Contra Gore

Perhaps no more devastating review of a more worthy target has yet been penned. Walter Russell Mead on Al Gore:

You can be a leading environmentalist and fail to pay all of your taxes. You can be a leading environmentalist and be unkind to your aged mother. You can be a leading environmentalist and squeeze the toothpaste tube from the middle, park in the handicapped spots at the mall or scribble angry marginal notes in library books.

But you cannot be a leading environmentalist who hopes to lead the general public into a long and difficult struggle for sacrifice and fundamental change if your own conduct is so flagrantly inconsistent with the green gospel you profess. If the heart of your message is that the peril of climate change is so imminent and so overwhelming that the entire political and social system of the world must change, now, you cannot fly on private jets. You cannot own multiple mansions. You cannot even become enormously rich investing in companies that will profit if the policies you advocate are put into place.

And this:

I am not one of those who thinks him a hypocrite; I think rather that he shares an illusion common amongst the narcissistic glitterati of our time: that politically fashionable virtue cancels private vice. The drug addled Hollywood celeb whose personal life is a long record of broken promises and failed relationships and whose serial bouts with drug and alcohol abuse and revolving door rehab adventures are notorious can redeem all by "standing up" for some exotic, stylish cause. These moral poseurs and dilettantes of virtue are modern versions of those guilt-plagued medieval nobles who built churches and monasteries to 'atone' for their careers of bloodshed, oppression and scandal.

Mr. Gore is sincere, as the fur-fighting actresses are sincere, as so many 'causey' plutocrats and moguls are sincere. It is perhaps also true that the fundraisers who absolve them of their guilt in exchange for the donations and the publicity are at least as sincere as the indulgence sellers in Martin Luther's Germany.

I don't judge, dear reader, and neither should you. May we all find mercy when we stand alone, naked and ashamed before the judgment seat of God.

I judge that Mr. Gore would have been a lot better off had he been charged with hypocrisy. Hypocrites at least believe that they ought to be something they are not. Does someone who so conspicuously consumes resources and expels so much carbon faltus really believe that we must, immediately change our ways? No. What we really believes is that we must, at all costs, keep one Al Gore in the public eye.

Comments

[Donald Pay]

It's good to know this Mead character and you recycle. When the right has nothing new to say, you can count on them to go back to old memes. How old is this story? Oh, the Gore story was recycled once about 4 years ago, and originally came out about the time his movie came out.

The issue of the pros and cons of working on environmental issues in the modern world has been dealt with thirty to forty years ago by the environmental community. There are tradeoffs, and everyone has their own idea what is justified and what is not. In the last 5 years or so there are companies providing carbon offsets you can purchase if you feel your travel is causing too much greenhouse gas production.

[Jon S.]

Donald, I am sure I am perfectly capable of putting on the blinders when one of my own oxes is gored (if you forgive the pun), but it must be extremely hard work to remain blind to the brilliant rank hypocrisy (I will use the word)of Al Gore. Just answer me this: why must he live in such large mansions? Why must he travel by luxury air? And isn't the carbon offset just a "get out of jail free" card? The wealthy live their luxuriant lifestyle, paying their penance with offsets, while demanding the rest of us, who cannot afford offsets, drive smaller cars, buy smaller houses, keep the houses cooler in winter and warmer in summer, ride on crowded public trains, use different light bulbs, etc. The carbon offset is today's "let them eat cake." We all fail in one respect or another to live up to the expectations to which we hold others. This is not hypocrisy; it's just garden variety sin. What is hypocrisy is when you think there are different rules for you than there are for other people. Hypocrisy, meet Al Gore. The green lifestyle is for the little people. Aren't you proving Mead's point? Al Gore is what you usually seem to despise: a wealthy huckster who lives a life of ease, enriching himself off of the hard work of others and who expects to live a comfortable life while the rest of us impoverish ourselves to meet his green dream. But you cannot denounce him because his views are just so damn progressive.

[Donald Pay]

Well, Jon, I don't see it that way. Al Gore's family is wealthy, and I'm sure growing up that way makes you a little tone deaf to the struggles of us real people. I think his luxury travel and his mansion lifestyle is over the top, but that doesn't disqualify him from being involved in environmental issues.

I worked with plenty of wealthy people on environmental issues in South Dakota. In fact a lot of the initial opposition to heap leach mining came from South Dakota's wealthy elite, probably because they travel and saw damage done by mining in other states. I disagreed vehemently with them on a whole host of issues, but I worked with anyone on environmental issues.

[lynn]

Growing up rich does NOT mean that he needs to live that lifestyle if he is so concerned with the environment. I think you hit it on the head though. He grew up rich and has no concept of life for the un-rich and has no intent to ever find out. He sees a chance to enrich himself with the bogus global warming (now debunked into climate change) and he sees no need for him to abide by what he preaches that others do. Carbon credits are simply a scam that will enrich certain powerful people at the expense of the "little people". And it will not solve any of the world's problems.

[Donald Pay]

Yeah, I'm really tired of the right's ever repeated memes. Either you are out of ideas, or you have immense contempt for your readers. Every 4-6 months we get the echo chamber full of recycled, fake disgust about some wealthy Democrat. I guess this is to remind yourself that all the tax breaks you give to the rich don't go exclusively to Republicans.

This is iteration 3 or 4 for this same attack on Gore, but it won't be the last. Carbon credits, by the way, are Republican ideas. Attacking market based solutions to global climate change? You guys are socialists.

[Ken Blanchard]

Donald: the occasion of Mead's piece was Gore's piece in the Rolling Stone. There he lectures the rest us on how we should live. Mead was right to point out what a pompous ass Gore is. I can understand, though, that it hurts you when one of your heroes is attacked.

I know a local environmentalist who rides a bicycle nearly everywhere and won't eat imported lettuce. That is how a serious person behaves. Gore has a houseboat with a jet ski attached. If this guy can lecture us about our need to make do with less, I am sure you won't mind Newt Gingrich lecturing everyone about marital fidelity.

Besides, his exquisite demolition of Gore is only part of his exposure of the shambolic state of the climate change movement. His analysis is dead spot on. There has never been at any time a realistic prospect a global treaty to reduce carbon emissions. Precisely if you take AGW seriously you have to recognize that fact. Otherwise you waste decades on a fool's errand. This is recycled too, Donald. I've been saying it for years now. I continue to be right.

[Miranda]

I have no problem with environmentalists excusing Gore for his excesses - as long as they are willing to excuse everyone else as well. Instead, men like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. suggest that climate change "deniers" ought to be treated like traitors. Meanwhile, environmentalists like David Roberts suggests that there ought to be a "climate change Nuremberg."

[larry kurtz]

RFK, Jr. on the Tavis Smiley Show: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/tavissmiley/interviews/environmental-advocate-robert-f-kennedy-jr/

Do you speak for the entire right wing, Ms. Flint? 'Cause if that's your deal, we'll take it. It was your side that came up with 'Freedom Fries' and the 'TEA party.' Hyperboloids are par for the political course in a post-Lewinsky world. The Kochs would make prime pillory prospects for my own private Nuremberg.

[Miranda]

Mr. Kurtz: Heaven forbid! My point isn't that the left has a monopoly on hypocrisy. I just think that if Gore gets a past, the rest of us ought to as well. Surely if environmental "crimes" are so serious that deniers ought to be tried in Nuremberg-style trials, Gore's behavior is worth more than a shrug. You'll forgive me if I don't quite understand how suggesting that French Fries be called another name or participating in the Tea Party is at all similar to calling for a Nuremberg-style trials for those with opposing political views.

[larry kurtz]

Let's just say that i run in a pack that does, Ms. Flint. Vice-President Gore is doing the stuff i can only pretend to understand; i'm just a soldier taking orders.

[lynn]

Larry is just a soldier taking orders??? At least he admits that he doesn't understand why he believes what he spouts off about, but is just a member of the pack that doesn't question or understand, just mouths off!

[larry kurtz]

Wrong tree, lynn...my rich guys against yer rich guys.

[Jub Jub Bird]

Al gore has one home that uses $30:000 worth of electricity a month then he is urging us all to cut back? He needs a swift kick in his rear