Let's learn from history and take a look at other infamous

In the words of Lauren Boebert: “Let’s learn from history and take a look at other infamous socialist central-planning experiments like China’s Great Leap Forward or the Soviet Union’s Five-Year Plan. Like those two disasters, the Green New Deal would cripple our country and sacrifice Americans on the altar of environmental extremism.” These words ring as a warning, stern and unflinching. They summon forth the memory of nations that once sought greatness by command and decree, yet instead brought upon their people hunger, fear, and despair. To forget such lessons is to invite them again, for history is a teacher whose lessons are written in blood.

The ancients often said: “The wise man learns from the fate of others, the fool only from his own ruin.” The Great Leap Forward, declared by Mao Zedong in China, was to be the forging of a new heaven on earth, where steel production and collectivized farming would bring boundless prosperity. Yet the vision became a nightmare. Crops rotted, harvests were exaggerated to satisfy quotas, and famine swept the land. Tens of millions perished—not because the earth had failed them, but because human arrogance had silenced reason. This is the kind of central-planning Boebert warns against: the presumption that a few may command the many, ignoring both the limits of nature and the wisdom of free men.

So too with the Soviet Union’s Five-Year Plans. They were heralded as triumphs of organization, yet they demanded sacrifice without mercy. Factories rose, but at what cost? Families were uprooted, farmers forced from their lands, and dissent crushed beneath the heel of the state. The promise of abundance was paid for with scarcity of liberty. The lesson is plain: when government planning seeks to control all life, the individual becomes not a citizen but a servant, a cog in a machine that cares little if he breaks.

Boebert’s warning speaks to the Green New Deal, which she likens to these ancient follies of modern times. While clothed in the language of salvation—of protecting the earth and saving the climate—she fears it may, in its extremity, demand the sacrifice of the very people it claims to save. To her, it is a vision not of balanced stewardship, but of forced transformation, where livelihoods are destroyed in the pursuit of purity, and the common man bears the weight of a grand experiment. Whether one agrees or disagrees, her words remind us that noble intentions may yet conceal peril, and that zeal without wisdom can burn as fiercely as neglect.

Consider a tale closer to home: the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. It was not born of central plans but of careless farming and heedless ambition, where man sought to master the land without respect for its limits. When drought came, the earth turned to dust, and families fled by the thousands. This disaster reveals a truth that binds both sides of the debate: that environmental extremes, whether by neglect or by overreach, can shatter lives. Wisdom lies not in the reckless pursuit of growth nor in the reckless pursuit of purity, but in balance, humility, and foresight.

Thus, the words of Boebert can be read as a call to vigilance. She evokes the specter of past tragedies to stir us from complacency, reminding us that every policy must be judged not by its promises alone, but by its likely fruits. Let us learn from the history of both hubris and neglect: that the law of unintended consequence is ever watchful, and that no people are immune from folly if they refuse to heed the warnings of the past.

The lesson for us, then, is clear: let no vision, however radiant, blind us to reality. Question bold schemes, weigh costs alongside ideals, and ensure that in seeking to build a better world, we do not destroy the one we have. In our own lives, let us practice stewardship with wisdom—planting trees, conserving energy, caring for the land—yet resist those who would demand sacrifice without regard for the people themselves.

And so, future generations, hear this: the path forward is not carved by extremes, but by balance. Learn from the ruin of the Great Leap Forward, the suffering of the Five-Year Plan, and the desolation of the Dust Bowl. Build with courage, but temper courage with wisdom. For a people who remember history walk safely; but those who forget it, march into the abyss.