“Climate activist groups spend a lot of money to inject their message into all media we consume. Whether it’s the movies we watch or the news we read, activists want everyone to be terrified of global warming and to demand transitioning away from fossil fuels.”
Tammy is close to being right but she’s not down to the heart of it. It’s philosophy that drives us and puts us in our place in the world and shapes our understanding of it. Everyone holds philosophy whether they recognize it or not—they either choose ideas consciously or they soak in a mishmash of contradictions from the culture. The way philosophy is communicated to the culture at large is through art (stories, movies, canvas, meme) — these things merely reflect the extent to which bad philosophy has already been inculcated in the minds of the artists, typically by education.
That, too, but I was thinking more about the ideas of good and evil, and not going to the forest alone at night. Basic morals from an early age, complete with the things like retribution and reward for good deeds. There are so many ways to interpret folk tales.
We do not live by bread and technology alone because our lives gain meaning and purpose from the morals, mythology and metaphysics of our non-material heritage. We absorb these animating principles from our contacts with parents, teachers, preachers and peers, also from religion, art, literature, science, business, sport and politics.
This non-material heritage contains a mixture of good and bad ideas, and a society that loses the capacity to subject these myths and traditions to imaginative criticism is likely to die. Constant efforts are required to eliminate error and muddled thinking because the risk is ever-present that the bad will drive out the good. The task of imaginative criticism falls to all thinking people, although it has been institutionalised with certain organisations such as the universities and with occupational groups such as academics, including philosophers.
This process of institutionalisation has almost proved fatal and it sometimes seems that the institutions and groups who have the most responsibility for the health and vigour of our thinking have in fact done much to mutilate and debilitate our heritage. This has been described as 'the treason of the intellectuals'. This process deserves further investigation in the hope that it can be reversed.
Treason of the intellectuals. I would say tyranny of pseudo-intellectuals who believe Human history started yesterday afternoon, and the only knowledge and truth is theirs.
Since our State education systems for 70 years have not taught children how to think, how to self-teach and in fact actively discouraged how to think, just what to think and know, out of this wilderness today’s intellectuals have crawled - with few equipped to challenge them.
There in lies a huge part of the problem. Indoctrination of kids by the left. It will direct our future. Unless they can't get their MTV (I.e., internet, iPhones, etc). Or, eventually, their food.
I have a fond memory of a literature teacher who asked the class what we thought about some work or other. Dead silence followed his question. We had not been asked that before.
Nearly all things "climate" are really a Trojan horse for the Malthusian Marxist Death Cult to enslave and then eliminate all we free thinkers. Non of this is by default, but all from design. Well done and great article.
I guess I should not be surprised that there are actually publishers willing to print this pablum, because these days publishers will pay millions to their favorite politician for a book deal on a book almost no one will read. Or is it all in an e-book format which can have almost no financial investment for publication costs?
This appears to be far below the level of science fiction. IPCC charts? Who has ever tried to read those reports; even finding the charts buried in a 3,949-page report takes some expertise. That's like reading Tolstoy's "War and Peace" three times over, and it might as well be in the original Russian. People with newborn babies don't have that kind of time.
We don't just not have the time, we don't have the mental capacity to think about anything other than the baby and immediate business to be taken care of. It's utterly ridiculous.
No idea about the publishing arrangements, many are probably self-pubs as is the case with other fiction.
I don't think we have to worry about the cli/fi bobbleheads injecting humor into their work (if you can call it that). They can't even generate one good meme. I've been looking for years, & have yet to find it. I think they must all have a mutation that doesn't allow for any type of humor. Let's call it the "Karen Mutation." Great post Irina! 🤘😎🤘
It was precisely the incessant nature of the message that first alerted me to its nature as a scam. It reminded me so much of how television advertising used to be, many many years ago whenn I still allowed a television in my home. the first rule of scamming is that the more often a message is repeated, in the more different ways and more different places, the more likely it is to be a scam. Anyone with any significant life experience should know this. It astounds me that its still going on after all the tricks and lies have been exposed, but there is some serious money being made with this fraud still, so it goes on.....
George Carlin was right - the Earth will be fine. We, however will be the cause of our own extinction if we can't pull our heads out and see that our "leaders" are idiot lemmings trying to get us to jump the cliff.
And to think I've spent 65 years believing that the CO2 from coal, oil and gas was absorbed by plants as food, then emitted as O2, when in reality, it actually never disappears. Embarrassed to admit I've been duped by the biology industrial complex all along :-(
Plant’s can’t live by CO2 alone, and the plants that can survive in a temperate zones can’t survive in arid zones and vice versa. I live in UK mid east side of England in an agricultural area, up to 7 years ago from mid October to late April we could expect frost, air frosts, I love those, and snow regularly up to 3 to 4 ft deep, it would stay for days sometimes weeks. Then 7 years ago they’ve virtually stopped, we rarely have frosts, air frost not at all, if snow comes it’s only inches deep and gone within 24 hrs. Farms around are have problem that the ground is too wet often fields flooded, they’ve ended up with a short planting and growing season, at harvest time they’re lucky to get cereal crops in dry so suffer mould, and requiring additional cost in corn drying, also crops no longer first class so it’s a double whammy, as less profit. “Climate Change” is a buzzword coined by climate denier industries, the correct name is (Anthropogenic) Climate Heating (AGH). It’s a fallacy to believe the number of humans alive now can slow or stabilise the Heating effect of CO2 in a child borne today’s lifetime, oh humans might say they’ll do something but they won’t, it just “Ain’t Gonna’ Happen”, so live with AGH’s effects or die from them🤔
Thanks for the link / chuckles, Irina. And perhaps those of us who enjoy reading fiction might (just might) stumble across characters who aren't afraid of whatever climate brings, who recognize humankind's abilities to adapt, invent, innovate (as with the Florida hospital which sustained absolutely no damage despite the last two major hurricanes https://www.morningbrew.com/daily/stories/can-aquafence-hold-up-to-hurricane-milton or - historically - the Netherlands which has somehow managed to survive, even thrive, despite being below sea level).
I gave up reading "Analog" (periodical of SF fiction) because it seemed to have gone woke after the new editor took over. I'd love to hear that I'm wrong and should go back to reading it.
They published two blatantly anti-nuclear pieces and I decided I didn't need the aggravation in my recreational reading.
This, when two editors back, Ben Bova used to regularly debunk or publish articles which debunked the anti-nuclear liars.
Good to know I'm not the only one frustrated with the current crop of editors / publishers, Jeff (although I prefer long form). Thank goodness for authors who self publish (although finding something worthwhile seems like mining for gold and coming up empty more times than not).
That said, I'm taking the opportunity to re-visit favourite authors such as Arthur C. Clark, Isaac Asimov, and the like. Here's hoping we get back to some semblance of normalcy sometime soon. Then too, you could always consider writing ...?
This is why I keep re-reading books I know are good. I can no longer even trust friend recommendations because we have different levels of tolerance for propaganda disguised as fiction.
Thanks for writing this. There was a lot we discussed and you made many great points in the interview that I didn't have space for in the article. Art reflects and influences, and you can view the health of a culture through its creative works. This topic is usually explored in academic circles, which are heavily indoctrinated. So, climate crisis narratives in art, literature and movies don't get much critical analysis.
Just last Sunday I complained to a good friend that I've noticed a change in the Wall Street Journal. I say that as a reader of that newspaper for 40+ years. It's not the opinion section. Rather I'm referencing regular articles, such as recent reporting on hurricanes. It's subtle, but it's there....
"This is why these things are happening, and you should be afraid." That's the message.
You are right, Doug. There had definitely been a change of tone with the news staff at the WSJ. More and more of the news articles state that climate change is a given, but not in the sense that the climate is always changing, but in the sense that it’s man made and to the detriment of all. I don’t understand why the news editors let it get by.
Looking for a positive point or two. Climate change always comes out at the lower end of polls on issues voters (in the US) care about. Even if we buy into this crap it will soon become clear there is nothing we can do about it. Life without fossil fuel isn’t sustainable and the west’s struggles are meaningless.
It’s difficult to comprehend that anyone would read those stilted, awkward, embarrassingly bad paragraphs you cited and think they were reading something of quality. I was watching a TV show, YOU, based on a very entertaining novel. The show was pretty good the first season or so but then in one episode the main female character began ranting and raving about selfish parents not vaccinating their children. It was as if the writers had walked on set, stopped the show and began lecturing the audience. Never watched another episode
It's because they haven't read better. You wouldn't be able to spot bad writing if you've never read good writing.
Funny story, we recently re-watched the Shrek series with my family. First two films: gold. Third one, meh. Number four: hooray for feminism, for some reason.
Whether it’s fictional story on climate, environmental or ecological activism I’m really surprised apart from the services of a proof reader anyone requires a human translator, I’d have thought AI Large Language Models (LLM’s) would do the job of translating in a fraction of the time, with a only human proof reader required on completion to ensure content is free of typographical, grammatical, spelling, punctuation, syntax, formatting, and other errors (like those I’ve probably made writing this comment). There’s also the added benefit of AI/LLM’s that given the brief out line of a story, number of characters and its objective, and words/pages length it will produce a story without having to labour for weeks writing every word. But whatever the story bias toward climate, environmental or ecological ends, burning a precious resource like FREE FINITE Flammable Fossils (FFFF’s) of Coal, Oil and Gas like there’s no tomorrow, and similarly applying it to FINITE Raw Materials, seems fool hardy when we should be using them sparingly and efficiently maybe even to the point of rationing them. For without FFFF’s its back to 17th a century agrarian lifestyle, as we have nothing that’s as energy dense and portable as FFFF’s in their raw state. And in that vain we should question how long before the good times come to an end, some would say we’re already well on in approaching that predicament, predicted within the next 30 to 60 years, but I’ll leave that to Prof. Tim Garrett to explain why:-
Prof. Tim Garrett: “I think one thing I find really quite amazing is just how fast the changes may come upon us, because our current GROWTH RATE, it may seem small, just 2.3% per year or thereabouts for our rate of energy consumption growth, but that translates to a DOUBLING in our consumption rate in just 30 years, now that's incredible because if you think that it took us 10,000 years to get to our current consumption rate and that we will DOUBLE this again in just 30 years, then we are thinking about a change in civilisation that in our very lifetimes will reproduce everything that has happened over centuries, Millennium, and that brings us to, I think, to a very basic question, how will this happen, can we sustain a DOUBLING of our daily energy consumption rate and all the raw materials that go along with it, do those raw materials exist, perhaps they do, perhaps we can figure out ways to extract sufficient resources from our environment to maintain a DOUBLING of our civilisation in the NEXT 30 YEARS, and then in the NEXT 30 YEARS BEYOND THAT, which would be FOUR TIMES AS LARGE…”
Short transcript extract from 4 minute YouTube video “Something Has Got To Give - Prof. Tim Garrett in Ecosophia - Collapse and Regeneration”🤔
Great article and comments!
Tammy is close to being right but she’s not down to the heart of it. It’s philosophy that drives us and puts us in our place in the world and shapes our understanding of it. Everyone holds philosophy whether they recognize it or not—they either choose ideas consciously or they soak in a mishmash of contradictions from the culture. The way philosophy is communicated to the culture at large is through art (stories, movies, canvas, meme) — these things merely reflect the extent to which bad philosophy has already been inculcated in the minds of the artists, typically by education.
That's a very good point. Philosophy and safety -- I'm thinking the folk tales of olden days. I suppose their heirs are today's memes.
Folk tales rooted in ignorance and superstition. I think you have it right there Irina.
That, too, but I was thinking more about the ideas of good and evil, and not going to the forest alone at night. Basic morals from an early age, complete with the things like retribution and reward for good deeds. There are so many ways to interpret folk tales.
You will probably appreciate the opening paras of my website.
http://www.the-rathouse.com/
We do not live by bread and technology alone because our lives gain meaning and purpose from the morals, mythology and metaphysics of our non-material heritage. We absorb these animating principles from our contacts with parents, teachers, preachers and peers, also from religion, art, literature, science, business, sport and politics.
This non-material heritage contains a mixture of good and bad ideas, and a society that loses the capacity to subject these myths and traditions to imaginative criticism is likely to die. Constant efforts are required to eliminate error and muddled thinking because the risk is ever-present that the bad will drive out the good. The task of imaginative criticism falls to all thinking people, although it has been institutionalised with certain organisations such as the universities and with occupational groups such as academics, including philosophers.
This process of institutionalisation has almost proved fatal and it sometimes seems that the institutions and groups who have the most responsibility for the health and vigour of our thinking have in fact done much to mutilate and debilitate our heritage. This has been described as 'the treason of the intellectuals'. This process deserves further investigation in the hope that it can be reversed.
Treason of the intellectuals. I would say tyranny of pseudo-intellectuals who believe Human history started yesterday afternoon, and the only knowledge and truth is theirs.
Since our State education systems for 70 years have not taught children how to think, how to self-teach and in fact actively discouraged how to think, just what to think and know, out of this wilderness today’s intellectuals have crawled - with few equipped to challenge them.
There in lies a huge part of the problem. Indoctrination of kids by the left. It will direct our future. Unless they can't get their MTV (I.e., internet, iPhones, etc). Or, eventually, their food.
It is kind of a self-correcting mechanism, although the self-correction takes a while.
I have a fond memory of a literature teacher who asked the class what we thought about some work or other. Dead silence followed his question. We had not been asked that before.
Nearly all things "climate" are really a Trojan horse for the Malthusian Marxist Death Cult to enslave and then eliminate all we free thinkers. Non of this is by default, but all from design. Well done and great article.
Thank you!
I guess I should not be surprised that there are actually publishers willing to print this pablum, because these days publishers will pay millions to their favorite politician for a book deal on a book almost no one will read. Or is it all in an e-book format which can have almost no financial investment for publication costs?
This appears to be far below the level of science fiction. IPCC charts? Who has ever tried to read those reports; even finding the charts buried in a 3,949-page report takes some expertise. That's like reading Tolstoy's "War and Peace" three times over, and it might as well be in the original Russian. People with newborn babies don't have that kind of time.
We don't just not have the time, we don't have the mental capacity to think about anything other than the baby and immediate business to be taken care of. It's utterly ridiculous.
No idea about the publishing arrangements, many are probably self-pubs as is the case with other fiction.
I don't think we have to worry about the cli/fi bobbleheads injecting humor into their work (if you can call it that). They can't even generate one good meme. I've been looking for years, & have yet to find it. I think they must all have a mutation that doesn't allow for any type of humor. Let's call it the "Karen Mutation." Great post Irina! 🤘😎🤘
Well, we do laugh at them, if not with them
We can hope!
Climagheddon is no laughing matter! 😊
It was precisely the incessant nature of the message that first alerted me to its nature as a scam. It reminded me so much of how television advertising used to be, many many years ago whenn I still allowed a television in my home. the first rule of scamming is that the more often a message is repeated, in the more different ways and more different places, the more likely it is to be a scam. Anyone with any significant life experience should know this. It astounds me that its still going on after all the tricks and lies have been exposed, but there is some serious money being made with this fraud still, so it goes on.....
Same with me, John. Ten years ago I believed we're emitting too much CO2 and it's distorting the weather. Things have changed since then.
George Carlin was right - the Earth will be fine. We, however will be the cause of our own extinction if we can't pull our heads out and see that our "leaders" are idiot lemmings trying to get us to jump the cliff.
George Carlin was right about a lot of things...
And to think I've spent 65 years believing that the CO2 from coal, oil and gas was absorbed by plants as food, then emitted as O2, when in reality, it actually never disappears. Embarrassed to admit I've been duped by the biology industrial complex all along :-(
Plant’s can’t live by CO2 alone, and the plants that can survive in a temperate zones can’t survive in arid zones and vice versa. I live in UK mid east side of England in an agricultural area, up to 7 years ago from mid October to late April we could expect frost, air frosts, I love those, and snow regularly up to 3 to 4 ft deep, it would stay for days sometimes weeks. Then 7 years ago they’ve virtually stopped, we rarely have frosts, air frost not at all, if snow comes it’s only inches deep and gone within 24 hrs. Farms around are have problem that the ground is too wet often fields flooded, they’ve ended up with a short planting and growing season, at harvest time they’re lucky to get cereal crops in dry so suffer mould, and requiring additional cost in corn drying, also crops no longer first class so it’s a double whammy, as less profit. “Climate Change” is a buzzword coined by climate denier industries, the correct name is (Anthropogenic) Climate Heating (AGH). It’s a fallacy to believe the number of humans alive now can slow or stabilise the Heating effect of CO2 in a child borne today’s lifetime, oh humans might say they’ll do something but they won’t, it just “Ain’t Gonna’ Happen”, so live with AGH’s effects or die from them🤔
The David "Are we the bad guys?" Mitchell clips were a rare treat, much appreciated Slav 😉 I have been an expat so long it is good to reconnect
Happy to hear it. He is one of the best.
Thank you Irina for your sacrifice of getting through what you could of this cli-fi drivel.
so true, I feel for you for actually reading any of that garbage
Well, I've had, shall we say, training. :D
Your gratitude is highly appreciated. :D
Thanks for the link / chuckles, Irina. And perhaps those of us who enjoy reading fiction might (just might) stumble across characters who aren't afraid of whatever climate brings, who recognize humankind's abilities to adapt, invent, innovate (as with the Florida hospital which sustained absolutely no damage despite the last two major hurricanes https://www.morningbrew.com/daily/stories/can-aquafence-hold-up-to-hurricane-milton or - historically - the Netherlands which has somehow managed to survive, even thrive, despite being below sea level).
I gave up reading "Analog" (periodical of SF fiction) because it seemed to have gone woke after the new editor took over. I'd love to hear that I'm wrong and should go back to reading it.
They published two blatantly anti-nuclear pieces and I decided I didn't need the aggravation in my recreational reading.
This, when two editors back, Ben Bova used to regularly debunk or publish articles which debunked the anti-nuclear liars.
Good to know I'm not the only one frustrated with the current crop of editors / publishers, Jeff (although I prefer long form). Thank goodness for authors who self publish (although finding something worthwhile seems like mining for gold and coming up empty more times than not).
That said, I'm taking the opportunity to re-visit favourite authors such as Arthur C. Clark, Isaac Asimov, and the like. Here's hoping we get back to some semblance of normalcy sometime soon. Then too, you could always consider writing ...?
This is why I keep re-reading books I know are good. I can no longer even trust friend recommendations because we have different levels of tolerance for propaganda disguised as fiction.
Exactly!
Thanks for writing this. There was a lot we discussed and you made many great points in the interview that I didn't have space for in the article. Art reflects and influences, and you can view the health of a culture through its creative works. This topic is usually explored in academic circles, which are heavily indoctrinated. So, climate crisis narratives in art, literature and movies don't get much critical analysis.
Thank you for the inspiration. It is an important topic that deserves a lot more attention than it is receiving.
Just last Sunday I complained to a good friend that I've noticed a change in the Wall Street Journal. I say that as a reader of that newspaper for 40+ years. It's not the opinion section. Rather I'm referencing regular articles, such as recent reporting on hurricanes. It's subtle, but it's there....
"This is why these things are happening, and you should be afraid." That's the message.
You are right, Doug. There had definitely been a change of tone with the news staff at the WSJ. More and more of the news articles state that climate change is a given, but not in the sense that the climate is always changing, but in the sense that it’s man made and to the detriment of all. I don’t understand why the news editors let it get by.
My opinion as well. Thanks
Yes, the WSJ has joined the choir.
Looking for a positive point or two. Climate change always comes out at the lower end of polls on issues voters (in the US) care about. Even if we buy into this crap it will soon become clear there is nothing we can do about it. Life without fossil fuel isn’t sustainable and the west’s struggles are meaningless.
It’s difficult to comprehend that anyone would read those stilted, awkward, embarrassingly bad paragraphs you cited and think they were reading something of quality. I was watching a TV show, YOU, based on a very entertaining novel. The show was pretty good the first season or so but then in one episode the main female character began ranting and raving about selfish parents not vaccinating their children. It was as if the writers had walked on set, stopped the show and began lecturing the audience. Never watched another episode
It's because they haven't read better. You wouldn't be able to spot bad writing if you've never read good writing.
Funny story, we recently re-watched the Shrek series with my family. First two films: gold. Third one, meh. Number four: hooray for feminism, for some reason.
Whether it’s fictional story on climate, environmental or ecological activism I’m really surprised apart from the services of a proof reader anyone requires a human translator, I’d have thought AI Large Language Models (LLM’s) would do the job of translating in a fraction of the time, with a only human proof reader required on completion to ensure content is free of typographical, grammatical, spelling, punctuation, syntax, formatting, and other errors (like those I’ve probably made writing this comment). There’s also the added benefit of AI/LLM’s that given the brief out line of a story, number of characters and its objective, and words/pages length it will produce a story without having to labour for weeks writing every word. But whatever the story bias toward climate, environmental or ecological ends, burning a precious resource like FREE FINITE Flammable Fossils (FFFF’s) of Coal, Oil and Gas like there’s no tomorrow, and similarly applying it to FINITE Raw Materials, seems fool hardy when we should be using them sparingly and efficiently maybe even to the point of rationing them. For without FFFF’s its back to 17th a century agrarian lifestyle, as we have nothing that’s as energy dense and portable as FFFF’s in their raw state. And in that vain we should question how long before the good times come to an end, some would say we’re already well on in approaching that predicament, predicted within the next 30 to 60 years, but I’ll leave that to Prof. Tim Garrett to explain why:-
Prof. Tim Garrett: “I think one thing I find really quite amazing is just how fast the changes may come upon us, because our current GROWTH RATE, it may seem small, just 2.3% per year or thereabouts for our rate of energy consumption growth, but that translates to a DOUBLING in our consumption rate in just 30 years, now that's incredible because if you think that it took us 10,000 years to get to our current consumption rate and that we will DOUBLE this again in just 30 years, then we are thinking about a change in civilisation that in our very lifetimes will reproduce everything that has happened over centuries, Millennium, and that brings us to, I think, to a very basic question, how will this happen, can we sustain a DOUBLING of our daily energy consumption rate and all the raw materials that go along with it, do those raw materials exist, perhaps they do, perhaps we can figure out ways to extract sufficient resources from our environment to maintain a DOUBLING of our civilisation in the NEXT 30 YEARS, and then in the NEXT 30 YEARS BEYOND THAT, which would be FOUR TIMES AS LARGE…”
Short transcript extract from 4 minute YouTube video “Something Has Got To Give - Prof. Tim Garrett in Ecosophia - Collapse and Regeneration”🤔