Unless we understand the ideological foundations of the Greens, we will fail to effectively address the challenge they pose. We will be left debating instrumental outcomes, as if they are based on the same foundations that underpin western civilisation. The Greens are at the cutting edge of a clash within western civilisation itself.
The Greens are not a single-issue party. Their objective is “to transform politics and bring about Green government.” As part of a worldwide movement, this objective involves a radical transformation of western culture.
In their manifesto, The Greens, Bob Brown and Peter Singer write that the origin of the party was the green bans applied by the Builders Laborers in the 1970s. The Communist Party leader of the militant union, Jack Mundey, described himself as “an ecological Marxist.” Mundey later prophesised that “in the future there is a possibility of …. what I’d call a Green Red future of socialism.”
Mundey’s “ecological Marxism” is an apt description of the Greens. It sums up their two core beliefs. First, the environment is to be placed before all else. The first principle in the Greens Global Charter states: “We acknowledge that human beings are part of the natural world and we respect the specific values of all forms of life, including non-human species.”
Secondly, the Greens are Marxist in their philosophy, and display the same totalitarian tendencies of all previous forms of Marxism when a political movement. By totalitarian, I mean the subordination of the individual in the impulse to forcibly rid society of all elements that, in the eyes of the adherent, mar its perfection.
According to the Greens ideology, human dignity is neither inherent, nor absolute, but relevant. Humans are but one species amongst others.
As Brown and Singer write: “We hold that the dominant [western] ethic is indefensible because it focuses only on human beings and on human beings who are living now, leaving out the interests of others who are not of our species. . .”
They equate humans with animals. “The revolutionary element in Green ethics is its challenge to see ourselves in universal terms. . . I must take into account the interests of others, on the same footing as my own. . . whether these others are . . . Australians or Rwandans, or even the nonhuman animals whose habitat is destroyed when a forest is destroyed.”
What is revolutionary is not that the interests of others should be considered. Judeo-Christian belief extols consideration of others, as does Kant’s Golden Rule. What is revolutionary is the equation of humans and animals.
The Green movement attributes the planet with a spiritual dimension. Their guru, James Lovelock, described the Earth as a complex living organism, of which humans are merely parts. He named this organism after the Greek goddess who personified the earth – Gaia – and described “Her” as “alive.”
Australian Kevin Andrews authored this excellent and accurate piece.
