I have warned repeatedly that we suffer from “expertitis,” my term for the tendency to hand the most important policy decisions over to “experts.” Now, a well known environmental author named David Shearman has written an hysterical piece urging that we toss aside democracy and adopt world authoritarianism to impliment the “scientific consensus” on global warming and other so-called world emergencies. And he holds tyrannical China (forced abortions, infanticide, killing prisoners for organs, repression of dissent, Tiananmen Square, etc. ad nauseum) up as the exemplar because it banned plastic bags! From the article:
I have been warning that there are some among us who worship at the altar of scientism and who want to institute a scientocracy where “the scientists” are granted a free hand and our opinions be damned. Well, this is a pretty explicit example. And the authoritarianism wouldn’t just be over global warming. A scientific consensus could probably be forged around permitting human cloning, creating animal/human hybrids, imposing futile care theory (which Shearman seemed to be alluding in his comment about ICUs) requiring eugenic abortion of disabled fetuses, perhaps even to deny medical treatment to smokers or the obese as has already been called for in the UK, etc. etc.The ban in China will save importation and use of five million tons of oil used in plastic bag manufacture, only a drop in the ocean of the world oil well. But the importance in the decision lies in the fact that China can do it by edict and close the factories. They don’t have to worry about loss of political donations or temporarily unemployed workers...
Liberal democracy is sweet and addictive and indeed in the most USA, unbridled individual liberty overwhelms many of the collective needs of the citizens. The subject is almost sacrosanct and those who indulge in criticism are labeled as Marxists [me: ya think?], socialists, fundamentalists and worse. These labels are used because alternatives to democracy cannot be perceived!...
The Chinese decision on shopping bags is authoritarian and contrasts with the voluntary non-effective solutions put forward in most Western democracies. We are going to have to look how authoritarian decisions based on consensus science can be implemented to contain greenhouse emissions. It is not that we do not tolerate such decisions in the very heart of our society, in wide range of enterprises from corporate empires to emergency and intensive care units. If we do not act urgently we may find we have chosen total liberty rather than life.
Democracy is not a luxury. It is crucial to human freedom and thriving. These would-be totalitarians can go jump in the lake.
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