Totalitarian Socialism by Any Other Name

“Sustainable Development” or United Nations Agenda 21

Mike Scruggs

In William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Juliet speaks to Romeo of the difference between a person and their name:

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”

Power-seeking politicians, unhindered by high standards of truth or conventional moral responsibility, however, have often taken a different tact. Their route to power most often depends upon deception. Therefore, they give sweet names, even morally inspiring names, to their evil designs for greater and more totalitarian power. Unfortunately, the public has often been gullible enough to swallow their sugarcoated poison—until alarming symptoms appear.

Agenda 21 is the abbreviated form of the United Nations Sustainable Development Agenda for the 21^st Century. This name and supporting plans first appeared at the 1992 United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. It all sounds peachy to the unwary. Evil is never marketed as evil. Even Satan can disguise himself as an angel of light. The Agenda 21 objective is to assure that all of mankind should enjoy adequate and affordable housing, comprehensive health care, abundant food supplies, clean water, and a sparkling environment. It is most frequently marketed as a comprehensive future environmental plan, beginning with small steps like bicycle trails and soccer fields without revealing the total plan or the eventual cost in freedom, property rights, and tax dollars.

Agenda 21 may look good to some on its surface. “Progressives,” so-called liberals, and

environmental control freaks are generally ecstatic about it. President Obama is pushing hard to implement as much of it as possible as surreptitiously as possible. Even some conservatives have been misled by its clever community-spirited camouflage. But let the buyer beware. It is a breath-taking comprehensive plan for totalitarian socialism dressed in environmental green.

The leading edge of Agenda 21 is an environmentalism that seeks vastly increased governmental control over individual property rights. But it does not stop there. Its comprehensive planning and “reforms” will not only reduce property rights to somewhere near zero but in consequence will sharply reduce individual freedom to own property, buy a home, choose where to live, or own a private vehicle. All fuel use and travel would be closely regulated. Sustainable Development means severe government regulation of many personal and economic choices. It is defined as “economic growth that will not detrimentally affect the resources or biological systems of the planet.” This will be accomplished by government control reaching eventually to almost every human activity. How many children would you like to have? Sustainable Development calls for reduced population levels.

Besides the abandonment of property rights and the elevation of environmental purity over human life and freedom, a third major objective of Agenda 21 is “Social Equity.”

This does not mean all people will be equal under the law. It means the abandonment of law in order to make everyone equal in income, property rights (none), and social status— all except government and educational bureaucrats.

The Obama plan is to push Sustainable Development on local communities step by step. It will start innocently with offering Federal incentives or a Federal Partnership for projects like hiking trails, biking trails, soccer fields, and other desirable quality of life improvements. But there will be a cost. The usual Federal funding bait will be used. But are Federal dollars someone else’s dollars because they are not paid from County or City budgets? No, either your Federal taxes will go up or the value of your savings will be reduced by inflation. But don’t worry, 40 percent of your new quality of life will be paid for by China or some other foreign creditor. We can always pay off China with deflated dollars. Oh, wait a minute, that means my dollars will be worth less or maybe worthless. When your City Council or County Commission approves your biking trail, you might just stop and wonder how this is going to be paid for. You might even wonder why local governments should be spending money on hiking trails, when we are in the severest economic downturn since the Great Depression. It doesn’t make sense except to people who want to control more of your property and life and to increase Federal power over state and local governments.

Agenda 21 and Sustainable Development are already here. The Federal Partnership for Sustainable Communities awarded the Land of Sky Regional Council (LOSRC) a major grant (fool’s bait) to participate in a new planning project for Buncombe, Henderson, Haywood, Madison, and Transylvania counties. It will be a wonderful multi-disciplinary (popular progressive buzzword) approach covering economic prosperity, quality growth, and sustainable development. It will include housing, transportation, natural and cultural resources, energy, and land use. This may sound like a wonderful gift, but those with some discernment can see the outline and shadow of a Trojan Horse and in that horse are many demons—demons dedicated to controlling your local government and your life from Washington.

Planning is a good thing, but government planning can easily get too big and too controlling. Communist government planning in China and the Soviet Union starved more people to death than Hitler and Japanese General/Prime Minister Hideki Tojo were able to kill in World War 2. Beware for it is a favorite cloak of tyrants. Playing with Federal “Partnerships” is about as safe as playing with M18 claymore mines.

Socialism is as destructive of freedom and prosperity by any other name, including Agenda 21 and Sustainable Development. That which we call a skunk will not smell better by any other name.