Beyond Creepy – NYT supports the idea of “An Ecologically Minded Lenin”

Hat tip to Don Boudreaux for this chilling endorsement of “an ecologically minded Lenin,” in a Paul Greenberg review of a recent book by Bill McKibben at the NYT,

“But many of these proposed solutions inadvertently resemble the list of things Christian Lander lampooned in his 2008 best seller “Stuff White People Like”: “farmer’s markets,” “awareness,” “making you feel bad about not going outside,” “vegan/vegetarianism.” It’s not that these things aren’t important. But in the absence of some overarching authority, a kind of ecologically minded Lenin, they will remain hipster lifestyle choices rather than global game changers.”

I keep thinking that maybe the sick romance is finally over, but it keeps coming back again and again.

Of course, if we get “a kind of ecologically minded Lenin” at the global scale, we can forget about the possibility of letting a thousand nations bloom.

Would that more people took seriously John McCarthy’s notion that “ideological menaces” are a far more dangerous threat to human survival than are environmental or technological menaces.  Given the scale of destruction caused by such ideological menaces, why are more of us not terrified by them?