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Two elderly activists attempted to shatter the glass case housing the Magna Carta because the world has refused to stop using petroleum. The logic of this gesture has apparently escaped almost everyone but me.
The Magna Carta embodies the notion that there are natural rights that no central power may infringe, not even one enthroned by God. Minor nobles, clergy, guilds, et al have rights that the king may not arbitrarily supersede. The notion of limited government is simply a corollary of the idea that there are natural rights held by individuals and other social entities that must be respected.
There can be no innovation, no oil exploration and refinement, no new forms of wealth creation that break down older social strata, and no emergence of democratic institutions without the possibility of rightful personal autonomy and property rights protected by law.
Most of the world took a different path. Chinese emperors were served by Confucian policy-makers who invariably attempted to preserve class lines and a rigid social order. Islamic empires flirted with natural science but eventually settled on a recipe for stagnation.
The still-unfolding technological transformation of the human race has burned a lot of fossil fuels which never would have been necessary if we all had remained in stagnant modes of living with lower life spans, higher infant mortality, and permanent social stratification ruled by centralized unchecked power and rigid philosophical cages.
If King John had hung tough and refused to sign, atmospheric CO2 might be 150 ppm less than it is now. Would that have been a better outcome?
Discussion (37)
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I saw this on YouTube and it was my first WTF of the day.
Not only have we looked into the abyss, but jumped off into it. The question then is, what happens when we hit the bottom?
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The West has some terribly pathetic members. We need to bring back that Cold War level of patriotism and anti-Communism.
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John D Rockefeller saved the whales.
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I expect some of their clothes were also made from petrochemicals. But nobody wants to see them naked.
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