I was commenting on Greens from the perspectivce of just having gone through their n line manifesto. It contains some ridiculous tree hugging proposals. I believe if you eat bananas and other exotic fruit, if you engage in the technology provided by mulitnational corporations and enjoy the modern world it is slightly hypocritical to tell everyone they should form communes and sit around fires singing ging gang gooly and the like. (OK extreme to make a point) I like the modern world and do not want a bunch of local busybodies with narrow minds telling me what to do. I prefer the impersonal Westminster which at least has to have millions of voters in order to gain their position. A local based political society would foist the likes of UKIP on many of us as they gain local control. Big prevents small groups like socialist worker activists from using their power to take control. Those corporations can sue - but when they go to arbitration there is no reason to believe they will win - unless an arbitrator is convinced they are in the legal right. The EU can have social and other laws that ensure that.
Have I said anything whatsoever about tree hugging or living in communes ? Also, could you quote those 'tree hugging proposals' so that I can counter them. On environment issues it is not helpfull to think either only on 'macro' levels (ie. Kyoto targets or government actions) or only on 'micro' levels (ie. what can the individual or municipality do) but on both together. Every single person is able to calculate their own carbon footprint (both direct and indirect) and every town can do the same. Engelskirchen (the municipality where I live) has done this and is acting on the results. My own is a third of the German average - I have no car, have not been in an airoplane for about 10 years, buy clothes only about once every year, quite simply because I do not need these things. Yet my standard of life, or choice, has not gone down as a result - nor have I become a tree hugger. Choice is an important criteria here because your argument depends largely upon people having 'freedom of choice' - yet that choice actually becomes less through measures like TTIP because of the danger of monopolies contained within.
Your comments, Cologne, are tempting me to rant about my greatest dislike of our modern industrial lifestyles: that is marketers. I think they are the most evil, corrupt bunch of vicious thugs around today. They are also very clever at making us think we need things that we don't really want. Some of the best marketing campaigns are carried out by companies such as Coca Cola, McDonalds, Apple, and such like. The label often becomes more important than the product. Marketers have made us believe that the way to true happiness and fulfilment is by having stuff and often that results in life being worse. People will say that they offer choice, and on the surface that is what they do, but it is a limited choice. They use very clever techniques to change the way people think - or reduce people's need to think. They are no different to Hitler (jam today, if you are socially acceptable) and Stalin (jam tomorrow unless you are part of the in crowd, then it's jam today whilst you are alive). I think Douglas Adams had it right about marketers - they deserve the B Arc.
