The Ineffable Dreariness of the Greens

Top Gear is the most entertaining program on television. I state this with the same degree of conviction that, say, John Calvin articulated the doctrine of predestination. It is a simple, eternal truth.

As usual, however, the ecomentalists fail to get it:

Top Gear has shunted straight into a row after its series of extravagant stunts in Belfast this week. ... Their madcap stunts included firing a Renault Twingo into the sea, drag racing and hoisting a vehicle to the top of one of Harland and Wolff's famous twin gantry cranes, Samson. ...

Environmental group Friends of the Earth, meanwhile, criticised the Top Gear team claiming it appeared to have gone out of its way to be as crass and juvenile as possible. ... The wrecking of vehicles for the show has not impressed Friends of the Earth campaigner Declan Allison.

“The wanton destruction of tens of thousands of pounds worth of machinery impresses no-one. It’s a wasteful extravagance and, in the middle of a global recession, in very poor taste,” he said.

Here we see Homo Ecomentalist displaying the defining characteristics of the species: Humorless, puritanical, painfully earnest, dour, overzealous, and just plain annoying.

It seems fitting to conclude with a quote from Jeremy Clarkson:

Recently, Boris Johnson jokingly wondered what had happened to all those Trots and Bolsheviks from the 1970s. Boris, my dear chap, they never went away. And now there are many more of them, living among us, posing as normal, respectable members of the human race. It’s just that they’re not called Trots and Bolsheviks any more. They’re called environmentalists and health and safety officers. Think about it. A single health and safety man can inflict more damage on business and industry than an army of Red Robboes. And the goals of an environmentalist far exceed the aspirations of even the most hardbitten 1970s communist.

Comments

[Mark Arnold]

Didn't cash for clunkers involve the "wanton destruction of tens of [millions] of [dollars] worth of machinery"? Was that "wasteful extravagance" or in "poor taste"? It certainly impressed some ecomentalists.

[Freddy Hill]

“The wanton destruction of tens of thousands of pounds worth of machinery impresses no-one. It’s a wasteful extravagance and, in the middle of a global recession, in very poor taste,” he said.

As I remember, greenies seemed quite impressed with the wasteful extravagance of Cash for Clunkers.

This makes me cry: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTYL-h5_hb4

[Brian]

Really? Did the professor really just say (in effect) "don't mind the opinions of environmentalists...they are simply neo-trotskyists)

It's this sort of categorical logic that makes liberals resent intelligent conservatives who should know better. Glenn Beck can call environmentalists commies, but does prof. Bainbridge really have to stoop to that plane?

[William Sjostrom]

Greens are keen on other people making sacrifices, not so much for themselves. We all know about Al Gore, but here is another example. John Gormley is the leader of the Irish Green Party, and is also Minister for the Environment. He took a trip to Hay-on-Wye in Herefordshire, on the English - Welsh border. Rather than fly there, he made a big show of taking the ferry from Dublin to Holyhead in north Wales. He did not mention that he ordered a Mercedes limo all the way from London (about a five hour drive from London to Holyhead) to get to his destination, at a cost of 2200 euros, and then he flew back to Dublin from Cardiff. Details at http://www.tribune.ie/news/article/2009/oct/11/green-gormley-wheres-my-limo/

[save_the_rustbelt]

I'm guessing the greenies would not appreciate the demolition derbies featuring retired wheat combines.

This is what country folks do when simply mashing cars loses its cachet.

[Floridan]

I would like to register my complaint about Bainbridge complaining about environmentalists' complaints about Top Gear.