Mankind is ingenious at tapping the energy bounty provided by nature. From the first fire, to windmills, to water wheels, to today's electric generating plants we have progressed from superstitious awe and deification of nature to harnessing it to our every need.

Today however we have several movements that question and deny the need for more energy, and we have dangerous tyrants who oppose our advance at every opportunity. These forces all sprang from the romantic era, two driven by an idealized view of nature, and one from a religio—racist view —— and they all ally when it's convenient.

There are really only three roadblocks to a great future for us and future generations:

The first consists ofаnihilistic neo—romantics who would prefer that the rest of humanity didn't exist at all. Earth—firsters, Greenpeace, Greens, the radical environmentalists, the zero—population groups, all have the same wellspring: that idealized, romantic view of nature and the noble savage.

The other two roadblocks are the groups of Marxist and Islamo—fascist states who hold most of the world's petrochemical energy resources and their peoples in thrall.

These movements, environmental, Marxist, and tyrannical racism, would prefer that mankind did not advance at all. They look upon you and me as part of a plague of humanity on this planet for either racist, geo—political, or environmental reasons, and they look on America's dream of a better future for all as the only real opposition to their power and dreams.

The wellsprings of Marxism and environmentalism originate from a romanticized view of nature that grew during the 18th and 19th centuries, as typified by this Wordsworthа poem:

The world is too much with us; late and soon,

Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;

Little we see in Nature that is ours;

We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!

This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon,

The winds that will be howling at all hours,

And are up—gathered now like sleeping flowers,

For this, for everything, we are out of tune;

It moves us not.——Great God! I'd rather be

A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;

So might I, standing on this pleasant lea

Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;

Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;

Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.

аааа —William Wordsworth

This romanticized yearning for some idealized pagan life where nature is personified and beneficent denies the brutal reality of what life was really like for the pagans Wordsworth and Rousseau revere.

Beyond that, the movements inspired by romance led to great evil, as typified by the terror of the French Revolution, the agrarian yearnings of Pol Pot, and the gulags of the Soviet Union. For every Rousseau has his Robespierre,а every Lenin has a Stalin, and every Castro hasаhis Che. The idealistic and passionate youths who drive these movements never factor in reality and follow the dire equation to its ultimate, evil end.

You have only to watch an episode of Survivor late in any season to get a glimpse of what the reality of natural life that Wordsworth and Rousseau idealized is like. You will see starving, wasted bodies afflicted with hundreds of insect bites, heat rash, and minds deluded from vitamin and nutrient deficiencies. Wordsworth's and Rousseau's "noble savage" are yearnings are for an ideal that does not exist.

If you are not convinced that an energy—sparse future is a bad thing, and that noble savagery is what we need, step beyond the politics of the Katrina aftermath a moment. Look instead at the speedy collapse of civilization after transport and energy were removed from New Orleans by the post—storm flooding. Imagine that scene back one hundred fifty years —— no airlifts, no massive transports of food, no federal relief, and little state relief. How long before the looting turned to violence, and how long before that turned to murder and anarchy?

The reality of pagan and modern life where energy is sparse, is that it is short, brutish, toilsome, and dirty. People huddle in fear in caves and huts at every lightning strike, and alternately bake and freeze with every day and night. They run from fire and flood, and the nature gods Wordsworth romanticizes are forces that terrify these people and fill them with superstitious dread and awe.
The reality of both Islamofascistаand Marxist life is that it is repressive, often shortened, and brutal. If it were different would those governments need to censor the internet?а Would there have been famine and death in China, Russia, Viet Nam, Cuba, Korea, Afghanistan, and the Sudan? Would their people flee at every opportunity?

In ages past we suffered tremendously with every flood or famine, we froze and diedаof cold by the millions, and insects ate more of our crops than we did. Life was harsh, short, terrifying, and brutal. Pagans personified the powers of nature they feared and truly were the children of terror, just as the people living beneath tyrants today are the heirs of terror.

In America the smallest child among us throws the lightning of Zeus with the flip of a switch and we cross the skies in chariots driven by the fires of Vulcan. With the twist of a knob in the kitchen you tap the protean waters of Poseidon; the flames of Surtur heat our homes in the winter and the shackled frosts of Niflheim cool them in the summer. Our power is the envy of all, excepting those nihilistic romantics in our country who see it as a curse upon us and the world. These same nihilists would steal the lightning if they could and they would destroy the ease with which we pursue our dreams.

The power we have is awesome and god—like, and with that awesome power comes responsibility and duty. We have used the easily gained sources of power in our country, so it's incumbent upon us to develop new sources and the generators of energy for the future. Our neighbors eye our prowess with envy, and among us modern Jacobins and saboteurs try to impede our path, for they are beset by visions and ideals untainted by logic or reality.

Until we build our own cheap, clean, and plentiful sources of power,а our driving need for energy will fund ideologies and dictators that are still driven by visions of envy and terror. The remaining easily—gained sources of petrochemicals are in the hands of these tyrants and dictators, and by using those sources we further the causes of Islamofascism and Communism.

We are on the road into a bright new millennium but ahead lies a fork. On the left side stands a group of tyrants holding terror in hand behind their back, while their other hand holds open the gate to easy energy. The other fork leads to an un—traveled and unknown road, but it appears very promising.

Which road will we take?

If we would have freedom then we must demonstrate leadership by taking the opposite path to gain energy independence and plenty for all. We must take that path and we must have the courage to persist the entire journey although many among us will hold the brake with all their might. Your hand is on the wheel: will you pass our children the lightning, or will you hand them terror?

Thanos is the pen name of theаproprietor of the website Noblesse Oblige.