This entry is motivated by an ongoing exchange that I am having with Leon about how the current Liberal system is running on intellectual fumes and is no longer capable of seriously addressing (or in some cases even recognizing) the problems that it’s creating. I’d also be remiss if I didn’t point that Sailer is now getting ideas from beyond the pale MR here and here - I don’t know if this is the case but I’ll take some credit for it anyway.

First a little biographical information, John Horgan and George Johnson, who oddly resembles Harry Reid, are a friendly pair of liberal saws who write about scientific matters from elite perches in American society such as the New York Times, NYT Book Review, Discover, Scientific American, etc. Between the two of them John has more interesting views while George is more orthodox but has higher professional standing, both of them fit the Orwellian stereotype of having absorbed the dominant thinking of their time so thoroughly that they seem to unconsciously avoid unorthodox thought (pardon me while I return the favor).

Back to the matter at hand, George is talking with John about a sustainability conference that he recently attended in which the subject of population growth came up. The following is a ten minute excerpt from their full conversation, which is available at bloggingheads.tv:

In my opinion, this is a great example of how these tired elite liberals are capable of simultaneously acknowledging a problem - unsustainable population levels in third world countries - and preceding to ignore it completely. Amusingly enough, orthodox George comments on how this used to be a big deal for the Left a generation ago and then proceeds to trail off about the Catholic church and other random things.