Ecotopia Emerging [Paperback]

Alas, that was before HIV killed Ecotopia's innocent hedonism forever, before the bloody and stupid excesses of PETA, before tree-spiking--and before I experienced for myself the dead, cold hand of radical environmentalism. Yet, somewhere in my right-brain I still dream of getting laid under a redwood tree, of living on a houseboat, of bowhunting and painting myself with deer blood after a clean kill. That was the magic Ernest Callenbach shares with Heinlein--both slam-dunk you into their society and make you believe it.

Callenbach can do humor and characters, too. I laughed in places, just grinned in others. Because so few lefties have a funny-bone, the laughs were refreshing. I'm glad Callenbach's didn't disappear in clouds of pot-smoke the way those of other Sixties survivors did.

But woe to those who forget the fate of previous utopias. One of the old totalitarians made a comment about omelettes and breaking eggs. I've often wondered whose eggs got broken in the making of Ecotopia. Probably more folks than Callenbach admits got hurt or killed in the emergence of his fictional society. With the banning of guns, I can only imagine the crime wave that would hit in a year or two-and the oppression that would prevail if a slick talker like Bill Clinton got into power.

I'm sure Ernest Callenbach is a nice guy and I wanted to meet him in person or by e-mail, an ambition I still hold. He honestly seems incapable of believing in human villainy--can you imagine the fun a sociopath could have in the Ecotopian prison system? The antagonists of who remind me of our soon-to-be ex-President, proving that Callenbach doesn't really understand evil. (He obviously favors the elimination of such intrasigents-but in a gunless society, how could his woodsrunner hero have downed the bad-guy's spray chopper? Wouldn't it be better to arm everybody and let natural selection weed out the nongs and drongos?) What fun to hash it out over coffee until the wee-small hours or, failing that, over the web with mutual flamers!

Ecotopia Emerging and Ecotopia performed a valuable service in my intellectual development by teaching me about the passion of the green movement and conveying a little of that passion to me. Libertarians and conservatives both should read this book to learn how well-crafted and entertaining propaganda appears. (The only modern writer who does it better is L. Neil Smith-I'm glad he's on my side, or freedom's days would be numbered!) Ecotopia Emerging will give you a visceral understanding of the appeal of watermelon environmentalism-green outside, red (or yellow) inside. If we are to defeat collectivism, we freedom-lovers must grasp this emotional appeal by experiencing it for ourselves. Callenbach's book can do that for us. END