Punitive Solutions Preferred, Part 3

For an opinion blogger, contemporary politics is, as originally coined by Aviation Week in the 1970s, a “target-rich” environment. This remains true even after I cull the topics I've chosen to avoid in my blogging, whether for personal reasons, for "I'm not sufficiently informed" reasons, or for "waste of breath" reasons. Finding something to write about on any given day takes little more than a perusal of the news and of my social media feeds to see what catches my attention.

Today's standouts are the government's desire to ban menthol cigarettes and Joe Biden's avowal of what we here have long known - that high gas prices actually suit his agenda.

The common thread? Our government thinks punishing people is a Good Thing and a useful policy tool.

Veteran readers might recall (then again, probably not, given my prolix ways) a bit from 2019 titled "Punitive Solutions Preferred," wherein I noted the stark difference between Greta Thunberg and Boyan Slat.

'Boyan who?,' you probably just subvocalized.

The meme tells the tale. Slat, whether successful or not, took a "fix the problem" approach, whereas Thunberg's modus operandi has been one of universal scolding in favor of the aforementioned "punitive" solutions. I'm sure Thunberg isn't much displeased with the spike in gasoline prices, and likely believes, as Biden seems to, that they'll accelerate people's transition to electric vehicles. Moreso, there are many among us who prefer the punitive solution, and they tend to also prefer it be imposed on everyone else.

That the math of such a transition is so far from adding up that calling it "math" insults the word is of no interest. That the cost of this transition beggars belief is likewise in the 'lalalala I'm not listening' category. That skyrocketing energy prices were a declared feature of "greening" by Biden's former boss is an unfortunate Kinsley gaffe that's best elided from history.

The government's approach to things that we enjoy and that make our lives better and easier runs to the Puritanical. Such things are deemed immoral, and therefore only Bad People embrace them without guilt. This serves to absolve any guilt that the banning types might feel.

Global warming is seen by countless people as humanity's comeuppance for daring to make life better. This attitude must necessarily be found in human nature, given how prevalent it is across history, religion, mythology, speculative fiction, and pop culture. Prometheus dared introduce fire (literal and figurative) to the humans that the Titans lorded over, and thus deserved eternal torment. Asceticism is taught as a goal and virtue by Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, and many other religions, great and small. A life of ease is deemed sinful, and entire cities and nations have purportedly been wiped out by disapproving gods for such. The pursuit of a better life is often conflated with hubris, and hubris is not only punished by gods or Nature, it deserves such punishment, even if no other has been harmed by it.

Substitute the Founding Fathers for Prometheus, and every statist do-gooder for the Titans, and you get a sense of how our government overlords see us. If we live quiet, compliant, subordinate lives, they'll grant us a few indulgences that don't bother them much. If, on the other hand, we dare rise above our level, if we go out of caste (and indeed, the progressive sorting of people by groups reeks of jati), they feel obligated to knock us down, for our own good.

So, menthol cigarettes, overwhelmingly favored by black smokers, are to be banned. Why? Are blacks less capable of making decisions about smoking than non-blacks? How is this not racist?

And, so, we must all be subject to skyrocketing gas and energy prices, so that we're forced to drive less, buy electric cars, cool our homes less (or not at all) in the summer, heat our homes less in the winter, and spend less money on discretionary things. To save the planet (but not really - only an ostrich can ignore the geopolitical realities of trying to zero out carbon energy), no matter the cost to today's generations.

It's as if the punishment itself is the remedy. In imposing their will upon us, they remind us who is boss, who is to bend the knee, who gets to live the good life (them) and who gets to suffer relative privation to pay for it all (us).

Yet, we keep voting them in. While the Republicans have hardly been princes in all this (their own puritanical ways offend our liberties in other areas), the Democrats have gone stinking drunk with power, and deserve as solid a thrashing as the electorate can muster this November.

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Peter.