Good Question, Mr. Kerry!

John Kerry, apparently confident that nobody understands the role of freedom -- or even cheap, abundant energy -- in improving our lives (or, indeed, in making them possible at all), doubles down on Pascal's Wager in Scientific Drag (i.e., the leftist political agenda claiming to avert Anthropogenic Global Warming, aka "Climate Change"):

If we make the necessary efforts to address this challenge - and supposing I'm wrong or scientists are wrong, 97 percent of them all wrong - supposing they are, what's the worst that can happen? We put millions of people to work transitioning our energy, creating new and renewable and alternative; we make life healthier because we have less particulates in the air and cleaner air and more health; we give ourselves greater security through greater energy independence - that's the downside. This is not a matter of politics or partisanship; it's a matter of science and stewardship. And it's not a matter of capacity; it's a matter of willpower. [bold in original, link added]

Is John Kerry really this ignorant? Or, worse, is he pandering to a high level of ignorance? Regarding all the people the government is "putting to work", it is as if he has never heard of the parable of the Broken Window. Regarding energy independence, it is as if fracking hadn't been invented or that we couldn't consider the idea of defending our national self-interest abroad. And then there are the economic consequences of this agenda, which even its most rabid supporters sometimes admit.

The worst that can happen, Mr. Kerry, if we plan our lives around an incorrect assumption, is that we waste precious time and energy that could have prolonged or enriched our lives. In a free society, at least when someone chooses to do this, the only person he harms is himself. But Mr. Kerry wants to make everyone live by the same plan he blithely admits might be wrong. In other words, it is worse than Kerry not giving a damn about Americans being free -- and thus able to take their best shot at a good life, changing course when necessary. Kerry wants to cram his plan down our throats and make us unable to deviate from it, even if we judge it to be wrong.

The worse that can happen if we go along is that we live as if we do not possess the faculty of reason. John Kerry hopes we won't notice the nastiness, brutishness, or shortness of that proposition.

-- CAV