“Appealing visions”

Let me say that I agree entirely with this sentiment:

… rather than try to unite the country around a sense of crisis and doom, we need to try to unite people around an appealing vision of green jobs, clean energy, etc.

Ezra Klein admitted this morning that measures to artificially raise the cost of energy for an already cash-strapped American public are almost certainly a political loser, and I for one think that is just as it should be. (And no, Ryan Avent, the “energy prices are rising anyway, so let’s just add a few more dollars on while we’re at it” approach is not going to work.) But that doesn’t mean that a vision of a (voluntarily) greener future as a good thing – not cooking breakfast over candles and then jogging to work, but rather a cleaner, healthier, more human-sized and ultimately sustainable existence – can’t be made to catch on, and it’s very important that this become more of a theme in our political discourse. This is of course important for two reasons: first, because it at least has the potential to make measures like carbon taxes seem less onerous; second, and more importantly, because it can help to encourage the already-significant public clamor for healthier styles of living in the absence of regulatory paternalism. One would hope, of course, that such forms of life would not center around sitting on the couch watching television and buying all the crap advertised on Planet Green, but perhaps we shouldn’t ask for too much.

Filed under: energy, environment, politics