90% of the people who draw a check from government...

Origanalist
06-07-2013, 11:55 AM
Hell I'm far from a "progressive" and I'd like to eliminate 80-90% of the people who draw a check from government...

Naw, don't eliminate them, just cut em off. Then get out the popcorn and watch the fun, and keep your firearms handy.

tod evans
06-07-2013, 11:57 AM
Naw, don't eliminate them, just cut em off. Then get out the popcorn and watch the fun, and keep your firearms handy.

This'd be fun too....

jllundqu
06-07-2013, 12:01 PM
Yeah... Alex Jones must be crazy.... He's only been saying the same thing in this article for 18 years.

heavenlyboy34
06-07-2013, 12:45 PM
I wish Dr Williams would use the word "liberal" properly. He's a smart fellow and has likely read numerous treatises on liberalism from the classical to contemporary period. We must end Orwellian abuse of language in order to discuss things rationally.

limequat
06-07-2013, 12:59 PM
Certainly. There are plenty of rational liberals that don't agree with an ounce of that tripe. The way to understand other people is to empathize, not demonize.

heavenlyboy34
06-07-2013, 01:02 PM
Certainly. There are plenty of rational liberals that don't agree with an ounce of that tripe. The way to understand other people is to empathize, not demonize.
Truth. :)

jkr
06-07-2013, 01:19 PM
BUMP
FOR CHOCOLATE THUNDA

RAND/WILLIAMS 16!

FrankRep
06-07-2013, 01:21 PM
I wish Dr Williams would use the word "liberal" properly. He's a smart fellow and has likely read numerous treatises on liberalism from the classical to contemporary period. We must end Orwellian abuse of language in order to discuss things rationally.
He's talking about today's liberals. Your 1700s definition of 'liberalism' has been dead for some time.

heavenlyboy34
06-07-2013, 01:54 PM
He's talking about today's liberals. Your 1700s definition of 'liberalism' has been dead for some time.
Mises was a liberal. Not exactly a 1700s guy. ;) (and it's not "my" definition. It's the technically correct definition. Just because mass media propaganda has created a semantic shift in most public discourse does not make them correct. Remember-letting statists redefine words destroys rational thought-ala Newspeak)
"The program of liberalism, therefore, if condensed into a single word, would have to read: property, that is, private ownership of the means of production... All the other demands of liberalism result from his fundamental demand."
German edition, 1927; latest English edition Copyright 1985 The Foundation for Economic Education, Irvington, NY. Translation by Ralph Raico. Online edition Copyright The Mises Institute, 2000.
Download entire text, portrait (http://mises.org/books/liberalism.pdf)
(http://mises.org/liberal/liberalism.pdf)

FRONTMATTERPreface, 1985 (http://mises.org/liberal/preface1.asp) by Bettina B. Greaves, p. v
Foreword (http://mises.org/liberal/foreword.asp) by Louis M. Spadaro, p. ix
Preface, English-Language Edition (http://mises.org/liberal/preface2.asp),p xviINTRODUCTION
1. Liberalism (http://mises.org/liberal/isec1.asp), p. 1
2. Material Welfare (http://mises.org/liberal/isec2.asp) p. 4
3. Rationalism (http://mises.org/liberal/isec3.asp) p. 5
4. The Aim of Liberalism (http://mises.org/liberal/isec4.asp) p. 7
5. Liberalism and Capitalism (http://mises.org/liberal/isec5.asp) p. 10
6. The Psychological Roots of Antiliberalism (http://mises.org/liberal/isec6.asp) p. 13
I THE FOUNDATIONS OF LIBERAL POLICYhttp://mises.org/jefffiles/misessuit4.gif
1. Property (http://mises.org/liberal/ch1sec1.asp) p. 18
2. Freedom (http://mises.org/liberal/ch1sec2.asp) p. 20
3. Peace (http://mises.org/liberal/ch1sec3.asp) p. 23
4. Equality (http://mises.org/liberal/ch1sec4.asp) p. 27
5. The Inequality of Wealth and Income (http://mises.org/liberal/ch1sec5.asp) p. 30
6. Private Property and Ethics (http://mises.org/liberal/ch1sec6.asp) p. 33
7. State and Government (http://mises.org/liberal/ch1sec7.asp) p. 34
8. Democracy (http://mises.org/liberal/ch1sec8.asp) p. 39
9. Critique of the Doctrine of Force (http://mises.org/liberal/ch1sec9.asp) p. 42
10. The Argument of Fascism (http://mises.org/liberal/ch1sec10.asp) p. 47
11. The Limits of Governmental Activity (http://mises.org/liberal/ch1sec11.asp) p. 52
12. Tolerance (http://mises.org/liberal/ch1sec12.asp) p. 55
13. The State and Antisocial Conduct (http://mises.org/liberal/ch1sec13.asp) p. 57
2 LIBERAL ECONOMIC POLICY
1. The Organization of the Economy (http://mises.org/liberal/ch2sec1.asp) p. 60
2. Private Property and Its Critics (http://mises.org/liberal/ch2sec2.asp) p. 63
3. Private Property and the Government (http://mises.org/liberal/ch2sec3.asp) p. 67
4. The Impracticability of Socialism (http://mises.org/liberal/ch2sec4.asp) p. 70
5. Interventionism (http://mises.org/liberal/ch2sec5.asp) p. 75
6. Capitalism: The Only Possible System of Social Organization (http://mises.org/liberal/ch2sec6.asp) p. 85
7. Cartels, Monopolies, and Liberalism (http://mises.org/liberal/ch2sec7.asp) p. 90
8. Bureaucratization (http://mises.org/liberal/ch2sec8.asp) p. 95
3 LIBERAL FOREIGN POLICY
1. The Boundaries of the State (http://mises.org/liberal/ch3sec1.asp) p. 105
2. The Right of Self-Determination (http://mises.org/liberal/ch3sec2.asp) p. 108
3. The Political Foundations of Peace (http://mises.org/liberal/ch3sec3.asp) p. 110
4. Nationalism (http://mises.org/liberal/ch3sec4.asp) p. 118
5. Imperialism (http://mises.org/liberal/ch3sec5.asp) p 121
6. Colonial Policy (http://mises.org/liberal/ch3sec6.asp) p. 124
7. Free Trade (http://mises.org/liberal/ch3sec7.asp) p. 130
8. Freedom of Movement (http://mises.org/liberal/ch3sec8.asp) p. 136
9. The United States of Europe (http://mises.org/liberal/ch3sec9.asp) p. 142
10. The League of Nations (http://mises.org/liberal/ch3sec10.asp) p. 147
11. Russia (http://mises.org/liberal/ch3sec11.asp) p. 151
4 LIBERALISM AND THE POLITICAL PARTIES
1. The "Doctrinairism" of the Liberals (http://mises.org/liberal/ch4sec1.asp) p. 155
2. Political Parties (http://mises.org/liberal/ch4sec2.asp) p. 158
3. The Crisis of Parliamentarism and the Idea of a Diet Representing Special Groups (http://mises.org/liberal/ch4sec3.asp) p. 170
4. Liberalism and the Parties of Special Interests (http://mises.org/liberal/ch4sec4.asp) p. 175
5. Party Propaganda and Party Organization (http://mises.org/liberal/ch4sec5.asp) p. 179
6. Liberalism as the "Party of Capital" (http://mises.org/liberal/ch4sec6.asp) p. 1835 THE FUTURE OF LIBERALISM (http://mises.org/liberal/ch5sec1.asp) p. 188
APPENDIX
1. On the Literature of Liberalism (http://mises.org/liberal/append1.asp) p. 194
2. On the Term "Liberalism" (http://mises.org/liberal/append2.asp) p. 198
Glossary (http://mises.org/easier/easier.asp) by Percy Greaves

FrankRep
06-08-2013, 12:14 PM
Mises was a liberal. Not exactly a 1700s guy.


Mises was a "classical liberal" not a modern liberal. Walter Williams is talking about modern liberals.