The article we link to speaks for itself. In fact, it speaks volumes about sheer stupidity. This is what happens when health, ideology and junk science adapt economics and society to their idiotic principles.
We are in the “ethical funds” era. Ethical funds – or whatever other name permutation they have – do not invest in certain stocks. This is not because those stocks are not profitable, but because (at least in the warped minds of their institutional managers) they are “immoral”. Ethical funds do not in invest in environmentally “unfriendly” enterprises, for example. And with all the fanaticism there is about environment, anything at all other than complete economic immobility is environmentally “unfriendly”.
“Ethical” funds do not invest in tobacco stocks (one of the most profitable and stable investments ever) either, because it is said that “smoking is the most preventable cause of death and disease” although none of the “public health authorities” can scientifically prove one death from smoking.
Nevertheless, not investing in tobacco is the “moral” thing to do because of ideology; destroying pension funds and the economic security of millions and millions of baby boomers who are about to collect (what, rubber cheques?…) is instead very moral indeed. In short, “ethical” funds want to bring the “immoral” guys to their knees with economic boycott and blackmail. Wrong to the bone, as economic disaster follows.
That is what happens when doctors want to be the pushers of morality and "proper" behaviours; when bureaucrats want to be social engineers instead of just pushing mouldy paper stacks around; when industries such as Big Pharma are allowed to run public policy and control health institutions and scientific publications; when computer projections that are as precise as blindfolded shooters with poor marksmanship in dark rooms are taken as oracles of prediction, thus bases for policies, on the grounds that an “expert” with a computer is nearly infallible!
That is what happens when health, safety and environment, and a "zero exposure, zero risk" mentality become the paramount values of society — instead of liberty, economic liberalism, individual self-determination and spontaneity. It’s what happens when the state and institutions think that they know better than the citizens or – worse yet – when the citizens believe that state and institutions know better.
Almost everything we do is wrong, today. We need to disengage the reverse gear and go forward again — and hurry! We need to go back to big cars, smoking, drinking and eating. We need to stop choking technology, creativity and progress with health and safety regulation. We need to stop perceiving private initiative and industry as the enemy. We need to stop micro-managing the values and behaviour of people and wasting billions of public dollars in doing so. That money is to be invested in productive, constructive purposes that are not enmeshed with BS "moralistic" values. We need to go back to our traditional mistrust of the state, which is what kept its interference at bay. We need to abandon computer models, “experts” and virtual projections and return to our own judgement, stemming from the most powerful computer that will ever exist: our brain (…although, judging from the performance of the brain of contemporary institutions, we admit that we may be in error!).
Once, when mere brains were in charge, America was able to drive over 150 million 18-foot cars, have the highest standard of living in the world, have high employment, sustain the Vietnam war, withstand the Cold War with the Soviets, support all its allies financially and militarily, invent the microchip and go to the Moon in its spare time amidst clouds of cigarette smoke and tons of fast food snacks wetted with beer and whiskey. Optimism and enthusiasm were high, and we were a nation of "can do" instead of "can’t do". All that made it well worthwhile to live a couple of statistical years less that might be theoretically possible: this was called freedom. We don’t need any study to know that it works. We do not need any expert opinion. All we need to do is look at recent history. Create the same conditions, and you will have the same results.
To that end, we need to get rid of the bureaucrats, the “experts”, the healthists, the environmental fanatics, the do-gooder busybodies and the pharmaceutical lobbyists. We need to fire the children’s brainwashers planted in schools and replace them with classic educators (no, Sing-Sing is not in China!). We must eliminate the empty rhetoric and political correctness, the hollow ideological crusades and the idiotic dreams of immortality through eternal health and safety. All that is not sustainable, and is mainly responsible for the current disastrous economic conditions of the West. We need to un-regulate, and learn how to take risks again. We need to get rid of the Lysenkos of the 21st century. Lisenko was a Russian “researcher” who stated that plants grow better and healthier when exposed to the Communist anthem — and he proved that “scientifically”. Unfortunately, today there is no significant difference between Lysenko, Stanton Glantz, John Banzhaf and the Surgeon General.
Today, in fact, we have hundreds of Lysenkos in every institution and millions of comrades in the streets — in America and in the world. Today’s Lysenkos tell you that you are going to be “healthier” if you don’t smoke, eat, drink, drive a big car, and if you get rid of incandescent light bulbs while breaking your legs with hours of running a day – junk science in hand to “prove” it all! Communism failed because of the belief that liberty is dangerous, and that the state can micromanage industries and individuals in the smallest details and priorities.
And what are state and institutions doing today through “health” and “safety” and “environment”? That is why we are failing. Communism also failed because it believed that the health of the collective is more important than the freedom of one – the eternal ideological trap of the short-sighted and the fool.
Happy reading: smoke more – and take care of that pension!
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