George Will: Personal Liberties Regardless of the Environmental Costs
I had the pleasure of listening to the conservative columnist George Will deliver a talk yesterday here at my 35th reunion at Trinity College in Hartford, CT. As I told a friend before we entered the auditorium, I disagree with a great deal of this guy’s conclusions, but I’d give anything to be able to think and communicate at his level.
And he didn’t disappoint; his 45-minute presentation was terrific. He presented dozens and dozens of issues that affect the 2012 elections, some militating for, and some against Obama’s re-election. He was hilariously funny at times, but mostly fact-based, e.g., no president since World War II has been elected when unemployment was over 7.5%, nor was one re-elected whose job approval rating was under 50%.
15 minutes of Q&A followed, most of which was condemnatory to Obama’s socialist policies on healthcare, etc.
I approached Will after the talk, shook his hand, and told him what an honor it was to meet him. I began, “I notice that we just went through a full hour of discourse on the strengths and weaknesses of our society, and the challenges we face in the years that lie ahead, and we didn’t once mention sustainability. If we were having this discussion in Europe, it wouldn’t have focused on healthcare, in this case, “Obamacare,” which, btw, has very little to do with Obama; the healthcare bill that was eventually passed had almost no resemblance to the concept that Obama initiated. It would have focused on the fact that we are not going to be here in 50 years or so if we continue on our current course with respect to energy and the destruction of natural resources.”
“People are starting to talk about this here in the US,” he replied.
“Well that’s a good start, I guess. But what I’m suggesting is that you, as a thought-leader, shouldn’t ignore this. I know you’re focused on the United States as an isolated nation, and that you can get people pretty riled up about how government is limiting their freedom. But you need to consider that they’re going to be even more upset when they realize their grandchildren have inherited a toxic planet.”
He smiled. And reiterated what a pleasure it was to have met me.
Good try, but it remains to be seen whether he will modify his position.
Ha! Thanks for the note, but no, it doesn’t remain to be seen. 🙂 I had exactly zero impact on his thinking.
Craig, the hallmark of “progressive” or “liberal” thinkers is that markets and individuals universally lack the intellectual, moral and ethical capacity to govern themselves, think for themselves or make judgments for themselves. Liberals want to control the actions and limit the options and choices available to individuals because the liberal, in his way of thinking, simply knows better than individuals who are not so enlightened. Add to this the liberal sense of moral righteousness and psychological bias toward self-confirmation and you have all the makings of a dictatorship that views itself as utterly benign, but is a dictatorship nonetheless. Will is correct, of course: We’re going to have freedom, or we’re not.