17 Feb 98

To:Letter to the Editor
USA Today

I have just finished reading your article “Ocean may be Oregon homes’ resting place,” in which you describe the peril of some home owners in Oregon.  In particular, the government is preventing them from protecting their property from destruction by El Nino in the name of “beach-preservation.”  This article describes one of the most appalling examples of how environmentalism is incompatible with man and his survival.

When environmentalists shout that nature has intrinsic value, they pervert the concept of value altogether.  For something to be a value, it must be a value to someone.  Do they wish to protect these beaches for people?  It does not appear so.  The people who live there are about to have their homes destroyed and their lives devastated.

 When environmentalists cry that we should protect the rights of animals, rocks, and trees, they invert the concept of rights.  Rights apply only to man in order to protect his ability to pursue his self interest.  Since man’s self interest depends on reshaping the environment to suit his needs, any alleged rights of the environment violate his rights and inhibit his ability to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

In her book, The New Left: The Anti-Industrial Revolution, Ayn Rand explains the deeper motive of the environmentalists.  Their goal is not to promote nature, but to destroy man. The proper role of government should be to protect not the beaches, but the property rights of individuals.  However, before this will ever happen, this disease of irrationality plaguing us must be irradicated.  The antidote is for all of us to adopt reason, understand the true meaning of individual rights, and to defend capitalism--the only system of government that protects private property rights.

Eric J. Lakits
Westland, MI