PAGE 12
DELIBERATE EXTINCTION
WITHOUT GUILT
BY PAUL REFFELL & DONNA SHEEHAN
For decades, environmentalists everywhere have been
trying to make everyone else feel guilty. Humans, they say, are
damaging the Earth faster than it can repair itself. The environ
mentalist solution is to tighten our belts, use fewer natural
resources, recycle, protect other species and generally clean
up our collective act.
Let’s face it, that approach doesn't work. All it does is
make people feel bad about doing what they are best at — using
stuff up and making a mess. Conservation only means saving
what's left so we can use it up later. Is that a solution?
The amount of time and money that has been spent by
environmentalists, corporations and governments on fighting
each other on environmental issues is incalculable. That's why
a movement called ‘Pro-Degradation’ is gaining popularity in
Northern California as it spreads its message that it's okay to
act like human beings. Once we accept that we are the most
productive and destructive species ever created, that we
\have no choice but to mess up our playpen, we will be able
to complete the logical progress of humanity toward extinction,
without guilt.
The message of the Pro-Degradation movement is that
we should all speed up this progress, make life untenable for the
human race before we have time to figure out how to survive.
The target is to remove the human presence on the Earth within
three generations. Since we have no choice but to ruin the world
for ourselves, we should get it over with as soon as possible, in
order to spare the rest of the world’s species. We’ll take plenty
with us, no doubt, but the longer we delay the inevitable, the
more species will disappear.
Pro-Deg should be a notion that almost everyone can
support; Republicans, Democrats, Greens, corporations, share
holders, Christian fundamentalists, Buddhists, Earth Firsters,
pro-lifers, and just regular folks who want to be able to live life,
raise families and spend their hard-earned money.
Pro-Deg will give everyone the guilt-free impetus to
obey the urgings of governments and corporations to spend
more and consume more. We are told that a healthy economy is
one that keeps growing ad infinitum, that it is the patriotic duty of
Americans to buy more goods. This quarter’s bottom line is the
only consideration, so don’t listen to all those whiners who say
our way of life is changing the planet. Don’t look ahead, buy
more! Be proud of human ingenuity. Take the message to every
country in the world.
Pro-Deg supports the manufacture of all products
designed to speed the decline of the human species. It there
fore stands behind the increased production and use of:
-pesticides
-genetically modified crops
-nuclear and biological weapons
-synthetic food additives, hormones and preservatives,
all tested on humans
-nuclear and coal-fired power stations
-tobacco and carcinogenic substances of all kinds
-guns
-high-consumption gas and diesel engines.
Pro-Deg believes that lead-based paint and fuels should
be reintroduced, along with asbestos and mercury products. It
supports the abolition of:
-the already neutered EPA
-the few existing gun control laws
-the FDA, OSHA and ATF
-minimum wage legislation
-anti-slavery and child-labor laws
-all environmental organizations
-Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and food stamp
programs
-seatbelt and helmet laws
-alternative energy programs, if any exist
-MALT and other Land Trusts, State & National Parks,
which should all be privatized.
We have all been wrangling over these issues, using up
precious consumption and degradation time. While these delay
ing tactics continue, the world climate is still being changed (or,
if you prefer, natural processes are being helped along), but not
quickly enough.
The Pro-Deggers call on corporations and governments
to live up to their promises. A corporation’s sole responsibilities,
we have heard time and time again, are to their stockholders’
dividends and corporate profits. These were never long-term
responsibilities. Quarterly profits and the Board's benefits are
always preferable to long-term planning for future resource
management and a healthy customer base. Governments tell us
that the only healthy economy is one that grows and grows and
grows, regardless of the effects on the environment. Pro-Deg’s
position is that these organizations were right all along. They
want everyone to get behind their governments and the multi
nationals that rule the human species, and spur on their contin
uing efforts to bring us to our natural fulfillment.
There are sections of the American public and the
current Administration who believe that the End Time is coming
fast, so we might as well live as fast and luxuriously as we can,
because pretty soon the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse will
be coming down Main Street, doling out Paradise Passes to the
righteous and death to all the rest. Rumor has it that most of the
current Administration’s agenda is built around this premise,
which explains a lot about economic, foreign, environmental and
judicial policies. None of it matters — the End Time is coming.
So, the Pro-Deggers expect to see wide support from
the Republicans, from the President on down, their corporate
sponsors, patriots and fundamentalists of all creeds. They also
expect support from these and other anti-abortion activists.
Since the concept of Pro-Deg is to consume as much of the
planet’s resources as quickly as possible, population must
increase faster than it already is.
The Pro-Deggers call for the outlawing of birth control
in any form, including abstinence and abortion. The goal is to
increase population, with each person consuming as much as
possible, hence the need for maximum birthrate, something that
Catholics and fundamentalists and pro-lifers have long been
working towards. Maximum birthrate will have many social
implications. Since our primary value as humans is to keep our
global economy growing through higher consumption, maximum
birthrate will mean increased demand for goods, with corres
ponding profits for corporations. That will create a need for
greater output and workforce.
With the maximum birthrate in effect, there will be plen
tiful supplies of labor willing to work for next to nothing. With the
repeal of anti-slavery and anti-child-labor laws, and the enact
ment of laws requiring maximum procreation by everyone, the
manufacturing sector will be able to consume vast resources in
a very short time. Maximum birthrate may require mandatory
consumption of fertility drugs. Imagine a bright American future
in which the birth of sextuplets, which today is so loudly applaud
ed by the press as the epitome of family values, will become the
norm. With the proper education, a child will no longer simply
mean one more future car on the road, it will mean maximum
procreation, maximum consumption and maximum degradation
— all three natural, God-given functions of the human being.
Environmentalists will get behind Pro-Deg, too. If they
truly want to save the planet, not just force it to put up with us
for a couple more centuries, this is the only way to go. They can
also take a much needed rest, quit worrying so much and find
out what it’s like to be a true citizen of the Western world. Trade
in the Volvo — buy a Ford Expedition! Buy two!
After all, even the most avid of ecologists cannot help
but be destructive. Ever since we figured out to light a fire,
human presence has been making changes to the environment.
Every bike, cup of green tea, every sheet of recycled paper,
every fluorescent lightbulb, every solar panel, every pair of
organic cotton socks is the product of manufacturing that takes
something from the Earth, changes existing conditions some
how. It’s time to admit we can’t do anything about our human
ways, so the best thing we can do for the planet is to get off of
it as soon as we can.
So, the tired environmentalists of the world are begin
ning to say, “Okay, we give up. You were right all along. Buy it,
spray it, nuke it, say it — Pro-Deg is the planet’s only hope."
Paul Reffell and Donna Sheehan wrote this article for
the Great Western Pacific Coastal Post, which is published
monthly in Marin County, California. Thanks to Norman and
Betsy Wentworth who brought back a copy from their recent
visit.
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