I have been heartened by the actions of the young people who have decided that enough is enough on the subject of climate change, but I feel it important to suggest to them that in order to effect any kind of meaningful change they will have to tackle climate change from its root causes, and that the one common denominator driving the fundamentals of climate pollution is the dominant free market economic ideology. What must always be remembered is that this is an ideology that refuses to be restrained by rules and regulations, that gives permission to business and corporations to do whatever they want, whenever they want to, free from the restrictions that govern the rest of society, but, most importantly, absolves them of any responsibility for damage their actions may cause. Thus, what everyone concerned about climate change must come to understand is that their primary battle is ideological and that before they can get any meaningful change on issues relating to climate change, they must confront and defeat the ideology that underpins it. They must understand that climate change is happening for a reason, that it has a driver, and that until they challenge that dominant model head on they will fail to realise their goals because they will be set on a course that has been determined by a false hypothesis and so must inevitably produced a false conclusion.
The key proposition underpinning free market economics is the concept of deregulation, that regulations are fetters on profit making and market activity and therefore a bad thing. Free market economics operates from a perverted notion of freedom. The free marketeer genuinely believes that freedom means that where economic activity is concerned, you must be allowed to do whatever you want, whenever you want to and that any restrictions on your ability to do what you want are evil, that people who erect regulatory frameworks inhibiting your right to do what you want are socialists and communists and are self-evidently the enemies of freedom. However, the freedoms they demand do not extend to other people. Those people who exercise their freedom to protest against, and to curtail economic exploitation, the destruction of ecosystems, the devastation of natural resources etc. are terrorists who must be stopped at all costs, such people must not be allowed freedom because they are a direct threat to the ability of others to do exactly as they want, accountable to no-one else. That is also why they are so hostile to trades unions and to employment rights and health and safety regulations that are constraints on their activities.
The poison of modern free market ideology emanates from America, and principally from the Chicago School of Economics headed by Milton Friedman and his disciples. J,K.Galbraith told us that the modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness, and in the teachings of the Chicago economists and the public policies of Margaret Thatcher, they found exactly what they were looking for. Writing in 1970 Milton Friedman preached that "there is one and only one social responsibility of business--to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profit" He called anyone who argued for a socially responsible approach to business as a pure and unadulterated socialist. This was then championed by Margaret Thatcher due to her position to determine public policy with her infamous claim that there is no such thing as society. Few people have ever contemplated the deeply sinister implications of that statement. Thus, a socially responsible approach to anything is by definition bad and wrong.
Therefore this interpretation of the role of business denies any social responsibilities, because, if there is no such thing as society, how can you be responsible to an entity that does not exist? It was this deeply selfish and irresponsible attitude that caused the financial crisis of 2008, and is the principal driver of climate change. Similarly, if there is no such thing as society, the individual has no social responsibilities either. Their only responsibility is to themselves, not to other members of a society that does not exist, nor to such abstract concepts like the environment, or nature, or the climate. This is the ideology of unrestrained selfishness, of unrestrained greed. What is so terrible is that the people who preach and practice this odious ideology care nothing for their own children and grandchildren, never mind anyone elses. What you must realise is that you are dealing with people who are knowingly and willingly destroying the planet and simply don't care as long as they get what they want here and now. If you don't approach this problem and these people on that basis, if you think for one second that they are open to reason and normal human compassion, then you will fail. You have been warned.
Your Servant
Doktor Kommirat
