The Greens’ eco-Marxist plan to transform society

For many years, the Greens have been treated as a political curiosity. They could win a spot or two in the Senate, but they were absent from the real place of political power, the House of Representatives. That has now changed. Not only will they have more senators from July next year, they also have a seat in the House. More significantly, they are in a formal alliance with the minority Labor government nationally and in Tasmania.

Despite the emphasis on the environment, “the Greens are not a single issue party.” Their objective is clear: “to transform politics and bring about Green government.” The Australian Greens are part of a worldwide movement that is actively engaged in the political process.As their writings state, this objective involves a radical transformation of the culture that underpins western civilisation. As a political party, they should be treated like any other political party and subjected to the same scrutiny.

Read below an extract from my speech last week about the Greens agenda.

The new coercive utopianism

Unless we understand the ideological foundations of the Greens, we will fail to effectively address the challenge they pose. We will be left debating instrumental outcomes, as if they are based on the same foundations that underpin western civilisation. The Greens are at the cutting edge of a clash within western civilisation itself.

The Greens are not a single-issue party. Their objective is “to transform politics and bring about Green government.” As part of a worldwide movement, this objective involves a radical transformation of western culture.

In their manifesto, The Greens, Bob Brown and Peter Singer write that the origin of the party was the green bans applied by the Builders Laborers in the 1970s. The Communist Party leader of the militant union, Jack Mundey, described himself as “an ecological Marxist.” Mundey later prophesised that “in the future there is a possibility of …. what I’d call a Green Red future of socialism.”

Mundey’s “ecological Marxism” is an apt description of the Greens. It sums up their two core beliefs. First, the environment is to be placed before all else. The first principle in the Greens Global Charter states: “We acknowledge that human beings are part of the natural world and we respect the specific values of all forms of life, including non-human species.”

Secondly, the Greens are Marxist in their philosophy, and display the same totalitarian tendencies of all previous forms of Marxism when a political movement. By totalitarian, I mean the subordination of the individual in the impulse to forcibly rid society of all elements that, in the eyes of the adherent, mar its perfection.

According to the Greens ideology, human dignity is neither inherent, nor absolute, but relevant. Humans are but one species amongst others.

As Brown and Singer write: “We hold that the dominant [western] ethic is indefensible because it focuses only on human beings and on human beings who are living now, leaving out the interests of others who are not of our species. . .”

They equate humans with animals. “The revolutionary element in Green ethics is its challenge to see ourselves in universal terms. . . I must take into account the interests of others, on the same footing as my own. . . whether these others are . . . Australians or Rwandans, or even the nonhuman animals whose habitat is destroyed when a forest is destroyed.”

What is revolutionary is not that the interests of others should be considered. Judeo-Christian belief extols consideration of others, as does Kant’s Golden Rule. What is revolutionary is the equation of humans and animals.

The Green movement attributes the planet with a spiritual dimension. Their guru, James Lovelock, described the Earth as a complex living organism, of which humans are merely parts. He named this organism after the Greek goddess who personified the earth – Gaia – and described “Her” as “alive.”

Singer and Brown are correct to describe this as revolutionary. It is a new pagan belief system, concerned not with the relationship between humans and a creator, but based on the deification of the environment.

For the Greens, a pristine global environment represents earthy perfection. It underpins their “ecological wisdom” and is at the core of their new ethic. It is to be protected and promoted at all costs.

Hence, all old growth forests are to be locked up. Wealth is scorned; economic growth is opposed; and exclusive ownership of property is questioned. There should be a moratorium on fossil fuels exploration; dam construction should be discouraged; world trade should be reduced; and a barter economy encouraged.

It explains why the Greens believe the world’s population should be reduced and human consumption and trade cut.

For many Greens supporters, environmentalism is ultimately an article of faith. This is illustrated in the controversy surrounding global warming. To Greens believers, claims of manipulation of the process and the data are of little consequence.

The Greens belief in their environmental nirvana manifests itself in a new coercive utopianism.

Until now, the Greens have been treated as a political curiosity. Their emergence as a partner in government requires they be subjected to the same scrutiny as other political parties.

[This is an extract from a paper delivered in Melbourne on November 10, 2010. The full paper can be read at www.kevinandrews.com.au.]