Bad ideas for consumer convenience

This one is from four centuries ago: a combination toothpick and earwax spoon. Eeewwww. [click on the picture for the link to the article and a larger photo]

Environmental controversy? It’s all about destiny.

Reading through the news this morning, I was struck by a number of articles on environmental issues, such as:

• The Anti-Human Agenda
• Climate change bill picking up steam
• Gore tells CMU graduates they can become heroes

Gore’s commencement speech at Carnegie Mellon was particularly noteworthy:

Former Vice President Al Gore on Sunday told graduates of Carnegie Mellon University they could become part of the next “hero generation” in American history by solving environmental problems.
…
“We face a planetary emergency,” Gore said. “The concentrations of global warming pollution have been rising at an unprecedented pace and have now given the planet a fever.”

This sort of rhetoric always brings me back to the differences in visions of humanity’s purpose. For those who don’t see a higher purpose in human existence, it makes sense to devote all of our efforts into ameliorating man’s impact on the world. For those who do, it makes sense to only devote a modest portion of our efforts into the environment, since some environmental damage can be considered an acceptable price for the furtherance of humanity’s journey.

Let me restate that more clearly:

• Liberals: Man has no ulterior purpose other than to live a good life, help others, promote justice and fairness, and minimize the harm he creates
• Conservatives: Man has a higher purpose which supercedes the liberal goals. Liberal goals are nice, but not the highest priority, in Man’s journey.

Conservatives and liberals are often embroiled in arguments over the environment, never realizing that their positions are the result of a basic difference in their views on destiny. They really need to discuss the underlying philosophy in order to reach a reconciliation on higher level issues.