The Counterproductivity of Faulty Moral Comparisons

A recent cover of TIME featured a new twist on an iconic American image. A famous photograph from World War II was altered for effect. The picture, originally taken by Joe Rosenthal of the Associated Press in 1945, depicted five Marines and one Navy corpsman raising the American Flag atop Mount Suribachi in Japan during the Battle of Iwo Jima. The battle itself was particularly bloody, costing nearly 7,000 Americans and more than 20,000 Japanese their lives. So symbolic of Veteran heroism was this image that its sculpted representation was commissioned for the USMC War Memorial near Arlington National Cemetery. The sculpture stands today as a proud recognition of the sacrifices our Combat Veterans past and present have made in furtherance of our national security and preservation. TIME determined that this photograph could be modified to shed favorable light on another cause: environmentalism. Rosenthal’s Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima was therefore reproduced on the cover of TIME with a tree replacing the American Flag.

More recently, Robert Kennedy, Jr., an outspoken advocate of the modern “Green” movement, drew another hyperbolic comparison. Apparently, in Kennedy’s world, today’s environmentalists are morally equivalent to those who worked towards the abolition of slavery before and during the Civil War.

Needless to say, both analogies concocted by the self-flattering environmentalist movement were subjected to heavy criticism and ridicule. Many Veterans and their supporters the world over were angered by the TIME cover because it effectively placed conservation and alarmism on the same pedestal as patriotism and ultimate self-sacrifice. While TIME’s intention may have been to honor environmentalists by propping them up alongside our men and women in uniform, the publication instead demeaned the service of our Combat Veterans by comparing their struggles to those of relatively frivolous political activists. And Kennedy’s suggestion that the mission of the “Green” movement is somehow on a par with that of the abolitionist movement cheapens the efforts of those who put their lives on the line to emancipate Blacks from slavery.

Self-described “environmentalists” do their cause no favors when they exhibit the type of hubris that TIME and Robert Kennedy, Jr. have. Even if one has great conviction in the existence of man-made Global Warming, one must also have a sense of proportion when arguing the case. Boastful alarmists are certainly not going to convince skeptics and “undecideds” to alter their lifestyles by erroneously comparing themselves to real patriots. In fact, they are more likely to arouse further suspicion of their motives and credibility. If anything, their overstatements are counterproductive. On one hand, they serve to solidify perceptions among doubters that the movement is disingenuous. On the other hand, they risk alienating some of movement’s own sympathizers who may get turned off by such self-important bluster.

Whether or not man-made Global Warming exists is a topic for ongoing discussion and debate. Suffice it to say, however, that environmentalists are not going to advance their agenda by employing surrogates like TIME and Bobby Kennedy to exaggerate their significance while minimizing the selflessness of those who have shed blood in service to this country.