On Thu, 30 Aug 2001 10:20:56 -0600, Rex F. May <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>STAN MULAIK wrote:
>
>> But generally I don't think environmentalism has to have this
>> strident political orientation.  This was something that was created
>> in the 1970s by Barry Commoner, an ecologist with a left-wing political
>> bent.  In many ways by politicizing it and pushing science to the
>> background, environmentalists have lost their credibility with the
>> main stream voters.
>
>No. Of course it doesn't have to, but it does.  When it became
>unfashionable to advocate authoritarianism on behalf of the
>'working class,' many communists just moved over to
>environmentalism.  Just as many of them switched to the Nazi
>party in Germany (and, as I understand it, Baldur von Schirach
>switched the other way after the defeat).  People who want to
>boss other people around can always find a crisis that
>necessitates it.

I'd say the majority of environmentalists are on the left, but a lot are
closer to a libertarian position, albeit not the hard-right "Dilbertarian"
position that you get on the Net. Culturally they are basically hippies, so
it's hard to imagine them as anything other than leftwingers.

On the Greens, there's a fascinating article on the political career of
Joschka Fischer, the German Green leader and now Foreign Minister, in the
New Republic:

http://www.thenewrepublic.com/082701/berman082701_print.html

The writer (more than a bit biased, mind you) argues that Fischer and many
other, but by no means all, German Greens have (a) broken with traditional
leftwing dogmas and (b) are genuinely anti-authoritarian.

Cheers,

Chris