{I apologize for subjecting readers to the following selections from 'American Greatness,' but it could have been worse; I could have chosen to blog about AG's latest screed from Victor Davis Hanson.}
Edward Ring, writing at American Greatness, argues that “everyone in the world [can] achieve the standard of living that we [Americans] take for granted”. Nor is he alone in his enthusiasm:
In April 2022, noted venture capitalist Steve Jurvetson posted the following quote on Facebook: ‘Our goal is to usher in an era of infinite abundance.’
Infinite abundance.
This phrase epitomizes the ongoing promise of California’s tech culture. Despite California’s many political shortcomings, the state’s technology sector continues to set the pace for the rest of the world. ‘Infinite abundance,’ evocative of an earlier tech mantra ‘better, faster, cheaper,’ is not only a defining aspiration of tech entrepreneurs; it is closer to being realized every day.
Next stop, Utopia!
While liberals have accepted the scientific consensus on climate change and have proposed policies—wind and solar energy, electric vehicles, etc.—to deal with the situation, conservatives, when they have not simply denied that a problem exists, have become techno-boosters and believers in “infinite abundance”: enough water, food, land, and energy for everyone, forever. This seems to be out of line with traditional conservatism, which preached limits and emphasized the need for prudence and for thrift; but conservatives today are a different breed.
In fairness, Edward Ring acknowledges a fundamental difficulty:
Anyone fighting for abundance must nonetheless confront an inescapable fact: Every American on average uses four times as much energy as people in the rest of the world, and they use three times as much water. Furthermore, if anything, the per capita water use for Americans is understated. Nuances can alter the implications of fractional differences, but they cannot explain away multiples of three or four times. Can abundance for everyone be achieved without destroying the planet?
Despite that frank admission, Ring remains undaunted in his can-do American optimism; he never so much as suggests that Americans might have to lower our expectations of perpetual economic growth, much less that we might have to stop being wasteful, gluttonous consumers of the planet’s resources. Instead, Ring waves his magic wand and utters the magical incantation: “Policies that nurture abundance would [produce] leading-edge products and technologies that [would] address an insatiable, wholly justified demand” for more.
I hate to be pedantic, but, by definition, an “insatiable demand” can never be filled. It hardly seems “conservative” to promote insatiable demands; what would Russell Kirk or Michael Oakeshott have to say about such hubris?
Toward Infinite Abundance › American Greatness (amgreatness.com)
Also at American Greatness, Brandon Weichert worries that we won’t live long enough to enjoy our infinite abundance, because “Biden Is Sleepwalking US into Nuclear War with Russia”. Again, this seems contrary to old-style conservatism, which encouraged American presidents to stand up to Soviet threats despite Moscow’s nuclear arsenal; defending “captive nations” was held, by the Right, to be a moral imperative.
Now, however, “A coterie of Russian officials have indicated their increasing willingness to risk nuclear war with the Americans and their NATO partners if the West does not stop its full-throated support for Ukraine in their endeavors to completely evict the Russian invaders from the embattled country.” Moreover, “The ongoing food, energy, and supply chain crises, as well as the potential for a nuclear world war, are all connected via Ukraine.” Mr. Weichert concedes that “The West was justified in assisting the Ukrainians to prevent a total Russian takeover of their besieged nation.” But enough is enough: “The time has now arrived,” he declares, “for the world’s great powers (namely, the United States) to use its immense power and leverage over the warring parties to end the conflict, restore some semblance of order into the region, and to avert a wider, unnecessary nuclear war with Russia.”
I will go on record as also wanting to avert nuclear war, with Russia or with anyone else. I get the sense, however, that Weichert is more interested in calling attention to Joe Biden’s perceived shortcomings (he calls Biden “frail and forgetful on a good day,” as well as “ignorant and corrupt”) than with serious policy analysis. Democratic Presidents, of course, have long been damned if they do (“Warmonger!”) and damned if they don’t (“Appeasement!”).
Weichert closes on this dire note: “Just as the leaders of Europe in the run up to World War I failed to recognize how their actions or inaction exacerbated the likelihood of total world war, we now need to seriously contemplate the possibility of a nuclear war with Russia over tiny Ukraine.” I am going to hazard a guess that President Biden and his various advisors are aware of the dangers and that they are, and have been, working behind the scenes to find or to broker some solution. That no solution has yet been found does not mean that no one is trying or that one will not be found.
Brandon Weichert takes the position that we tried to help an embattled ally, but now it’s time to throw in the towel; even a superpower can only do so much. He may be right, but it’s odd rhetoric to hear from our usually hawkish Right.
Biden Is Sleepwalking U.S. into Nuclear War with Russia › American Greatness (amgreatness.com)
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