Left, Right and The Environment

Another misleading idea used to be that capitalism and communism represented opposite extremes, opposite poles of economic theory and practice.

Proponents of communism used to believe, inter alia, that if only the world were communist there would be no more environmental degradation, no more pollution, no more problems in that area.

There was a tendency for environmental conservation movements to become subsumed into the political “left” so that advocates on this side of politics regraded themselves as the only legitimate spokespeople for environmental matters, and conversely many environmentalists felt obliged to support general left-wing causes and to side with communist and socialist nations in the world political and ideological wrestling.

The next step has been that many environmental movements have become mainly left-wing activist groups with conservation issues pushed into an inferior position and warped and chopped to fit the political causes. This will often put the environmentalist in the position of supporting some action which points in quite the opposite direction to a healthy ecosystem and a sustainable world economy.

On the other side, some environmentalists have become captured by the business lobby, giving rise to a movement for “sustainable development” whatever that means.

A better view of world economics is perhaps that capitalism and communism, and the various hybrids in between, are but different varieties of one economic philosophy, the conventional, traditional flat-earth economics. The assumption common to all is that the earth is a limitless source and a bottomless sink; or rather, that the question of whether the earth is or is not these things is irrelevant and need not be considered.

The difference between capitalism and communism was in their emphasis and practice rather than in their essential nature. More will be said on this in two following digressions.

Related posts:

1. Environment versus Economic Progress The fierce conflicts between conservationists on one side and workers, industrialists, and some politicians on the other arise from a misconception. Both parties in fact desire the same goal - economic well-being. But the latter...
2. Capitalism versus Communism Continued - Towards a Better Economics To come back to the subject of capitalism versus communism, the real extreme, the true opposite polarity, would be between flat-earth economics and a new economics, round-earth economics. The latter not only assumes the earth’s...
3. Digression - Flat Earth Economics; Capitalist and Communist Varieties Contrasted Communist systems could not be maintained without coercion and authoritarianism, which tended to exclude the great majority of the people from participation in administration and policymaking. Communication with the governed was restricted because suggestions for...
4. Digression: Pollution Red Herrings Litter “Pollution”: A misleading idea, started when environmental awareness really took off world-wide in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, is that “pollution” means “litter” and that preventing litter means doing all that’s necessary to...
5. Digression: “So Long As We Profit, Costs Elsewhere Aren’t Our Problem”? A fault of flat earth economics as practiced in free enterprise economies is that it chops a nation’s economy into sections that are too often treated as being self-contained and independent of other sections. This...