Karl Marx might be long dead, but his influence–seen mostly in the modern Progressive movement–unfortunately lives on. As many institutions as Marxism has corrupted, to me the most disturbing is the effect it has had on science. For Progressives, feelings always come before facts, which is incompatible with how science is supposed to work. This influence is seen everywhere, but nowhere is it as obvious as it is in the debate (or attempted blockade of that debate) of Climate Change.
A short excerpt from an essay I wrote on the subject:
I think that most of the people who are on the “denier” train probably have noted a trend in the kind of people and ideology involved with the CAGW crowd. It’s tough to put a name to it, especially since language has been perverted quite a bit in recent years—words don’t carry the same meaning. I think overall though, a common thread from the UN Climate panels to our own alarmists is the influence of Karl Marx and Progressivism. I believe the automatic dismissal of “the control of nature is won” is based on a somewhat nihilistic distrust of humanity as a whole. It’s a collectivist dismissal, along the thinking of those who see Mankind as a sort of locust sweeping across the planet (I’ve yet to see a locust that actively works to preserve parts of the environment, and worries as much as we do about its impact on the planet).
Read the rest at WattsUpWithThat.com
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Linnea Lueken is a Research Fellow with the Arthur B. Robinson Center on Climate and Environmental Policy.
