Motus Mentis

This past Saturday was the occasion, once again, of “Earth Hour“, an annual smug-fest in which progressive ideologues the world over come together to thumb their noses en masse at the advanced civilization that feeds and shelters them, that allows them to take for granted a level of wealth and comfort unexampled in all of human history, and that gives them powers and privileges almost unimaginable a mere century ago: to travel anywhere on earth within hours by flying through the air; to send messages around the globe in the blink of an eye; to have in one’s hands, at a whim, any book ever written; to extend our senses to the depths of the ocean, to the surfaces of other planets, and to the most distant galaxies; to feed great masses of the hungry who in an earlier epoch would have starved; to extend our own happy years by repairing or replacing our eyes, our ears, our arteries, our skin, and our bones — or even by transplanting a living heart from one body to another.

Well, by now you’ve probably guessed that I didn’t join in the fun. The astonishing technological civilization that the genius and toil of Western Man has brought into existence is an achievement we should not only be proud of, but should also be very, very grateful for — and to have it sneered at by a lot of sanctimonious, self-righteous prigs with soft hands and full bellies irritates me more than I can tell you.

It turns out I am not alone. I yield the floor to Ross McKitrick, who on Friday summed things up nicely in this piquant essay.