Last weekend in Rhode Island we were bundled up because it barely got into the 60s in the heat of the day, and there was actually a light frost one night! Our Innkeeper without a hint of irony noted that it was unseasonably cold because of Global Warming.
Its a religion, not a science, and frankly I see it as an offshoot of Catholic Guilt. The idea if you have it VERY good, you should feel guilty because of it.
Well in America we have it good. Our death rate is so low we have a glut of senior citizens flipping the Social Security Ponzi Scheme. We have such plentiful food that we have a problem with obesity, and overall our quality of life is so good we have a serious issue with Illegal Immigration.
So the idea that all our technology is going to kill the WHOLE EARTH gives us JUST the right amount of guilt to get on with our day. It doesn’t matter what the science says, or what scientist gets caught with his thumb on the scale, or padding the peer review board to get a bogus study published so his next wave of grants will come through. We’re killing the Earth simply by being Americans!
Yep!
I remember awhile back there were some online tests you could take to determine your ‘footprint’ for resources etc. If you were the avg. American, it claimed we would need like 5 earths to supply everyone at our quality of life even w/ heavy recycling and ‘living green’.
If you broke down their calculations, the only way to get to ‘one earth’ would be if you were living in a mud hut w/ no water or electricity and starving on a vegetable only subsistence diet.
There is no need for humility once one has attained success.
-Kurokami Medaka, Medaka Box
Thirdpower: my sister took that quiz and told me about that. She said it took 3 earths even when she went as environmentally conscious as she could.
Volfram, that is a GREAT quote. Also goes well with physical power. I’ve known some BIG POWERFUL men, and on top of that some of them were also masters of personal firearms. These men showed the least amount of bravado in their personality of anybody. One might mistake some of them as “meek”. When you’re more powerful than 99% of the population, why posture? Also when you know the damage your fists or your pistol can do, the LAST thing you want is to use them.
If not living like a stone-age savage is bad, I don’t want to be good.
Like the Chuck Norris story where some guy demanded his seat at a bar, and Chuck just let him have it.
When questioned later, he shrugged and said “what would it prove?”
First there was Jewish Guilt, where only your mother was throwing it.
Then there was Catholic Guilt, where only the clergy was throwing it.
Now there’s Greenie Guilt! Everyone throws it!