by Jim Beers
FACT v. FICTION
Fiction: There is one certain mix and distribution of plants and animals
that “belong” and are best for rural America and the developing nations of
the world. If they are rare, they are forcibly preserved; if they are
absent from any particular area, they are to be forcibly reintroduced. We
call them native species and their communities, native ecosystems. All
other plants and animals, termed invasive species, should be eradicated.
“The date” can be set (1492 AD, 1776 AD, 1806 AD, etc.) to fit any
supposition (Columbus, US Constitution, Lewis and Clark, etc.) to fit any cause
and an academic can be found to say what was or was not present. Refuting
nonsense is impossible since all assertions are tenuous and “experts” always
claim the benefit of the doubt.
Fact: There is an almost infinite mix and distribution of plants and
animals that can thrive in each and every section of the habitable world.
None are more proper or “right” than any other. History has shown that
societies that make choices about the best mix and distribution of plants and
animals considering everything from agriculture and fire control to wood
products, recreation, and human wants and needs are the societies that succeed
socially and economically. Note western Europe and pre-1970 United States
for confirmation of this fact.
Fiction: Strong central governments and international rules are necessary
to “save” native species. The greatest threat to plants and animals
are humans and their activities and only by coercion and punishment can human
disturbances and uses be curtailed. Government spending, government land
acquisition and enforcement of government rules must be continually increased to
“save endangered species,” “eradicate invasive species,” and regulate
human activities from hunting and fishing to ranching, logging, and animal
ownership.
Fact: Human freedom, private property, and sustainable uses of plants and
animals have always resulted in the mix and distribution of plants and animals
best suited to a particular society at a particular time. Strong central
governments and international rules are always inimical to building and
sustaining the “best” and “proper” mix of plants and animals. When
plants and animals remain property (either public or private) and when all
natural resources (plants, animals, energy, minerals, etc.) are developed and
managed for human benefit, biodiversity is maintained and funding is generated
to study and manage methods and changes best suited for the future. Note
the abundance, diversity, uses, and modifications of the United States in its
first 200 years compared to other developing countries for confirmation of this
fact.
Given these facts, we must ask why urban American groups, US politicians, and
international organizations reiterate these fictions? How can corrupt
falsehoods like the “benefits of wilderness”, elimination of plant and
animal ownership and uses, the declaration of total protection for growing lists
of plants and animals, and increased central government power at the expense of
state authorities and private property be propagated and believed? The
answer lies partially in the ages old human foible observed by Aristotle that
tyrants must declare wars because they have to convince the people of the need
to keep them in power. Just like wars reinforce government power and the
need for more power; these fictions reinforce government power and all the
bureaucracies, organizations, and factions that benefit from that power.
Some obvious benefactors of these fictions are the bureaucracies who grow their
budgets, salaries, and power. Politicians get votes and a wide range of
reelection supports for converting the fictions into laws. University
professors benefit from the grants, prestige, and tenure that accompany all of
the data generation used as justification. Environmental organizations
benefit from memberships, bequests, and power sharing with bureaucrats.
Animal rights organizations benefit by growing government power to establish
laws to eliminate animal ownership and use as well as the benefits cited for
environmental organizations.
Yet the benefits of these fictions may be of even greater benefit for a wide
range of invisible factions:
- Anti-Capitalists use these fictions to rally support for
replacing capitalism with
socialist models or even communism where government planning reigns supreme.
- Those who vilify the European
settlement of America focus on the purported despoliation of a Native American
Garden of Eden. This reinforces their calls for stopping growth and
justifies discriminating against white males, the Founding Fathers, business
owners, ranchers, etc.
- Modern Luddites use these
fictions to call for eliminating “globalism, corporations, and energy
development.”
- Disaffected urban citizens and
wealthy businessmen and media stars use these fictions to justify
philanthropic campaigns to disenfranchise others who do things that these
citizens neither do nor approve of.
- Individuals opposed to an
incredible range of human activities from the eating of meat and the keeping of
pets to hunting, farming, ranching, logging, fire control, rodeos, trapping,
circuses, animal experiments, commercial fishing, recreational fishing, energy
development, SUV’s, highway expansion, mining, lawns, ATV’s, horseback
riding, etc. use these fictions to convince sympathetic judges and politicians
to fulfill their fantasies.
- Western Europeans, Americans,
Canadians, Australians, and New Zealanders use these fictions to prevent
Japanese and Icelandic whalers from harvesting whales, African nations from
managing or commercializing elephants, crocodiles, leopards, cheetahs, etc., and
Asian nations from hunting mountain sheep, tigers, etc. These are but a
few of thousands of such plant and animal restrictions employed by the UN at the
behest of we “developed” nations. These actions absorb national
sovereignty from undeveloped and Third World nations via the UN just as our
central US government is similarly absorbing Constitutional sovereignty from our
state governments in the US.
- Socialists and communists use
these fictions to justify their calls for eliminating capitalism, individual
freedoms, and the US Constitution.
- Individuals opposed to rural
residences, rural lifestyles, and areas where freedoms are unrestricted use
these fictions to force harmful animals into areas they want “cleared” for
government land and “wilderness” expansions to create enormous unused and
unmanaged expanses.
- Individuals and groups
committed to drastically reducing human populations use these fictions to
justify eliminating food supplies, capital formation schemes, and human life
protections for all humans except themselves.
- Individuals obsessed with
freezing their social and economic status use these fictions to deny native
peoples access to traditional lifestyles and thereby permanently dependent on
government programs and permanently inferior.
I could go on with this listing but the point is made. Biologically, the
havoc all this wreaks goes unmentioned. Whale and seal populations depress
commercial fish stocks on which we spend billions for recovery. Unmanaged
elephants trample African children and crops while defoliating landscapes.
Wolves cause ranchers ruin and push rural Americans to despair because sensible
responses to the destruction and danger they pose is forbidden by government
fiat.
The ways in which these fictions are embraced and facts ignored is reminiscent
of pagan explanations of weather or human fortune. Like pagan tenets,
these fictions mask a wide array of hidden agendas revolving around power over
others and control of wealth. As we consider what to do about wolves or
the Endangered Species Act or private property takings by government, it is
worth considering what we are up against.
This is not something to be daunted by but it is something to understand in
order to clarify why we need to ally ourselves with others. Such alliances
first call for tolerance. Not until the outdoorsmen recognize that the
right to have cockfights is the same right as the right to shoot a deer or catch
a fish or trap a fox can they come together. Not until the pet owner
recognizes that the right to breed or own a pet is the same right as a farmer or
rancher to raise stock can they come together. Not until circus-goers
understand that their right to attend a circus is the same right as the right of
a rodeo rider or a logger to ride a steer or cut a tree can they come together.
Not until those wanting more Federal authority for drug costs or schools or more
UN authorities accept the notion that allowing for this steady accretion of
authority upward is dangerous to everyone can they join in the effort to bring
us and others back into a fact-based society where freedom and tolerance work
their magic. Any sensible person comparing the first 200 years of the US
to the rest of the world in those days and then looking at the past 30 years
will understand why we must reject these fictions and return to the sound facts
that proved themselves so successful throughout history.
Jim Beers
6 January 2004