Those heretic scientists are at it again!

We all know that greed is good. It has become our gospel.

 

The apostles of greed preach consumption, deregulation, freedom from taxation, worship of the wealthy, and condemnation of the poor. They bow to the prophets from the Austrian School of Economics, especially Friedrich von Hayek, whose sermon on laissez faire capitalism still has hearts aflutter. Fortunately, the few heretics, academics like Jeffrey Sachs, have been ignored. Now, erstwhile scientists are daring to challenge the gospel of greed (pdf).

The Royal Society is Britain's most prestigious scientific organization. Their new report, People and the Planet, sounds like it was written by those dirty hippies at Bollocks to Poverty. Sir John Sulston, chair of the Royal Society study group examining the unholy trinity of overpopulation, resource consumption, and environmental destruction, summed up his anti-Gekko ideals this way:

"The world now has a very clear choice. We can choose to address the twin issues of population and consumption. We can choose to rebalance the use of resources to a more egalitarian pattern of consumption, to reframe our economic values to truly reflect what our consumption means for our planet and to help individuals around the world to make informed and free reproductive choices. Or we can choose to do nothing and to drift into a downward vortex of economic, socio-political and environmental ills, leading to a more unequal and inhospitable future."

Bollocks. Egalitarian pattern of consumption? Walk away from the gospel of greed? Make informed choices that limit consumption in wealthy societies, lend a helping hand to the 1.3 billion living in poverty, encourage contraception and family planning, educate all, and conserve and protect resources? It is heresy, pure and simple.

“Ultimately, we should all strive for a world in which every individual has an opportunity to flourish. Science can help us to achieve this goal, not only by developing practical solutions that improve our health and living standards and optimise our use of resources, but also by identifying potential problems, such as emerging diseases or the impact of greenhouse gases. However, science is not a panacea and scientists alone cannot solve the challenges we now face. Humanity must now act collectively and constructively if we are to face the future with confidence.” Sir John Sulston

These scientists want people to cooperate and work together to protect the most vulnerable. I would have thought that they would cheer cut-throat competition as part of social darwinism. How dare they suggest that our survival as a species on this planet may require sacrifices by the haves and help for the have nots!

These demons even want to increase access to contraception and family planning.

Reproductive health and voluntary family planning programmes urgently require political leadership and financial commitment, both nationally and internationally. This is needed to continue the downward trajectory of fertility rates, especially in countries where the unmet need for contraception is high.

Don't they know that the only morality that really matters is condemnation of homosexuals, contraception, and abortion? Any platform acceptable to religious fundamentalists must include these calls to culture war.

 Our salvation lies with Mammon. Ayn Rand told me so.