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OK, so this is more or less it (from memory):

All that environmentalists demand is responsibility. The responsibility to pay for the damage we cause, and to do our utmost to stop causing damage. I thought that responsibility was supposed to be a conservative virtue and a necessary complement to the great freedom we have in our open market democracies. But more and more I see the supporters of capitalism demand that they be free to dump their waste on their neighbours' lawns without consequence. What happened?

by nanne (zwaerdenmaecker@gmail.com) on Thu Jun 14th, 2007 at 06:58:04 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Mr. Klaus seems to have forgotten that with all rights come responsibilities.
by the stormy present (stormypresent aaaaaaat gmail etc) on Thu Jun 14th, 2007 at 07:06:41 AM EST
[ Parent ]
He's not the only one.

Can the last politician to go out the revolving door please turn the lights off?
by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Thu Jun 14th, 2007 at 07:07:24 AM EST
[ Parent ]
This was precisely the argument given by a prominent Roma tango singer in a discussion on TV last night concerning the furore our comedy TV series has created.

He said Finnish Roma have been very vocal about demanding their rights, but said very little about their responsibilities. He noted that a high percentage of Roma kids never even complete basic education.

Rights are always balanced by responsibilities.

You can't be me, I'm taken

by Sven Triloqvist on Thu Jun 14th, 2007 at 02:20:17 PM EST
[ Parent ]
What happened is that "liberty" has been hijacked by the powerful to erode responsibility. It's been going on since the industrial revolution. It is a concept that now seems to be at the service of selfishness, and this is actually a cause of any authoritarian appeal in the environmental movement. Authoritarian "solutions", on that one can agree, wouldn't work. But the rhetorical fallacy in Klaus' argument is to say that anything that is not unfettered market liberalism is authoritarian. As usual, you're with them or against them, and everything is either black or white.

This is, by the way, very Christian:

So, because you are lukewarm--neither hot nor cold--I am about to spit you out of my mouth. — Revelation 3:16


Can the last politician to go out the revolving door please turn the lights off?
by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Thu Jun 14th, 2007 at 07:06:50 AM EST
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