The headlong rush  by Western nations to not only abandon fossil fuels, but punish those involved in extracting and producing them is not only foolish, but suicidal.  There is simply no way to quickly transition from abundant and inexpensive energy to solar, wind, and electric without causing massive disruption and pain for the vast majority of non-elites.

Combine this insane energy policy with the elites' simultaneous threat to shut down thousands of farms if they don't adhere to draconian measures to cut down on greenhouse gas emissions and you have a recipe for privation, and — at least eventually — for great fear, anger, and chaos.

And this at a time of severe economic uncertainty and supply chain issues.  For no legitimate reason, the West is determined to transition from a time of wealth and plenty to one of probable privation and famine.  Stunning.

The rulers of Western nations appear crazily determined to do everything in their power — or even outside their constitutionally permitted powers — to destroy the nations they lead.  Canada's Justin Trudeau brazenly and vilely violated the rights of thousands of Canadian truckers who were peacefully protesting the apprentice tyrant's suffocating and endless COVID-19 vaccine mandates and restrictions earlier this year.  He not only sicced the police on them, but pressured banks to freeze their accounts and insurance companies to cancel their policies.  And Trudeau now says he expects police to snuff out another potential protest before it can occur.  Is it ethical — or prudent — to so treat those responsible for delivering materials and goods to every corner of your vast and remote nation?

But wait, there's more, as late-night infomercials often say.  Our leaders and influencers are not content with simply depriving us "deplorables" of the energy, products, and food on which we depend.  Heavens, no.  Many are all in on our intellectual, cultural, and spiritual destruction as well.

By not pushing back on — or even embracing — the agendas of radical far-left provocateurs who openly wish to abolish the family and eviscerate all standards, they further reveal themselves.

Incredibly, there is an ongoing and all-out assault on competence, decency, discipline, achievement, communication skills, reason...and morality...all of which have been branded tools or vestiges of white supremacy.  How could anything be more racist than that?  Moreover, the Judeo-Christian work ethic has also been effectively mocked and dispensed with, as have traditional biblical values.  (In fact, some parts of the Bible are now considered "hate speech" by the left.)

All of this has led us, inevitably and inexorably, to the place we find ourselves now.

Young people, as a rule, don't want to work with their hands, get dirty, experience physical exhaustion, or risk the possibility of injury.  Many have been indoctrinated to disdain achievers.  The construction, extraction, and transportation trades may well be on their last breath.

Testosterone rates are falling almost as fast as sperm counts.  Excellence is considered evil, and evil is considered by some to be excellent.

Those who have for so long held up the planet — striving, innovating, producing, and excelling — are now being chastised and demonized.

This cannot end well.

What will happen when we replace 10,000 miners with 10,000 gender studies majors and 10,000 farmers with 10,000 Antifa recruits?  Will we be better off?

As Mark Steyn once noted, America was built by those with an 8th-grade education, and, like the rest of the West, is being summarily destroyed by those with an 18th-grade "education."  The one-room prairie schoolhouse of days of yore tended to produce far greater citizens than do the colleges and universities in America today.  To the extent that there is true innovation today, it is largely computer-driven, involving computers, artificial intelligence, social media, or videogames.  There are no more Franklins or Edisons, though Elon Musk comes close.

This assault on freedom, innovation, competence, and achievement can ultimately have only one result: total societal collapse.

Ayn Rand was right.

Image: Julius Jääskeläinen via Flickr (cropped).