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Jewish World Review Oct. 10, 2000 / 11 Tishrei, 5761

David Limbaugh

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Consumer Reports


Gore: Renaissance
man or unbalanced?


http://www.jewishworldreview.com -- TO ME the only thing more frightening than Al Gore's book "Earth in the Balance" is that he reportedly believes the stuff in it. There's another thing about it, though, that bothers me even more.

I confess that when I bought the book I expected sensationalism and doomsday alarmism, but I did not anticipate the sweeping scope of the book and what it apparently reveals about Gore.

The most noteworthy thing about it is Gore's breathtaking presumptuousness and audacity. He essentially holds himself out as a Renaissance man. He is a sociologist, a psychologist, a child psychologist, an historian, a philosopher, a theologian, a meteorologist, a climatologist, a molecular biologist, a marine biologist, a chemist, an agronomist, a physicist, an economist, a conservationist, an anthropologist, a zoologist, a nutritionist, an ecologist, an engineer, a scuba diver and a politician -- I'll give him that one. The only thing he takes more seriously than the "environmental crisis" is himself.

(As an aside, I now understand why he had trouble identifying the bust of Thomas Jefferson. He has a Jefferson impairment. In the book, historian Gore incorrectly describes Thomas Jefferson as a framer of the Constitution in Philadelphia. Jefferson was in Paris throughout the convention.)

Being a man of many disciplines, Gore feels free to intermix the various ones in his analysis of mankind's hopeless condition. For example, wearing his child psychologist hat, he observes that the children of dysfunctional families blame themselves as the cause of the family's dysfunction. Donning his ecological headgear, he concludes that our environmental crisis is so severe that our civilization itself is dysfunctional. Completing the analogy, he applies the model of the dysfunctional family to mankind's relationship to the environment.

Largely because of the scientific revolution, says Gore, man has become separated from nature. That separation has caused much pain because "Just as the children in a dysfunctional family experience pain when their parent leads them to believe that something important is missing from their psyches, we surely experience a painful loss when we are led to believe that the connection to the natural world that is part of our birthright as a species is something unnatural. ..."

To avoid feeling this pain, we developed an addiction "to the consumption of the earth itself. This addictive relationship distracts us from the pain of what we have lost: a direct experience of our connection to the vividness, vibrancy and aliveness of the rest of the natural world." Is this scary, or do you suppose that I have the jitters just because Halloween is approaching?

Gore's book is simply too rich for a little 700-word column -- the psychobabble too extensive to treat thoroughly. So, let me leave you with just a few closing thoughts. We all know that Gore stands by every word of his book. We also know that he has proposed far-reaching new governmental largesse that would threaten to bankrupt even this robust economy and its astronomical projected surpluses. As horrifying as his campaign spending proposals are to conservatives, they pale in comparison to his blueprint for government expansion (his Global Marshall Plan) set out in the book.

Don't you think it is reasonable to believe that if this hapless nation elects him he will do a bait and switch like none we've ever witnessed in the history of this planet? If he truly believes that our civilization is facing a crisis that can be remedied only by the draconian solutions prescribed in his book, then it's safe to assume he will do everything within his power to implement those strategies.

In the process, he would inflate the size of the federal government immeasurably while reducing its sovereignty in relation to foreign nations. He would declare war on corporations and technology. He would enact a program that would use schoolteachers and their students to monitor the entire earth daily.

The book reveals that Gore is a man in search of a crisis, a catastrophe, the apocalypse. He is a man obsessed with a cult-like zealotry, centered on a near pantheistic worship of nature.

When you couple Gore's desperate efforts to find inner-meaning during the campaign (the incessant lies where he makes himself the hero of every story) with his incredible self-elevation in this bizarre book, you must genuinely wonder whether Al Gore himself is in balance.



JWR contributor David Limbaugh is an attorney practicing in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, and a political analyst and commentator. Send your comments to him by clicking here.

WND

Up

10/04/00: Where have you been, Albert Jr.?
10/02/00: Clinton’s fragmented presidency
09/27/00: Liberal media doth protest too much
09/25/00: AlGore: Turning dreams into nightmares
09/20/00: Something fishy's going on
09/18/00: It's the liberalism, stupid
09/13/00: An open letter to open-minded cynics
09/11/00: The virtues of going negative
09/06/00: On a mission for marriage
09/04/00: Al Gore's 'Trivial Pursuits'
08/30/00: Lieberman and the paradox of liberal 'tolerance'
08/28/00: A campaign divided against itself
08/23/00: Al Gore's trickle-down populism
08/21/00: Prosperity without a clue
08/16/00: AlGore can run but he can't hide
08/14/00: When hate speech is OK
08/09/00: Bush: The pundits' enigma
08/07/00: GOP convention: Live or Memorex?
08/02/00: The first attack dog
07/31/00: The Cheney taint?
07/26/00: The anti-gun bogeyman
07/24/00: The raging culture war
07/19/00: Is Hillary 'Good for the Jews'?
07/17/00: How dare you, George?
07/12/00: Jacoby's raw deal
07/10/00: The perplexities of liberalism
07/05/00: Big Al and big oil
07/03/00: Partial-birth and total death
06/28/00: Some questions for you, Mr. Gore
06/26/00: Supreme Court assaults religious freedom
06/21/00: Waco: We are the jury
06/19/00: "Outrage" just doesn't quite cut it anymore!
06/14/00: Al Gore: Government's best friend
06/12/00: Say goodbye to medical privacy
06/07/00: Elian: Whose hands were tied?
06/05/00: Who, which, what is the real Al Gore?
06/01/00: Legacy-building idea for Clinton
05/30/00: Clinton: Above the law or not?
05/24/00: Not so fast, Hillary
05/22/00: Gore's risky, fear-mongering schemes
05/17/00: Can Bush risk pro-choice running mate?
05/15/00: Right to privacy, Clinton-style
05/10/00: Patrick Kennedy and his suit-happy fiddlers
05/08/00: Don't shoot Eddie Eagle
05/03/00: Congress caves to Clinton, again?
05/01/00: The resurrection of outrage
04/28/00: A picture of Bill Clinton's America
04/19/00: President Clinton: Teaching children responsibility
04/17/00: Elian, Marx and parental rights
04/12/00: Elian, freedom deserve a hearing
04/10/00:The fraying of America
04/05/00: Noonan: End Clintonism now
04/03/00: Bush: On going for the gold
03/29/00: Phantasma-Gore-ia
03/27/00: Treaties, triggers, tobacco and tyrants
03/22/00: Media to Bush: Go left, young man
03/20/00: Stop the insanity
03/15/00: OK Al Gore: Let's go negative
03/13/00: Deifying of the center
03/08/00: The media, the establishment and the people
03/01/00: McCain's coalition-busting daggers in GOP's heart
02/28/00: Bush's silver lining in McMichigan
02/24/00: A conservative firewall, after all
02/22/00: Bush or four more of Clinton-Gore?
02/16/00: Substance trumps process
02/14/00: The campaign finance reform mirage
02/09/00: President McCain: End of the GOP as we know it?
02/07/00: From New Hampshire to South Carolina
02/02/00: SDI must fly
01/31/00: Veep gores Bradley
01/26/00: The issues gap
01/24/00: GOP: Exit, stage left
01/20/00: Nationalizing congressional elections
01/18/00: Do voters really prefer straight talk?
01/12/00: Media's McCain efforts may backfire
01/10/00: Conservative racism myth
01/05/00: Just one more year of Clintonian politics
01/03/00: McMedia?
12/27/99: Al Gore: Bullish on government
12/22/99: Bradley's full-court press
12/20/99: Bush: Rendering unto Caesar
12/15/99: Beltway media bias
12/13/99: White House ambulance chasing
12/08/99: Clinton's labor pains
12/06/99:The lust for power
12/01/99: In defense of liberty
11/29/99: Are Republicans obsolete?
11/24/99: Say you're sorry, Mr. President
11/22/99: Architects of victory
11/17/99: Trump's tax on freedom
11/15/99: GOP caves again
11/10/99: Triangulation and 'The Third Way'
11/08/99: Sticks and stones
11/03/99: Keyes vs. media lapdogs
11/01/99: Signs of the times
10/27/99: The false charge of isolationism
10/25/99: A matter of freedom
10/20/99: Clinton's mini-meltdown
10/18/99: Senate GOP shows statesmanship
10/13/99: Senate must reject nuclear treaty
10/11/99: Bush bites feeding hand
10/06/99: Jesse accidentally opens door for Pat
10/04/99: Clinton and his media enablers
09/29/99: Reagan: Big-tent conservatism
09/27/99: The Clinton/Gore taint?
09/22/99: Have gun (tragedy), will travel
09/20/99: Hillary's blunders and bloopers
09/15/99: GOP must remain conservative
09/13/99:Time for Bush to take charge, please
09/10/99: Bush's education plan: Dubya confounds again
09/07/99: Pat, savior or spoiler?
09/02/99: Character doesn't matter?
08/30/99: Should we judge?
08/25/99: Dubyah's drug question: Not a hill to die on
08/23/99: Should Dubyah start buying soap ... for all that mud?
08/16/99: 'W' stands for 'winner'
08/11/99: The truth about tax cuts
08/09/99: Hillary: Threading the needle
08/04/99: What would you do?
08/02/99: No appeasement for China
07/30/99: Hate Crimes Bill: Cynical Symbolism
07/26/99: It’s the 'moderates', stupid
07/21/99: JFK Jr. and Diana: the pain of privilege
07/19/99: Smith, Bush and the GOP
07/14/99: GOP must be a party of ideas
07/12/99: Gore's gender gap
07/08/99: Clinton’s faustian bargain: our justice
07/06/99: The key to Bush's $36 million
06/30/99: Gore: a soda in every fountain
06/28/99: 'Sacred wall' or religious barrier?
06/23/99: GOP must lead in foreign policy
06/21/99: Crumbs of compassion
06/16/99: Compassionate conservatism: face-lift or body transplant?
06/10/99: Victory in Kosovo? Now What?

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