It’s Time To Consign ESG To The Ash Heap Of History

OpinionSpencerFernando

The advancement of humanity requires abandoning failed ideas. And ESG has proven itself to be one of the most anti-human, and anti-advancement ideas we’ve seen in a long-time.

Fascism.

Communism.

At one time, those ideas were seen as being as legitimate as free markets and democracy.

It took a horrific world war, and half a century mired in a cold war for those ideas to be largely consigned to the ash-heap of history in much of the world.

And even now, despite the obvious failure of both ideas, we are dealing with those who want to see those failed ideologies make a resurgence.

They push those ideas under different names and guises of course, and the fact that they must do so is itself a testament to how spectacularly those ideas failed.

‘Failed’ doesn’t even do it justice.

Fascism and Communism have proven to be profoundly anti-human ideas, and they resulted in a horrific amount of death in a very short period of time.

And if there was any doubt, for decades people have been voting with their feet, fleeing – when they could – the remaining fascist and communist countries so they could live in countries that are capitalist democracies.

In nearly all cases, the capitalist democracies have more freedom, higher rates of per capita GDP, and better standards of living than countries that have remained imprisoned in fascist or communist ideology.

Even the few fascist and communist countries attempt to hide what they stand for, often claiming they are some ‘different form’ of democracy, despite all the evidence.

And in the case of China – a mix of both fascist and communist ideology where the government claims freedom and individual rights are ‘incompatible’ with the people they control, there is a counter-example just across the Taiwan Strait.

Similar to how the government of Russia fears the example of a Ukraine that could be free, democratic, and prosperous, the government of China fears a Taiwan that shows the Chinese People can embrace democracy and free markets and achieve a tremendous amount of success. After all, Taiwan’s per capita GDP is roughly three times higher than China’s.

What am I getting at here?

What does this have to do with ESG – Environmental, Social, and Governance – the ideology that has swept through many of our institutions and governments?

Well, ESG is proving itself to be yet another profoundly anti-human idea that we must reject if civilization is to move forward.

That is a point effectively made by Kyle Bass on CNBC, in clips you can watch below:

“.@JKyleBass: “These policies, that are ESG driven…are going to end up starving the poor children of the world and killing many of them…I can’t believe it’s not on the front page of every paper, every day.””

“.@JKyleBass on ESG: “There are scientific realities and then there are certain narratives that are pushed by NGOs and teenagers and I think we’ve been taking policy queues from NGOs and teenagers for a long time…”

Bass makes incredibly important points.

And as we consider those points, we can see how – from an objective perspective – the oil & gas sector has been a truly pro-human industry.

It has enabled immense population growth, per-capita wealth growth, and human flourishing around the world.

To try and crush that sector – deliberately – is to push an anti-human agenda.

Judge ideas by their results, not their moral claims

Every utopian idea or scheme sounds great in theory.

And this is why capitalist democracy – despite being the most successful system – is constantly challenged by failed ideas. It is a tougher sell, since it is grounded in reality.

Fascists promise a certain race or nation dominance at the expense of others, which can be appealing to those who want to violently subjugate those they view as beneath them.

Communists promise to punish the ‘rich’ and make all outcomes ‘equal,’ which can be appealing to those who feel they won’t be able to succeed without taking from others.

Capitalist Democracy promises only that you will largely be left alone, free to compete – and possibly lose that competition, and that you’ll have to live with your opponents often being in power.

And now, ESG promises to ‘save the planet’, far more inspiring than the oil & gas sector promising ‘mundane’ things like keeping the lights on.

But, as we saw above, the actual results of ESG will be to cause immense suffering, societal chaos, and even death on a large scale. Regardless of the moral claims, ESG gets deeply immoral results.

It is an idea that has failed, and the consequences of that failure are all around us. It is time to consign ESG to the ash-heap of history, and reembrace the pro-growth, pro-human ideas that are necessary for keeping civilization alive.

Spencer Fernando

Photo – YouTube

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