September 1, 2003
Everyone agrees that we must do something to make sure that a recurrence of the multi-state blackout never happens again. That's where the agreement stops.
The finger-pointing, and the political blame-gaming that fill endless hours of TV time, only shields the magnitude of a fundamental choice that reality is thrusting upon us. We must now choose to apply the remedy prescribed by the Third Sector or we must choose to let a free market meet the demands of a free society.
The recent blackout occurred because the free market has failed to meet market demands. The free market has failed to meet the demand because it has been blocked by the Third Sector. The blackout is only one symptom of the side effects of the Third Sector medicine. The forest fires that annually destroy the nation's un-managed forests; the rapidly-rising property tax rates caused by the massive transfer of private property to "conservancy" and government ownership; the sagging economy caused by the systematic elimination of natural resource production industries; the job-losses caused by the export of the manufacturing sector; exploding budget demands caused by unrestricted inflow of illegal aliens - all are effects resulting from the Third Sector agenda.
The Third Sector - that highly organized, well funded network of non-government special-interest organizations - says that the nation should solve the blackout problem by taking a double dose of the same medicine that caused the present illness: phase out fossil fuels and hydro-electric dams that hinder fish runs, and instead, rely on windmills (except, of course, those proposed near the Kennedy compound, off Cape Cod), phase out SUVs (except, of course, those given to The Nature Conservancy by General Motors), and to "conserve," as prescribed by the U.N.'s Maurice Strong, by eliminating single-family houses, air conditioning, and convenience foods, (except, of course, for those Third Sector executives who occupy multi-million dollar facilities in Washington and New York).
The Third Sector has effectively prevented the expansion of energy production since the mid- 1970s. An explosion of regulations and law suits have so cluttered the market that it is no longer a free market; it is a managed market.
This is the objective of the Third Sector agenda: a managed market serving a managed society, to ensure that economic development is harnessed so as not to harm the environment, while providing equitable access to the earth's resources for all people. This is the meaning of "sustainable development." This is what Agenda 21 is designed to produce. This is the future, should this nation choose to apply the remedy proposed by the Third Sector.
Fifty-million Americans got a taste of "equitable access to the earth's resources" when they had to find ways to survive a day without electricity. Much of the world has no electricity at all.
The objective of a free market is to provide electricity to all who need or want it, and to create private prosperity in the process. The Third Sector hates private wealth (except, of course, their own) in the hands of greedy capitalists.
The Third Sector is convinced that if a free market is allowed to meet the demands of a free society, the environment will be plundered, and the planet will turn to toast. Therefore, government, guided by the Third Sector, must manage the market, the planet, and the people.
The recent blackout is, indeed, a wake up call, not for the President, but for the urban dwellers who send their contributions to The Nature Conservancy, and believe that if the Sierra Club is for it, it must be good. These are the Third Sector people who caused your blackout, who want government to force you to share your prosperity with people who are not free to create their own.
This nation must decide. Soon.
We should reject the Third Sector prescription. We should immediately open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and other "public" and private land, to secure the oil and gas and coal that can provide the energy we need, until a free market can develop a better alternative.
We should immediately stop funding these Third Sector organizations, and vote their representatives out of office at every level of government. As a nation, we have acquiesced to their demands for more than a generation. The fires burning in the West, the outflow of jobs to developing nations, and now, the reality of an inadequate energy supply, is our reward.
The blackout should be the beginning of our enlightenment.