Nothing Outside The Power Of The State

Alan Watts had a worldview radically different than mine, but I think the following statement of his is precisely true:

"As is the nature of revolutions, the revolution against God gives place to the worst tyranny of the absolutist State. Worse, because it cannot even forgive and because it recognizes nothing outside of the powers of its jurisdiction." - Alan Watts

A Quote from R.J. Rushdoony

While I'm not very well-versed with his writings, I think it is safe to say that I disagree with R.J. Rushdoony on a number of things.

However, here is one quote of his. I've come across it in my readings and I think it is pretty well said:

"Power is an inescapable reality; its denial in one area leads to a concentration of all power in another area. When sovereign power is denied to God, it does not disappear; it is merely relocated from eternity to time. When the power of the family is broken, parenthood is then transferred to the state, however ineptly. Atomistic individualism, because it denies all power to the supernatural, and rebels against the family, claims for itself both sovereignty and power. But, because the atomistic individual is anarchistic only with reference to God's law, and family law, his need for a a framework of reference is concentrated on men at large--collective man, the state. The state becomes his 'resonance box,' his stage. Atomistic man calls the totalitarian state into existence as his source of morality, religion, sovereignty, and power."

This is Absolutely Creepy

I'm all for conservation of the environment and thinking/acting intelligently about the real problems that face this sphere we call "the world".

I also realize that human crowding is a problem. Perhaps not so much in Montana, Texas, or Australia..but nevertheless, there is no shortage of places in the world that have an unhealthy amount of population density.

However, it just drives me nuts to think what sort of whacked-out solutions people come up with to these problems. People who are probably very descent, productive, innovative, and intelligent, when faced with the question of population related problems suddenly start slinging solutions which sound more like something Pol-Pot, Hitler, or Stalin would devise. I'm not saying that they have the same intentions, just that what they say seems only a few steps away from mass-extermination.

Take Paul Watson, I don't know to much about him, but besides the fact that he is perhaps controversial and radical, I don't imagine him to be a brutal guy. I don't suppose he is a necessarily unreasonable individual. However, with what he says in The Beginning of the End for Life as We Know it on Planet Earth?, I begin to wonder. Here is an exerpt: "We need to radically and intelligently reduce human populations to fewer than one billion. We need to eliminate nationalism and tribalism and become Earthlings...We need to stop flying, stop driving cars, and jetting around on marine recreational vehicles. The Mennonites survive without cars and so can the rest of us....Who should have children? Those who are responsible and completely dedicated to the responsibility which is actually a very small percentage of humans."

I don't want to say that everything Paul says in that article is non-sense, because not all of it is. But there are clearly some very creepy things in the article. Especially when we consider that not everyone will pursue these Orwellian ideals with a grain of cautionary balance. Oh to think how these "environmental protection measures" could be exploited by a power hungry totalitarian!

There are some very serious environmental issues which must be addressed. Totalitarianism is not the answer, and quite frankly I find some of the solutions that Mr. Watson proposes scary. First, I find they way Watson proposes them to be a bit creepy. Second, I find the ways they could be further ABUSED even more creepy.
I say this not because I don't care about the environment or am a selfish "human chauvinist", but rather because I love liberty and I feel that human well-being must also coexist with the global ecological well-being. When humans are enslaved to tyranny, the environment doesn't do too well either.