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Merchants of Despair: Radical Environmentalists, Criminal Pseudo-Scientists, and the Fatal Cult of Antihumanism
There was a time when humanity looked in the mirror and saw something precious, worth protecting and fighting for—indeed, worth liberating. But now, we are beset on all sides by propaganda promoting a radically different viewpoint. According to this idea, human beings are a cancer upon the Earth, a horde of vermin whose aspirations and appetites are endangering the natural...more
Hardcover, 328 pages
Published
April 3rd 2012
by Encounter Books
(first published October 25th 2011)
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Dr. Zubrin gives us, in no uncertain terms, an expose of the antihumanist movement and the damage it continues to cause on a global scale. Much of the cynicism and lack of will to promote human achievement that is present in our world today stems from this ideology in whole or in part, made particularly bad now through its infection of the pop culture.
Everywhere one looks we see dystopian books and films presenting a bleak outlook for humanity. One needs Prozac to read half of what comes from s...more
Everywhere one looks we see dystopian books and films presenting a bleak outlook for humanity. One needs Prozac to read half of what comes from s...more
May 04, 2012
Bradley Jarvis
rated it
1 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Anyone interested in different points of view.
"Merchants of Despair" is sure to insult, anger, or disgust a large number of people (myself included) who consider themselves champions of human activity that minimizes harm to life – and humanity itself - by limiting growth in both numbers and maximum personal power.
Author Robert Zubrin, who I personally got to know as an activist promoting the settlement of space beginning with Mars (before I became convinced that limits were necessary), believes in the enabling of unfettered creativity, who...more
Author Robert Zubrin, who I personally got to know as an activist promoting the settlement of space beginning with Mars (before I became convinced that limits were necessary), believes in the enabling of unfettered creativity, who...more
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The author shows how an antipathy to population growth has led opinion leaders to promote policies that endanger human lives while claiming to promote conservation and environmental protection. As a result, millions of young women in India have undergone dangerous sterilization procedures without adequate concern for their health and safety. (There are current lawsuits being pursued against this grisly practice.) Hundreds of millions have died from malaria as a direct result of the banning of DD...more
I learned a lot from this book about the environmental movement's eugenics/Nazi origins. This is not well known but was not terribly surprising to me either, once the evolutionary process of the anti human movement was described in the book. Zubrin is not always philosophically consistent, as evidenced by his identifying some of the more traditional leftist causes as positive, rather than coercive. He also appears to be in favor of ethanol as a fuel additive/replacement and insinuates that high...more
First thing I'd like to say is that Zubrin is one of my favorite authors. IMO, The Case for Mars and Entering Space are two of the greatest space advocacy books ever written. Second, I agree with the basic premise of this book, that we are not at all like yeast in a bottle,and that as our population increases, our quality of life improves and we use resources more efficiently. I think the human species is pretty awesome, and hate hearing it described as a cancer on the planet.
So I was very excit...more
So I was very excit...more
This is a very important book.
It makes a very good companion to Peter Diamandis's Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think
Where Abundance examines the incredible progress of humanity and shows us we can expect even greater things in the future, Merchants of Despair shows us the dark side of our past when we have let ourselves be led astray by doomsayers such a Malthus, Ehlrich and Holdren.
Zubrin chronicles the suffering imposed on humanity by the Malthusians and convincingly argues the fa...more
It makes a very good companion to Peter Diamandis's Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think
Where Abundance examines the incredible progress of humanity and shows us we can expect even greater things in the future, Merchants of Despair shows us the dark side of our past when we have let ourselves be led astray by doomsayers such a Malthus, Ehlrich and Holdren.
Zubrin chronicles the suffering imposed on humanity by the Malthusians and convincingly argues the fa...more
Without a doubt, the first book I've read in a long while that I had a hard time putting down. The way he ties the environmental movement to the failed eugenics movement brilliantly documents the actions of generation of manipulative individual who hate human beings. Well worth a read.
Jul 06, 2012
Nancy
added it
Very well cited read! Pulls together important info that is beyond politics!
Excellent book; together with The Rational Optimist by Matt Ridley and Abundance by Peter H. Diamandis and Steven Kotler, this book serves as a corrective to the pessimism so prevalent in the thinking of so many. The world is not getting worse and worse; it is getting better, and could be even more wonderful in the future.
This is a book that everyone should read.
This is a book that everyone should read.
I can not praise this book enough! It is the most important, life changing book I have ever read with the exception of religious texts. Everyone must read this book!!! Even if you never read non-fiction this should be your one exception.
Excellent book linking "anti-humanist" movements from the eugenics movements of the 1800-1900's to the current organic and global warming movements. Including some key players who link these various movements.
May 12, 2013
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