Why do single-issue campaigners oppose solutions to their problems? Once you become aware of ‘not invented here’ syndrome, you start to see it everywhere: climate change activists lobbying against nuclear energy, anti-smoking campaigners campaigning against e-cigarettes, anti-obesity campaigners complaining about weight loss drugs. There are even some anti-alcohol campaigners who want to clamp down on alcohol-free beer. Whenever innovation steps up to provide a practical solution to a serious problem, it is those who should be most delighted about it that put up the most resistance.
This all seems self-defeating until you realise that these campaigners already had a solution in mind which they are more interested in implementing than in actually fixing the problem. They have an institutional preference and they don’t want it to be derailed by outsiders. If the campaigners didn’t invent the solution, they don’t approve of it.
The anti-industry rhetoric is usually a cover for deeper moral objections that are not based on science
To be fair, not all single-issue campaigners are against innovation.
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