In employment and education the key aspect of the legislation was the requirement for equal opportunity regarding both admission to educational facilities and employment. It was almost impossible for anyone with the slightest orientation as to time and place and an ethical sensibility transcending that of a tapeworm to dissent. Who could be against a level playing field in which both the advantages and disadvantages of race, ethnic origin, or gender would be absent?
Success would be on the basis of merit alone. No unearned assistance from (some) accidents of birth. No penalties either.
But in almost no time at all the original good idea was morphed by courts and congress into a far more ambitious and sinister creature. Equal opportunity became affirmative action. No matter what legal gloss or linguistic varnish might be applied, affirmative action brought race, ethnic background, and sex back onto the playing field.
It was not only legal but praiseworthy to practice some sort of reverse discrimination. A guilt perverted logic held that it was a good thing to discriminate against a present day white guy in order to teach his (dead) ancestors the evil of having discriminated in one way or another in the past. Judges, pundits, politicians, and professors told the white guy who was, in effect, to go sit at the back of the bus, that he had nothing to complain about since his "privileged" position in society had been purchased in the past by the exploitative and discriminating behavior of his forebearers.
The primary motivator in the transmogrification of equal opportunity into affirmative action was a sense of guilt which mainly afflicted those Americans of a liberal bent, a solid middle or upper class background, a comprehensive education to the level of a terminal degree, and an overall sense of security which afforded them the luxury of having others pay the price for their personal sense of sin. Guilt is wonderful. Provided you don't have to bear its burden.
So it is with global warming today.
We must leave aside the question of whether or not there is any truth behind the prognostications of prompt climatic catastrophe due to anthropogenic climate change unless drastic actions are taken instantly. The reason for this is simply that the global warming crowd has won the field. The decision has been made. We must kill the weather or the weather will kill us.
The sovereign remedy for ending the thermal menace (literally) hovering over us is the prompt and dramatic reduction in the levels of carbon dioxide released to the atmosphere by human activities. It goes without saying (or, at least should) that any significant reduction in this class of emissions will have immense economic, social, and personal consequences.
The heart of any global approach to the spectre of looming planetary incineration is the mechanism by which the efforts and attendant consequences will be spread and shared. There are two models: equal opportunity and affirmative action.
In an ideal world, a perfect humanity, the choice would be plain: equal opportunity, or, to err on the side of accuracy, equal pain, sacrifice, and loss.
We do live in an imperfect world, and humanity generally has not achieved any significant level of ethical purity. And, (here comes the most important consideration) the elites of the West, of Europe and, even more to the point, the United States, are afflicted by a level of guilt over our success that they are eager to prance to the gallows, fix the noose of penance around their (and our) necks, and spring the trap below their feet.
The much maligned George W. Bush refused to put the halter of the Kyoto Accords around the collective necks of Americans as it would harm national interests without any need for corresponding sacrifices on the part of, among others, India and China. For his refusal to acknowledge American guilt in exploiting the plentiful energy resources of the US during the period of industrial development (roughly 1850-2000) and meekly accept the necessary condign punishment, George W. Bush was (and is) pilloried as an example of greedy, selfish, piggy Americans who consume energy in the trillions of kilowatt hours and spew carbon dioxide with the barbaric abandon of a redneck heaving empty Coors cans at Old Faithful.
The other day Secretary of State Clinton went to India in part to join in an anticipated session of multi-national, cross-cultural celebration of the "greening" of the globe by joint efforts to defeat the Great Thermal Monster. Presumably she came believing that she could talk with her Indian counterparts on the level of elite-to-elite. As a result there would be quick agreement that India would take mandatory limits on carbon emissions on a par with those proposed for the US under the recent legislation providing for a carbon roll-back through cap-and-trade as well as other mechanisms.
The Indians wasted no time disabusing her of these illusions. She found out in double quick time that the Indian government's position was simple and clear cut. Stripped of the customary diplomatic ruffles and flourishes, it runs rather like this--
You Americans became the economic and political power you are by spewing carbon by the gigaton back before anyone knew that doing such might hypothetically cause any harm. Your collective wealth and enviable standard of living is the result. Now, we will do the same until our wealth and standard of living equals (or surpasses) yours. It's only fair.
Having been sharply put in her place over her undue demand for "equal opportunity," the SecState resorted to the American guilty liberal default position. On behalf of the US and all Americans, living and dead, Secretary Clinton admitted our guilt.
With this mea culpa the Secretary of State abandoned equal sacrifice in the face of a supposedly global threat and embraced the punishment of "affirmative action." We acknowledge – now with President Obama – that we have made mistakes in the United States, and we along with other developed countries have contributed most significantly to the problem that we face with climate change.
The record shows that this occasion was simply the most recent time for the Obama administration to acknowledge American "guilt" for the present state of carbon affairs and commit the Americans, each and every one of us, to make the necessary penitential sacrifices. Ms Clinton averred this position last April. President Obama did the same at the recent G-8 meeting in Italy.
An ancient joke from the days of vaudeville has a convict quipping to the judge who had just sentenced him, "You're awfully free with another man's time." So it is with Ms Clinton, President Obama, and all the others of the American elite who have convinced themselves (for reasons which may well be far less altruistic and non-self-interested than represented) that global warming is real and only by drastic "affirmative action" can the US lead the change by making proper amends for its past behavior.
Any way the assorted plans for addressing global climate change are parsed, there will be severe, dramatic, and potentially dislocative changes forced upon the American worker, the American consumer. The espousal of an "affirmative action" approach will magnify all of these negative ramifications as they will all narrow rather than broaden the base supporting the impact of the necessary sacrifices.
The world's largest (by volume) carbon emitter, China, is and will continue to take the same stance as India. The Chinese government, again like the Indian one, is strongly nationalistic in its priorities. Contrary to the stance taken by the American elite with its fixation on the fantasy of fellow-passengers-on-spaceship-Earth, these governments carefully calculate the best ways to advance the interests of their country and people, if necessary, at the expense of all others.
The Obama-Clinton elite cannot and will not understand this driving motivation any more than they can or will understand how the white guy fails to see why he should lose the job or promotion because past generations were discriminatory and prejudiced in their actions.
Governments outside the narrow confines of Western Europe and North America will pursue subjectively defined national interests above any sort of concern for planetary well-being. They will seek to offload as much of the burden onto the Americans and Western Europeans as possible. They will play the American liberal guilt card just as hard as they can.
That is no surprise. The first job of a government is the protection and advancement of the interests and well-being of their country and its people. Period.
The Obama administration and its supporters, particularly those who think of themselves as "progressive," will cooperate wholeheartedly in the displacement of shared responsibility onto the workers and consumers of the US. Being members of the elite they are more insulated from the inevitable and harsh consequences of the US taking an inordinate percentage of the task of limiting carbon dioxide and related emissions.
Just as they were insulated from the down-and-dirty street realities of affirmative action replacing equal opportunity as the touchstone of ending discrimination in the workplace, the elite can ride comfortably above the results of economic and social dislocations resulting in the years ahead from thoughtless, guilt driven decisions taken today. Once again the elite can be comfortable in admitting guilt and singing mea culpa since they will not have to bare their backs to the whip, their legs will not feel the tug of the iron fetters.
Equal opportunity was an excellent idea. Affirmative action replaced excellence with a foul travesty whose full, pernicious effects remain conveniently unplumbed. Equal sacrifice in the face of a (presumably) global threat is a fine and noble concept. The equivalent of affirmative action would transform the game to one of defeat and deride America for both fun and profit.
Sounds great, heah, bucko?
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