By Nathan Barton

We’ve all been there or heard about it.  The family member who grew up on snail-mail and has to print out every e-mail (and would probably print out every text message from their phone, and every Twitter, if they could).  And we’ve all read that warning (or request) that we save resources by not printing “this message.”

But now, according to the WaPo (assuming we can believe IT) reports that French regulators are telling businesses to help protect the environment by sending less e-mail!  They cite the government website, but since I don’t read French, I can’t tell for sure. Apparently, the authorities’ effort is both instigated by, and supported by, the various liberal, progressive, environmental, and allied groups that have so seriously damaged French and European society.

Let’s look at this a bit more.  Is it really a problem?  And what is the motive?

The average person apparently produces 300 pounds (about 130 kilograms, or a staggering 13,000 grams of CO2 equivalent per year in sending e-mails at a rate of 4 grams per e-mail (50 grams for e-mails with large attachments. (No info on Tweets or Facebook posts or phone text messages). Sounds serious, right?

But wait! Watching a plasma TV produces a ghastly 240 grams per hour; playing video games speeds up the energy death of the universe by several hours per hour of games played. (I made up that last, honestly.  But not the rest.)  Since I average about 150 e-mails received, and 50 sent, each and every day, I apparently produce more than double the average, 642 pounds per year.  Not counting large attachments, including hundreds of even more evil PDFs and photos.

Of course, I also produce (according to my weight and feeding habits) about 900 grams of CO2 equivalent A DAY, just from living and breathing and (what little) exercise I do. (And the more exercise, the more CO2!)  So that is about 300 kilos or 660 pounds per year.  And most people – humans – are in that same general range.  That is a LOT of e-mails.

But think about it!  That means that ridding the world of two environists lets two average e-mail users continue to use e-mail, and not increase carbon emissions!  A triple: win-win-win.  Actually, more than that, if the environists are (as usual) hypocrites and are using e-mail themselves.

But remember, this e-mail CO2 emission is chicken feed compared to regular snail-mail – especially when you throw in all that junk mail and magazines and the like.  So why not more and more appeals to cut down on snail mail?  Yeah, they constantly attack junk mail (even though environist groups and governments and political parties produce a LOT of junk mail).

Why the difference?  Why campaign to reduce email?

I suggest that the motive of the environists and the other progressives, transnational or not, is NOT what they claim.

This isn’t about saving the environment: this is about control.  Government is ONE tool of control: of letting some people (the “elite”) rule the day-to-day, even hour-to-hour, lives of as many people as possible.  But control of communications, if not by government, then by custom and public pressure and other tools, is important – very important.  In past millennia, this was done by creating bizarre symbol sets (hieroglyphics or ideograms) that required years to memorize and learn, so that the vast majority of people were illiterate and could not communicate directly over long distances and times.  It was done by controlling materials and suppressing inventions such as the printing press and moveable type, and later by licensing them and other things (radio transmitters and receivers, televisions, telephones) and limiting the common people from owning or using them.  Usually, these tools of control and suppression were supported by, or carried out, by some form of government or quasi-governmental organization or group.

But every time, eventually, inventions (the phonetic alphabet, paper, woodcuts, and today, hundreds of things) overcame these control mechanisms. People came up with ways to negate these tools of control.  The most difficult tools to resist and overcome are those which use customs, superstition, false religion, “education” (propaganda), public condemnation, and related techniques.  The controlling elite use various methods to convince everyone that what they are doing is wrong, or evil.  Inventions and certain attitudes are presented as threats to society, to their well-being, to their children and their future.  When successful, these cause the public to submit still MORE to the controllers, and to their tyranny.  And in many cases to do the controllers’ work for them: whether it is stoning or burning some unfortunate at the stake or wrecking the printing presses, or demanding that people be punished for being politically incorrect.

I suspect that this campaign will, like many others, fail.  But never fear: there will be another one.  Because they cannot stand for people to be free, and cannot stand NOT to be in control of others.

Mama’s Note: Indeed… the power to exercise control over other people is the most addictive and destructive thing on earth… and maybe the universe.  Resist! Do not comply! Don’t feed the beast of slavery.