Progressive Thought Throughout Time

Arne Naess (1912-2009):

• Mankind forms one part of a fragile ecosystem.
• Human action is causing irreparable damage to the ecosystem.
• Shallow ecology holds that current economic and social structures can be adapted to solve environmental problems.
• Deep ecology holds that profound social and political change is needed to avert an environmental crisis.

John Rawls (1921-2002):

• The key to a fairs society is a just social contract between the state and individuals.
• For a social contract to be just, the needs of all individuals party to it must be treated equally.
• To ensure equal treatment, social institutions must be just, they must be accessible to all and redistribute where necessary.
• Only just institutions can produce a fair society.
• Therefore, justice is the first virtue of social institutions.

Noam Chomsky (1928-present):

• Dominant institutions in society, such as the media and banks, are controlled by a wealthy minority.
• This minority runs the institutions in a way that favors its interests.
• Any attempts at reform lead to a drying up of investment, which ruins the economy.
• To keep the economy healthy, everyone, even the poor, must support a system that is run in the interests of the rich.
• Thus, everybody has to make sure that the rich folk are happy.

Robert Pape (1960-present): Suicide terrorism is mainly a response to foreign occupation.

Source: The Politics Book.

Naess could have been a founder of the global warming movement. The middle Leftists are just class envy radicals which is most of the Left. I wonder if Chomsky includes Big Labor, and Big Gov’t in his count? Probably not.  As for Pape. What he said is just plain stupid. If he knew anything of Islam he would know that suicide terrorism is part of the religion. America didn’t occupy any country when Thomas Jefferson was president and yet the Islamists attacked our ships. Why? Because it said to do that in the Koran. Go back even further. You know why the Knights of Templar were formed? They were formed to protect the early Christians from being assaulted by the early Islamists during a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. And guess what? America wasn’t even a country back then.