Darkness: The New Enlightenment.

James Lileks writes another spot-on essay. His Newhouse column for today, Another Empty Symbolic Gesture is eminently quotable, but I'll give you just a little bit, and a visual aid:

There's also a curious form of self-loathing involved in the lights-off movement, a revolutionary's hatred of the old order's glories. Once the bright lights of a city stood as a sign of civilization, a candle that cast out the night and brought the boon of Prometheus to every humble shack; now darkness is a sign of enlightenment. The sensitive soul who feels the planet's ceaseless shrieks in all his various chakras is supposed to feel relief when the lights go off, as if darkness is aloe on a burn.

Why, look at those satellite photos of North Korea at night. State control of energy usage, no industry, no cars, no messy pointless "freedom'' to hurt our one and only Mother. Seen from above, it's utterly dark.

They're years ahead of the rest of us.

Go. Read.

Edited to add:

I can't explain exactly why, but I was perusing movie critic Roger Ebert's web page and found his list of "Four Star Movies from 2006". Among his list? An Inconvenient Truth. Interest piqued, I read the review. The last line is the kicker:

I did a funny thing when I came home after seeing "An Inconvenient Truth." I went around the house turning off the lights.

I think Billy Beck's use of the term "Endarkenment" has taken on a whole new and literal meaning.