In this rapidly decaying society, abdication of responsibility is masquerading as freedom, neglect as progress, plunder as wealth, and denial as wisdom.
Shedlock invokes an assertion by George Orwell: "Freedom means the right to dissent with the majority, the right even to be persistently wrong".
Wrong. When presented with existential threat, this species no longer has the luxury to be persistently wrong. To be sure, several thousand years of being persistently wrong has led myriad fools to the same conclusion. Climate change is no longer some distant hypothetical that "might" afflict this planet decades from now, it manifests in the here and now in the form of biblical flooding, uncontrolled wildfires, monster hurricanes, and the fastest rate of species extinction in world history.
The financial costs alone of ever-increasing extreme weather events are racking up. For those who like to refute "hockey stick" charts, here is the inconvenient financial truth. The costliest hurricane seasons in the past two thirds of a century all came in the past fifteen years:
Here is what last year's California wildfires cost PG&E shareholders.
Bankruptcy:
We are all of course to blame in some measure for embracing lifestyles that range from the cautiously frugal to those seeking the carbon footprint of a 747. I would like nothing more than to believe that untrained climate denialists are more intelligent than all of the climate scientists combined, if only through sheer single-minded belief in self-interest and quarterly profit. Unfortunately, quite the opposite is true. These people are in denial that the consumption oriented lifestyle is a dead-end for the planet and society. The cost of which is now measured in fentanyl suicides - the inevitable result of a consumption herd self-medicating itself to death.
The Soylent Green corporate "New Deal".
Denialists now have their own false prophet promising salvation from responsibility. The sum total of the entire consumption denialist way of life: crass, phony, fraudulent, ignorant, illiterate, narcissistic, blighted, inhuman, and empty. A true alt-Christian.
This week in a bid to save racist denialists from the brown horde, Trump was forced to subvert democracy further by declaring a national emergency at the Southern border. His entire presidency from the election to now has been a subversion of democracy delivered by election fraud, voter suppression, gerrymandering, borrowed tax cuts for the wealthy, and tax refund scam for everyone else.
"A kakistocracy (/ˌkækɪsˈtɒkrəsi, -ˈstɒk-/) is a system of government which is run by the worst, least qualified, or most unscrupulous citizens."
"Whatever the strong feelings we have about the superiority of democracy, without simple competence, its virtues over the autocratic alternatives are uncertain"
Freedom is far more responsibility than it is a god given right. Freedom can't survive in a consumption Idiocracy in denial of climate change, environmental desecration, human health and welfare destruction, and rapacious economic thievery on a scale never before imagined. Which means that climate change may well be the most distant threat posed by rampant denial. The more imminent ones being financial collapse, recession, healthcare crisis, food insecurity, and mass panic. Like all Third World refugee camps there is always a more imminent threat posed by neglect.
The financial costs alone of ever-increasing extreme weather events are racking up. For those who like to refute "hockey stick" charts, here is the inconvenient financial truth. The costliest hurricane seasons in the past two thirds of a century all came in the past fifteen years:
Here is what last year's California wildfires cost PG&E shareholders.
Bankruptcy:
We are all of course to blame in some measure for embracing lifestyles that range from the cautiously frugal to those seeking the carbon footprint of a 747. I would like nothing more than to believe that untrained climate denialists are more intelligent than all of the climate scientists combined, if only through sheer single-minded belief in self-interest and quarterly profit. Unfortunately, quite the opposite is true. These people are in denial that the consumption oriented lifestyle is a dead-end for the planet and society. The cost of which is now measured in fentanyl suicides - the inevitable result of a consumption herd self-medicating itself to death.
The Soylent Green corporate "New Deal".
Denialists now have their own false prophet promising salvation from responsibility. The sum total of the entire consumption denialist way of life: crass, phony, fraudulent, ignorant, illiterate, narcissistic, blighted, inhuman, and empty. A true alt-Christian.
This week in a bid to save racist denialists from the brown horde, Trump was forced to subvert democracy further by declaring a national emergency at the Southern border. His entire presidency from the election to now has been a subversion of democracy delivered by election fraud, voter suppression, gerrymandering, borrowed tax cuts for the wealthy, and tax refund scam for everyone else.
"A kakistocracy (/ˌkækɪsˈtɒkrəsi, -ˈstɒk-/) is a system of government which is run by the worst, least qualified, or most unscrupulous citizens."
"Whatever the strong feelings we have about the superiority of democracy, without simple competence, its virtues over the autocratic alternatives are uncertain"
Freedom is far more responsibility than it is a god given right. Freedom can't survive in a consumption Idiocracy in denial of climate change, environmental desecration, human health and welfare destruction, and rapacious economic thievery on a scale never before imagined. Which means that climate change may well be the most distant threat posed by rampant denial. The more imminent ones being financial collapse, recession, healthcare crisis, food insecurity, and mass panic. Like all Third World refugee camps there is always a more imminent threat posed by neglect.
Freedom is not decadence and anarchy. It's not corporate apologists claiming the phony moral high ground that more is always better than less. What self-indulgent entitled jackass with the morality of a six year-old wouldn't want to believe that? Freedom is not embracing Darwinian economic models to the point of societal breakdown.
What Orwell and other previous philosophers feared most was attack from the outside. The external forces of fascism and communism. What they never imagined was the internal threat wrought by a society under assault from their own knives and forks, led by Lost Boys carrying pigs' heads on a stick.
Trump's presidency embodies instant gratification. A corporate Disneyland void of obligation to anything except the next five minutes. The strip-mining of the future for consumption and profit in the here and now in every direction: environmental, economic, health and human welfare. Had prior generations been this rapacious the U.S. would have collapsed decades ago.
Trump's presidency embodies instant gratification. A corporate Disneyland void of obligation to anything except the next five minutes. The strip-mining of the future for consumption and profit in the here and now in every direction: environmental, economic, health and human welfare. Had prior generations been this rapacious the U.S. would have collapsed decades ago.
Be sure of one thing. The price of this desecration will be measured in carbon units. Hopefully enough to solve the problem(s).
No clowns will be laughing when this circus ends.
No clowns will be laughing when this circus ends.
