Plenty of conservatives in the UK and Germany and other countries can recognise climate change is a problem, and a problem that is going to get worse the more we pollute and destroy the environment. The UK, for example, is going to be free of coal relatively soon. That is not enough, but it is a start, and there is little dispute about it.
Those people who call themselves “Conservatives” but who pretend climate change is not real, are not conservative in the sense of conserving things like land, tradition, virtue or stability. They are more likely to be radical neoliberals, wolves dressed as sheep, who believe that everything must be sacrificed to keep the market going. They seem to believe that markets are more important than natural ecologies, and that ecologies can be disposed of in the name of profit without harm to land, tradition, stability or virtue.
For some reason they wish to impose their vision of endless pollution and destruction upon the rest of the world. They want pro-corporate government throughout the world, for whom profit is the only thing that matters.
To fulfil this aim, they suppress research and free speech, and try to shut down science, slander scientists, prevent public servants from talking about climate change, taking down public websites, they try to take the subject out of the public domain. They shout a lot in the media, and endlessly abuse those who think there is a problem. They pretend it is likely that scientists are left wing conspirators, when scientists can hardly agree on anything other than climate change being real, and deliberately ignore the power of wealth and the long standing reputations oil, and coal companies have for political suppression and corruption. They pretend they can predict that the future will be ok, and so ignore the complexity of the world.
When defending their support of destruction, they try to argue that if we act to diminish the effects of climate change then we inevitably will support more taxes, more government, socialism and the destruction of ‘the economy’. Apparently this is obviously worse than widespread, calamitous ecological collapse.
But would a truly working and functional economy poison the ecologies it depends on? And, how bad were the 1950s and 60s with their high tax rates, government interference in economy, stronger unions, greater social mobility and high levels of home ownership? Not that bad really. Quite possibly more hopeful for most people than nowadays.
By eagerly defending the current economy, neoliberals are not defending real ‘free markets’, ‘open markets’, or a ‘beneficial economy’, but just those wealthy groups who have successfully bought special rights, captured regulatory bodies, and co-opted the State for their own interests.
Neoliberals reduce all virtue and intelligence to selfishness, the acquisition of money, and obedience to wealth. They may dress this in the tatters of religion, but this too is about making money, obedience to the existing hierarchy, and cultivating hatred for others. They may pretend that this hatred shows the love of God, but their love requires those others to become like them, so it supports a withered uniformity and frightened acquiescence.
This neoliberal religion is, in short, the worship of Mammon. Nature only exists to be overcome, extracted from, despoiled and turned into profit. All that is shared, or common, the real gifts of God, are valueless to Mammon and his worshipers, everything must be privately owned, with others excluded unless they can pay. Everything is to be subject to the neoliberal will; there is no freedom, only the drive for money, and punishment for the sin of non-possession.
Perhaps Neoliberals think capitalism cannot survive without endless despoliation? Perhaps they just want to side with the powerful. I don’t know, but it seems that way. In either case, none of us can avoid the agonizing consequences of their destructive actions and enforcement of ignorance, either economically or politically.
Real Conservatives do not have to pretend reality is the way they would like it to be, and can face up to unpleasant facts. We need more real conservatives, and others prepared to stand against Mammon. Otherwise the consequences are dire: destruction, flood, fire and famine.
Tags: climate change, neoliberalism
Climate, technology and chaos Blog 
Leave a comment