The phrase "Tragedy of the Commons" entered my mind today like a lightning bolt. Realizing that the Socialist leftists coming out of universities, for several decades now, believe the example means strict government control of all resources I suddenly thought, "The Commons IS the Tragedy." The evidence is both historical and contemporary. The story of The Tragedy of the Commons" was written by an ecologist named Garrett Hardin in 1968. Hardin blamed farmers for over-grazing a plot of land, land they didn't own but were allowed to use. According to Hardin, the selfishness of each farmer for over-grazing the land meant that people cannot be left to their own devices when using any of earth's resources. But what Hardin conveniently leaves out is that the farmers didn't own the land, so they had little to no motivation for protecting that piece of land. Nor does Hardin recognize the psychological truth that each farmer thought the owner of the land, Boston city government, would manage the land. Mr. Hardin went further back in history and cited Feudal land use to support his arguments. His arguments were full of fallacies according to critics in the Wikipedia article. From all I read on him, Garrett Hardin, being an ideological ecologist, decided that all the land and all resources belong to the "Commons," and therefore you should not be allowed to use anything unless you are controlled by masters of the earth who tell you how and what you can use. (Mr. Hardin is also a Malthusian population hysteric.) This "Communitarian" idea has been planted into mindless robots who have stolen the American dream of private ownership and individual freedom away from all of us. I say "mindless robots" because you really can't believe this tripe if you do have a working mind. But Hardin's theory has been entrenched into university dogma for many years now, so you can only imagine how many of the indoctrinated have taken positions in the government sector to rule over you. Hopefully, you can see the irony that the same "masters of the earth," who would have you bow and scrape to them and not allow you to "own" anything, are quite rich and own quite a lot. Does Ted Turner come to mind? Even mid-level bureaucrats make more than the average Joe and usually own a chunk of property. (One I know in my county lives in a cushy $450,000 + house on a lake.) Last I looked, university professors with tenure make quite a lot of money. Bureaucrats in planning organizations are doing quite well on our tax dollars.
But, let's go back to Boston again and see what the Mayor of that fine city has in store for property owners today, if he gets his way. Welcome to Boston, where the Commons now includes water, energy, and fossil fuel emissions. The illustrious Mayor, Mr. Menino, has proposed that all commercial buildings in Boston should begin reporting to the city all water use, energy use, and emissions. (How they are to determine this "emissions" report is beyond me, but that's what the proposal says.) Utilities already track and bill water and energy use. Seems an easy thing to me that the city could just confiscate the data from the utilities, forgetting privacy concerns of course. And if you think this will only apply to "commercial" buildings in the future, I've got a bridge in Arizona to sell you!
You'll like this part:
"The information, which would be posted online, would also include Energy Star ratings — energy-efficiency “scores” from 1 to 100 backed by the Environmental Protection Agency. Menino said the first building owner to participate in the program will be the city, which will report 2012 energy and water use for its buildings by the end of this year."
I like that, don't you? Your building data will be posted online!! And furthermore, you get stars just like in the second grade for your compliance with the "Energy Star" scam. Woo Hoo!
According the article (linked above from the Boston Globe), San Francisco, Washington, and New York have similar laws on the books already. I guess that should come as no surprise since all three of those cities are run by serious control addicts, all Democrats. Supposedly all of this reporting and star rating is enough to bend you, using "behavior modification" techniques. When that doesn't work, and it won't, next comes the hammer. They will already know who to target.
Control addicts are everywhere these days. A dime a dozen. This same "reporting" idea is endemic in the "Sustainable Communities" grant that has descended upon my area as well as most in the nation. We are commanded to report our resource use to bureaucrats, who then report the data to the Federal government, who then will condemn us each, individually, to a restricted lifestyle. Who do we blame for this? Well, the Mayor of Boston is a clue. Elected officials are now the enforcers of the "Tragedy of the Commons." The bureaucrats convinced the elected that we just can't live on privately owned land, use the water we need, or heat our homes as we see fit. The masters of the earth must manage us.
As you find the elected masters of the earth in your city, county, or state, begin weeding them out. It is the only way to stop this madness. Go out there and start the process of changing from masters to hirelings. They work for us...not the other way around. These policies will have to be taken off the books and out of our government. And, if you aren't willing to do that...well....I give up. I don't want to live in a Stalinist / Fascist / Socialist nation. If you do, I strongly suggest you find one and move there. Oh...and when you do, would you please take these mindless robots with you?
Note:
Hardin's commons theory is frequently cited to support the notion of sustainable development,
meshing economic growth and environmental protection, and has had an
effect on numerous current issues, including the debate over global warming. An asserted impending "tragedy of the commons" is frequently warned of as a consequence for adopting policies which restrict private property and espouse expansion of public property.