[GPSCC-chat] Fw: Climate change, libertarians, & property rights (George Monbiot)

[Cameron L. Spitzer]

Maybe we should all go back and read Orwell's "1984" again.
One of Big Brother's most powerful and important techniques was
removing words from the language, or changing their meaning
so they are no longer worth using.

We have lost "recycle."  It used to mean reclaiming stuff from
the waste stream and making the same stuff out of it.
Steel and aluminum are recycled that way.  But now it means
separating your trash into multiple bins.  No new water bottles
are made from "recycled" water bottles.  The plastic is changed
when the bottles are formed, and it can't be vacuum-formed
again.  And a lot of large properties just mix all the bins
together and send it all to the landfill, notably Disneyland
and UC Berkeley.  You can "recycle" to your heart's content
at Berkeley, and not a speck of petroleum or aluminum is saved.

We've lost "feminist."  It used to be about empowerment and
acceptance and liberation and nonviolence.  Now, in mainstream
usage, it's about weirdness and anger and resentment.

We've lost "organic."  Once upon a time, organic farming was
sustainable and decentralized.  Now they clearcut ancient rainforest
to grow "organic" palm oil for junk food to sell at Walmart.

And we've lost "Libertarian."  John Locke, Henry David Thoreau,
and Thomas Jefferson were ("classical") libertarians.
They would not recognize the ideology of Mises and Rand and Cato.
This property-rights religion of the new "Libertarians" is new.


   When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a
   scornful tone, 'it means just what I choose it to mean
   — neither more nor less.'  (Carroll, Through the Looking Glass)


Let's avoid these meaningless terms.  They get in the way.
That's why the noise machine goes to the trouble of destroying
language, to make it harder for folks to communicate.


-Cameron