[ExI] Under the libertarian yoke

[The Avantguardian]

--- Lee Corbin <lcorbin at rawbw.com> wrote:

> Stuart, our Avantguardian, writes
> 
> > When I was in college, a friend of mine named James Pitts wrote a science
> > fiction short story regarding genetically-engineered bacteria that [wrecked
> > oil fields]
> > 
> > Such an organism used on oil fields throughout the world might render them
> > useless thus bringing the world to the point it would be in a few decades
> any
> > way. One could conceivably do this without violence or even without anyone
> > knowing it had been done deliberately.
> 
> Without violence?  Oh, you mean without the perpetrators
> *themselves* doing any violence. You ignoring the vast
> amount of violence that would suddenly result as millions
> of people began to starve and most economies went under.

Surely my rationale is no worse than that of Colt, Winchester, General Dynamics
or any other arms manufacturer. "Guns don't kill people, people kill people"
remember? Let the aliens deal with the rioters, I did my part. Would it make
you feel better if I profitted by selling this as a bioweapon to the highest
bidder instead? That would remove me a step further from the karma of violence
since it would no longer even be my decision to use it.
  
> > Companies would have to switch to green energy because there would
> > be no alternative.
> 
> And so you think that this could be quickly done without doing
> any more harm than merely inconveniencing some people?

No. There is no convenient way to solve this problem. The razor of natural
selection is coming and it will take the hindmost. That will either be the oil
industry or the rest of the world.

All my "oil-eater bug" does is fast forward the economy fifty years without
fast forwarding the population by fifty years putting us in the shoes of our
children only with more hope. In the 21st century, oil dependency will be a
vulnerability. And a vulnerability is a threat to national security. Launch a
Manhattan Project on alternative energy now before it is too late. For less
than we have already blown on Iraq, we could have solar power, fusion, and
renewable hydrogen. Or is America a one trick pony?  

So long as the government is controlled by oil cartels, libertarians and
socialists have a common foe. And woe to him who doesn't understand the
evolutionary calculus of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend." I have warned
you, nothing more. Don't shoot the messenger.



Stuart LaForge
alt email: stuart"AT"ucla.edu

"Life is the sum of all your choices."  
Albert Camus


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