A certain brand of libertarian ideology is about a principled dislike of government intervention into personal and economic affairs. Another brand, subscribed to by the Cato Institute’s David Boaz, is about sticking it to hippies. This in response to environmentalist suggests that people observe an “earth hour” and — voluntarily, I note — conserve energy by turning out the lights, he suggests that we deliberately waste energy in order to stick it to the hippies:
[The Competitive Enterprise Institute] rejects the rejection of technology. They have declared the hour between 8:30 and 9:30 tonight to be “Human Achievement Hour.” To join the celebration, just turn your lights on tonight and enjoy the human achievement of light when we want it. And watch CEI’s short video history of human achievement here.
Because remember, kids, whenever you help contribute to the death of a Bangladeshi in coastal flooding, an environmentalist cries. Every time drought malnourishes an African child, Al Gore sheds a tear. So waste, waste, waste away. It’s the human thing to do after all.