As American Greens rub their hands in gleeful anticipation, the lamps are going out all over Europe.

we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime

Energy-starved Europe dims the lights, cuts the a/c

And not just Germany.

In the Netherlands, a new public program has been launched called “Flip the Switch.” People are not allowed to run the water in their showers for more than five minutes. Laundry is to be air dried on clothes lines, not in electric dryers. And citizens are being told to use sun shades and hand-held fans to keep cool and shut their air conditioners off. Spain just passed a law forbidding people from setting their thermostats lower than 27 degrees Celsius (81 degrees Fahrenheit) in summer, nor raising them above 19 degrees Celsius (66 degrees Fahrenheit) in the winter. No details as to how they plan to monitor and enforce that law have been provided yet.

This is summer; they’re already planning community warming huts for the winter, just like the good old peasant days. No food, no energy, no liberty; a new society trained to rely on there betters for the essentials of life.

And they will be happy.