In Ayn Rand’s “The Fountainhead” there is a villain named Ellsworth Tooey. In the book he has a niece who has been brainwashed into his socialist/altruist viewpoint. Her main goal throughout the story is to help her community, and once she starts she feels so incredibly good about it that she goes to her uncle and explains her feelings. Well Tooey immediately kicks up a fuss, and says that she must not feel good because community service is a duty not a pleasure. His niece, confused by her feelings commits suicide.

Upon reading an ad in the Washington Post entitled “Not Easy Staying Green?” my mind immediately jumped to Ellsworth Tooey. The ad was set up with a check list that included questions such as:

> Do you drive a gas-guzzling SUV to Whole Foods?

> Do you do a good deed and then treat yourself to something splendid at the mall?

> What drives people who consciously seek to lead a greener life to then turn around and behave in ways that seem to contradict their good deeds?

The whole green movement is designed to appeal to human guilt. We are all steeped in a society that promotes guilt in all forms every day. Advertisers abuse guilt and make us feel horrible whenever we eat anything with sugar in it. They use guilt to sell everything from exercise equipment to Bead Necklaces hand made by American Indians.  Since this strategy has been so successful in advertising and selling merchandise Environmentalists decided to adopt this strategy. And boy has it worked.

Every other car on the road today is a Prius and everyone recycles.  As noted in this particular advertisement it is a sin to drive an SUV. Who knew you could make the American mom into an enemy of the baby seals? Of course shopping at the mall is out of the question. (Part of the deal with the Polar Bears is that we don’t get to do anything fun). And heaven forbid that our “less-idealistic instincts” get in the way of our “eco-friendly ideas” and “good deeds”.

Environmentalists were smart at the outset of their campaign and immediately grabbed up the moral high ground of this debate, turning all those who did not subscribe to Climate Change into “Enemies of the Ocean”.  The trap that they lead you into is one of crushing guilt which in turn gives them complete control over your life. If you feel guilty enough you will do whatever they say to help out and get the guilt off your chest. And you must not take joy in it because it is your duty to repair the damage that you have done to the earth.

Good stewardship is important and we shouldn’t throw garbage out of our car windows. But the truth is that these Environmental lobbyists don’t give a damn about stewardship or the environment. No matter how many “Clean Air Initiatives” we pass it will never be good enough for them. Their goal is not a greener earth. Their goal is control. We must not take for granted the planet we have been given and do our best to take care of it. We cannot however tie ourselves into knots over it. We cannot put human development on a back burner. If they had their way Environmentalists would have us all back in the caves wondering what fire is. And the god they would place over us would be themselves.