Too close for eco-comfort

A hilarious story today, in which an eco-nutter is claiming that he was 'wrongly' dismissed by his former employer for his eco nut-job views and that he is proud to call his beliefs a 'religion' and wants these 'religious beliefs' recognised by law.

Or something like that, anyway. I was too busy laughing to get the full details:

=> Eco-employee wins bid to appeal

Where do we start?

Because of course, the uncomfortable truth for all of the watermelon socialists in Britain, is that eco-mentalism IS a religion, as was its evil godfather, socialism.

The uncomfortable truth is that many who consider themselves 'logical rationalists', have sunk into what the ancient Greeks would have recognised as 'Mother Goddess' worship. They even use the same name for this Goddess, Gaia, and still think they are being rational.

They even think they're still being rational over 'global warming' when 1998 was the warmest year in recent times, and it has been getting cooler ever since, probably due to fluctuations in the Sun's power output.

And for one of their number to speak the truth and to call their following of eco-mentalism a religion will be perhaps a little too uncomfortable to bear. The trouble for 'atheists' of course, is that there might be a psychological 'God-shaped' hole in everyone's brain (possibly in the temporal cortex), and that if you expunge traditional religion, another one will slip right in there, which will be a lot less good for you.

Christianity et al may have their faults, but they have survived and evolved to become the dominant religions because they deliver a simple rules-based methodology for living which took us away from stone age violence and into modern civilisation. Boil down the ten commandments, and what do you have? You have a rational voluntary way of living based upon property rights: Love thy neighbour, but don't go poking into his affairs if you're not welcome. Do not steal. Do not be envious of the property of others. Do not harm others. Look to yourself for help first.

It's an almost perfect libertarian rationale for life, which maximises peace, wealth, civilisation, and happiness.

What does the religion of environmentalism give us?

Hate everyone who dares to question the thought police. Steal carbon taxes from people until they're too poor to keep themselves warm or to move themselves around in satanic vehicles. If a western man has a fridge and an eastern man doesn't, smash the western man's fridge because he has no business being better off than the eastern man. Throw anyone into jail who dares to be a global warming denier. Create a world government to police everyone into rigid eco-orthodoxy. Stick your nose into the lives of everyone, including checking whether they have recycled their potato peelings properly.

I know which religion I prefer.

The worship of the state, socialism, and environmentalism, despite all of the hatred for humanity contained within these religions, is thus a powerful trinity of despair, borne I think of teenage angst and self-loathing hatred. It dresses itself up as the 'font of logic', but this man's action today quite clearly demonstrates what the rest of us already know.

That eco-mentalism is a religion, and should be treated as such.

And don't get me started on employers not being able to sack anyone of their choosing.

In 'Maturin World' there will be no such thing as 'Employee Rights'. If you're good enough, I'll hire you. If you're not good enough, I'll sack you. And I'll be the judge of both. If you don't like it, go and get a job somewhere else. Or even better, start your own business and stop leaving it to other entrepreneurs to go out of their way to make your life easier.

I've probably broken about 50 damn stupid statist laws in the above piece of writing, so I better stop there. Though I must say, if I am brought up before a socialist judge I shall claim 'Austrianism' as my religion, and demand full equivalent rights with the eco-nutter above.

For an interesting article on that topic, try this:

=> Is Austrian Economics Merely Religion?

My own opinion on whether Austrianism is a religion itself, is perhaps fairly predictable. Austrian economics is merely the seeking for truth, as it is found in the universe around us, built upon axioms which are apodictic (necessarily or demonstrably true; incontrovertible).

Yes, there are lots of grey areas and a lot more will be uncovered in the future. But Austrianism generally moves forwards and drops what has been shown to be false, and adopts what has been shown to be true (or at least less false than the previous thought).

Without a five-hour diatribe on Popperian logic analysis, I think the more real-world demonstration of Austrianism's non-religiousness is its treatment of its leaders, from its inception with Carl Menger.

For instance, Rothbard criticised Mises for his mentor's belief in democracy. Kinsella has criticised Rothbard for Uncle Murray's belief in copyright, and everyone criticises Hans-Hermann Hoppe for just about everything he says (despite his being usually right about everything).

Compare that with Objectivists' treatment of anyone who disagrees with Rand, or eco-mentalists when you tell them you think anthropogenic global warming is a heap of hog's entrails. Austrians always try to stick to the truth, even if tempted to get emotional, and even if the truth is hard to define. Whereas religions (such as Objectivism, Socialism, Scientologism, Keynesianism, Environmentalism, et al) usually resort to bad-tempered emotion fairly quickly in any form of discussion when you stray from the straight and narrow path of orthodoxy.

Though I myself do believe in the one true God.

Obi-Wan Kenobi.