Cross-posted on Triple Pundit.
Now that the Tea Party has landed on our planet and in our country, like some kind of alien advanced strike force in preparation for a takeover, they are beginning to look around to see how they might rearrange things to better suit their peculiar perspective.
We'd be wise to carefully observe these folks, in an effort to understand how they think, or even, where they are coming from, since we've been told that they represent the future of America.
One member of a Virginia-based subgroup called the Virginia Campaign for Liberty, Donna Holt took aim at the UN's Agenda 21, an initiative which started in 1992. She told an assembled group of supporters this past summer that the Agenda, "...outlines, in detail, the UN's vision for a completely managed society, dictating the process to be used for industry, agriculture, housing development, and especially education. It's an all-encompassing plan to rule from an all-powerful central government." She went on to explain to an absolutely horrified audience that the name for this policy is "Sustainable Development" and that it seeks to abolish private property and prepare children for global citizenship, ultimately aiming to reduce the population.
What Agenda 21, which is also known as the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development is really is a set of international sustainability guidelines. It's difficult to know which of the Declaration's twenty-seven principles these newcomers find so threatening. Perhaps it is #1 which states that, "Human beings are at the centre of concerns for sustainable development. They are entitled to a healthy and productive life in harmony with nature." Or the one that says, "The right to development must be fulfilled so as to equitably meet developmental and environmental needs of present and future generations." Hard to find anything wrong with that, either. Perhaps it's the one that says, "States shall cooperate in a spirit of global partnership to conserve, protect and restore the health and integrity of the Earth's ecosystem." I admit that it is difficult to see the inherent evil here. Perhaps other examples might prove instructive.
Another one of these newcomers is a Colorado man named Dan Maes who was running for governor. Maes directed his righteous indignation at bicycles. He referred to his opponent John Hickenlooper's bike sharing policy as an attempt "convert Denver into a United Nations community."
"This is all very well-disguised," he told a group of supporters, "but it will be exposed." Okay. I can hardly wait.
A Florida-base web site that calls itself the "Home of Patriotic Resistance," urged its readers to oppose a bill that would require homeowners to responsibly maintain their septic tanks.
Up in Maine, an effort to avoid overcrowding of Highway1 along the mid-coastal area before it became a problem was referred to by Tea-Bagger David Andreasen as "centralized planning for the de-industrialization of large segments of Maine, and the relocation and isolation of the population into human habitation zones, along certain corridors over a span of 20 years."
Okay, I agree, these examples don't exactly elicit a battle cry from me, either. In fact, the things that they are so strenuously objecting to, all seem perfectly reasonable to me. But there does seem to be an emerging underlying theme here.
Perhaps one more example will clarify. This one is from Tea Party commentator Henry Lamb. Lamb says that, "If the word 'freedom' is to have any meaning at all, it must mean that people are free to live wherever they choose, and free to use their property as they choose." He then goes on to decry the emergence, first of zoning laws, then later of planning, "which gave the government the right to control the use of land," in the interest of the common good.
I think by now the pattern should be clear. These people have somehow come to see any kind of social consciousness as a gateway drug to socialism. They worship at the altar of narrow self-interest and have come to regard selfishness and irresponsibility as a defining characteristic of the American way of life.
This point is driven home in another one of Lamb's columns in which he praises author Beverly Eakman, who in her recent book, A Common Sense Platform for the 21st Century. "takes direct aim at the nation's education system for training generations of people to focus on the collective rather than the individual."
So it turns out that the problem all along was with those kindergarten teachers who told us that we needed to share with the other kids. Didn't they realize how un-American that was?
Of course, what these people don't see is that they have all been had by a secretive cabal of industrial billionaires who have recruited their aid in winning the recent election, in order to further weaken the already crumbling authority of the US government over corporate power, for fear that the few remaining regulations or offices not already filled with corporate shills, could potentially put a drag on their gargantuan profits. Ironically, the Tea Partiers will get absolutely nothing out of the deal, except the perverse satisfaction that a mob of beer-sodden, adrenalin-gorged sports fans gets after having rooted for the winning team.
RP Siegel is co-author of the eco-thriller Vapor Trails. Despite the fact that he rides a bicycle and occasionally shares things with his friends and neighbors, he still considers himself an American.
Follow RP Siegel on Twitter: www.twitter.com/RPSiegel
Why? Because it is less harmful to the planet than you want to be? I mean, what do you have against your kids? They're the ones who are going to inherit the damage you do!!!
So the fight for air that won't make you asthmatic etc....is evil.
The fight for water that is clean and won't slowly poison you...is evil. Just buy Poland Spring won't you!
The very idea of preserving the earth for future generations for all people....is a global conspiracy.
Reminds me of a dog chained to a post or fence. It has very little territory of its own, and sees anyone even passing by at a distance as a possible threat and growls and barks.
So if you look closely, the post the dog is chained ti is the wedge issue of the day, and owner of the post is the corporate entity / special interest trying to influence policy. The tea party-ers willingly let themselves be leashed for a promise of security and become a pack of barking dogs for hire.
What the USA does may not matter much in the future.
What gives?
Anyways, the only reason people oppose this is because the UN will never represent US interests. If the people want environmental regulations they should appeal to local and Federal government, not rely on some unaccountable international body.
Old skewl collectivism, new clothes.
If the citizens of the US want the government to take action they should appeal to local or Federal, not succumb to an international body. Obviously the UN agenda will not represent US interests.
It talks about Agenda 21, sustainable development and the precautionary principle.
Only under corporatism can they get away with pollution, the state is protecting them.
With all the socialist states in Europe bankrupt, what is it exactly we are trying to move toward. As I see it, some of the ideas are good, but they do not work when implemented by government. To top it all off, that is not what this country was founded on. it is not a perfect society and there will never be one no matter how hard we try. just because you give individuals the right to choose how to run their lives does not mean they will always choose badly. we need to shoot down consumerism, which would go a long way toward people giving back without the forced hand of government. sustainability is good, but the market forces, shortages of coal for instance, will also force the change to another fuel. if we don't burn it, then it will be sold to china or somewhere else. Are you going to ban coal mining, then what is next. it will never end until we are all in a neat little box of laws.
Private Banking and Corporate interests have done more to harm people and their future than the governments of these countries ever dreamed.
As far as your remark that we will "never have a perfect society" , funny, I thought that the World is what we, the people, chose to make it. We certainly won't have a better society by bowing down to the Banksters, the corporations, and to shadowy industry special interests, whose only concern is themselves and their never ending lust for power and greed.
I stopped reading once I got to that part since I figured that, if you had that much so wrong, nothing else you said would be accurate.
Ouch.
Just when I thought I didn't need that Canadian visa any longer.
explosive-cargo.blogspot.com
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s111-510, may be the
most dangerous bill in the history of the US.
"If accepted [S 510] would preclude the public's right to grow,
own, trade, transport, share, feed and eat each and every food that nature makes. It will become the most offensive authority against the
cultivation, trade and consumption of food and agricultural products
of one's choice. It will be unconstitutional and contrary to natural law
or, if you like, the will of God." It is similar to what India faced
with imposition of the salt tax during British rule, only S 510
extends control over all food in the US, violating the fundamental human right to food." ~ Dr. Shiv Chopra, Canada Health whistleblower.
Monsanto says it has no interest in the bill and would not benefit
from it, but Monsanto's Michael Taylor who gave us rBGH and unregulated genetically modified (GM) organisms, appears to have designed it and is waiting as an appointed Food Czar to the FDA (a position unapproved by Congress) to administer the agency it would create -- without judicial review -- if it passes.
S 510 would give Monsanto unlimited power over all US seed, food
supplements, food AND FARMING.
you want to see where this could go study what they are doing to farmers-
The person who wrote the report on RBGH - for Monsanto was hired a government position and her new job was to review the report she wrote for Monsanto-
very few people seem to be aware of how ruthless Monsanto is and how connected- I would recommend you look into it-
Even Europe is shaking it's heads, wondering what happened to America.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/11/29/923787/-Death-of-American-dream,-60-million-no-sick-leave,-132-million-no-dental,-59-million-without-medical
We cannot live with Tea Party America. They will drag us all down. If you assume Social Darwinism as a foundation you can predict everything they stand for. Social Darwinism: You need know nothing else about Conservatism but that.
Ask someone nicely for a slice of their pizza and they may share (or not). Ask for it with an "or else", and generosity is not what will come to mind.