My wife, Mary, and I were driving south of Peoria to visit the Emiquon Wetland Restoration and National Wildlife Refuge at Dickson Mounds near Lewistown. It was just before Thanksgiving, and I was looking forward to finding a bunch of migratory birds before things freeze up. And what should “appear” on National Public Radio, but a 1959 interview with the popular prophet of profit driven laissez faire economics… author, and right-wing guru, Ayn Rand.

I’d heard her name, but had never read any of her books or heard her speak. Maybe it’s the growing chasm separating the ‘have lots’ from the ‘have nots’ that has preoccupied our political palaver of late, or maybe it’s just that Christmas is right around the corner, but as she responded to interviewer, Mike Wallace, her answers put me in mind of someone with whom I’ve been very familiar for a very long time.

Ebenezer Scrooge was the archetypical anti-social capitalist. In this, the darkest time of the year, he was famously forced to re-examine his self absorbed lifestyle and his narrowly focused values and consequently chose to reinvent himself. Christmas formed the backdrop for his moral and ethical epiphany. He transformed his previous devotion to self enrichment into a commitment to the well being of others. Charles Dickens, in his classic tale, “A Christmas Carol,” arguably did more to capture and crystallize the ideal of this, our most eclectic holiday, than anyone before or since.

When I got back home, I Googled Rand and it sounded as if her name could have been Ebenezer. Her words echo a point of view which has become all too popular these days. For example: “If any civilization is to survive, it is the morality of altruism that men have to reject” (think EPA, or universal health care). She appears to hold cash in rather high regard. “Money is the barometer of a society’s virtue.” She devalued self sacrifice.  “I swear, by my life and my love of it, that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.” Doesn’t sound like she’s into volunteer firemen, or military service or organ donors etc. In her view, each person is an island… “Civilization is the process of setting man free from men.” She adamantly stated that any regulation by government diminishes freedom.

En route to Bartonville, a light turned red and I had to stop… or risk a ticket. When it turned green, I accelerated but a sign placed a limit on my maximum speed. These government imposed regulations don’t diminish freedom, they define it. Unlike licentiousness, freedom is defined by responsibility. Obeying the stop sign or speed limit doesn’t make you less free. It makes you more so. And so it is with environmental protections… “stop signs” for polluters of air and water.

Had John Muir not been able to get government to call a halt to the assault on our giant trees, there would undoubtedly be none left. How many of us would visit “Sequoia Stumps National Forest,” or “Redwood Ruins National Park.” Muir gained absolutely nothing from his tireless efforts. His dedication was to others, including other species. Capitalism is in the business of growth and profits. If allowed to continue unhindered by government regulation, the result is ecological devastation. Wealth is gained at the expense of the environment.

Imagine if Ayn Rand and/or her followers were visited by a Ghost of Christmas past which showed how the most highly regarded among ancestral human hunters and gatherers tended to be the most helpful and generous contributors to the overall well being of the tribe. Perhaps she could have been made to understand that “survival of the fittest” doesn’t necessarily mean the toughest or fasted, or best able to hoard, but rather it refers to a population concept of reproductive success over millennia.

The Ghost of Christmas Present could point out the problem with hoarders. The erosive force of runaway growth is currently causing many hundreds of thousands of extinctions. Ocean fisheries have been heavily depleted, forests are disappearing, factory farms are poisoning surface and ground water, and the atmosphere is warming. The tapestry of life is beginning to unravel.

And then the Ghost of Christmas yet to be could show the end result of unlimited growth and consumption…  a lifeless and toxic Twilight Zone landscape. As Scrooge would say… “Are these the shadows of things that must be, or are they the shadows of things that MIGHT be?”

At this point, Ayn Rand might have had an epiphany and changed her assertion, that “The only way a government can be of service to national prosperity is by keeping its hands off.” It’s actually the only entity potentially powerful enough to protect us from the impacts of our own too much.

Instead of “A government is the most dangerous threat to man’s rights,” she may well have come to realize that lack of effective government is at least as dangerous a threat. Without effective oversight, where is our right to healthy food, clean air and water, safe and effective drugs, etc.?

Finally her sense that a thing is either right or wrong and that ambiguity is evil… might morph to a distrust of certainty and greater awareness of and sensitivity to diverse points of view… so fundamental to freedom for everyone.

At Emiquon we found thousands of birds, representing dozens of species, resting and feeding at the newly restored lake. Fortunately for these birds and for us birders, and for the fishermen, photographers, and artists… the folks who made this incredible project happen were altruists. We have all benefited.

Changing from denying to solving the monumental threat of global warming is an act of pure altruism. The main beneficiaries are yet to be born. We have nothing to gain financially… only the knowledge we are helping future generations. My father would have called this “leaving the campsite better than you found it.”