During the 2000 election many on the Left claimed that there was no difference between Al Gore and George Bush and that both were "corporate fascists." History has shown how wrong that stance was.
Al Gore has spent the bulk of his political career pushing an issue that impugns a number of corporate interests. He is not against corporate interest as such, as corporate interest as such is not evil. There is nothing evil about Apple and Oracle. These companies produce work that vastly benefits people while using for these technologies minimal resources and replacing much more resource-intensive office and communication practices. Whereas Texas Oil is completely evil, and that's what we saw standing behind Bush and what we see now attacking Al Gore the most.
Going outside technology and living like hippies or the Amish is an option for only a small minority. For everyone else the solution is better technology. The problems we see today are not a result of technology as such, and the are not a result of capitalism as such. They are a result of wrong technologies such as oil and dirty coal and brainless economic practices such as burning down rainforest and flooding the atmosphere with CO2. A real-world solution is not to move away from technology; it is to move to better technologies. And the people who are interested in improving the world for their children will take the direction of creating and implementing better technologies instead of attacking capitalism and technology as such.
Al Gore's solutions are much more realistic than those of people who regarded him as a corporate fascist, and he has done much more to inform people of what is happening than have the people on the Left who see him in such a light. He has been telling people the truth for three decades while facing extreme nastiness and viciousness from the genuinely evil interests who continue to want him to shut up. As such he is a genuine liberal hero, and to a far greater extent than Ralph Nader or Noam Chomsky. And his solutions, far from doing away with civilization or capitalism or technology, is the same solution that has given the world prosperity in the first place: Genuine technological progress.
I think it is fair to say that the people on the Left who saw Al Gore and George Bush as being the same have been discredited. And now it is time for real solutions to real problems. Global warming is a real problem, and it is solved through transition to better technology. And that will benefit both the world of civilization that people have created and the world of nature that people have not created and allow people - as beings of both nature and civilization - a maximal enjoyment of both worlds.
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Comments
As far as Gore is concerned, he never met a military conflict he didn't support. He supported clean coal and carbon sequestration. He supported NAFTA and the WTO. He has also supported nuclear power. He is a corporatist in environmentalist clothing. We would all be better off if Bush and Gore hadn't stolen the election from Nader.
As for plastic - yes, it is dependent on oil, but its production does not require burning of oil, it requires chemical synthesis, which makes the process non-destructive to nature; and given how little resources are taken by an IPOD compared to everything it replaces (big-screen TVs, desktop computers, and vast amounts of paper mail) we are seeing something that vastly benefits the environment.
As for WTO, it has resulted in vast gains all around the world. The entire system gains from lower trade restrictions, but a country that reduces trade restrictions unilaterally puts itself at a disadvantage. This means that there is a need for a concerted international effort in that direction, which is managed by something like the WTO.
The extraction process of oil is highly carbon intensive. Take a look at what is happening to the forests in Alberta for tar sands. Not to mention the environmental destruction from oil spills. One Ipod does not take a lot of resources, but millions do. They don't replace big screens, they are in addition to.
The track record of the WTO is far from the rosy picture you paint. The countries that protect their vital industries fare far better than those that do not. Also, the WTO is controlled by the more powerful most exploitive countries that take advantage of smaller more vulnerable ones.
As for IPADs, like laptop computers, they save on a lot of things: Paper mail, bigger computers, land-line phones, etc. This makes them environmentally beneficial.
I do not see there being an end to the oil industry; however the more of the oil is used for such things as plastics, and the less is burned for fuel, the longer the resources will last, the more prosperity will come from them, and the less will be the carbon emissions.
With WTO, there are problems as with any regulatory body. However it's better than having every country raising tariffs and doing away with international trade as such.
He had some growing pains post 2000 and God Bless him for trying with an Inconvenient Truth. And now he has Current TV. I saw him a while back being interviewed by Cenk there and I was stunned how CAREFUL Gore was not to bruise any Dem egos. Say what?????? C'mon, Al. Are you still waiting for "them" to keep their "shut up and don't fight for the presidency this year but later we'll help you" promise???? Polish up the turdish cronyism? Ugh.
I find the entire Congress horrifyingly corrupt and it has been apparently for a lot longer than we all realized. It wasn't just the amoral Bush/Cheney regime. Lobbyists so easily became the BFF of the Gucci loafered prime health care set.
If Gore were a real mensch he would give air time to Jill Stein who is a big environmentalist like himself. But he is still sipping the Dem koolaid it would seem.
best, libby