The transition as modern art

When I first saw “My Bed”, years ago, I was initially baffled. Taught from a young age like millions of others to always think about What The Author Meant, I spent a few minutes thinking about what the author meant. I quit because there was no way to glean that.

The years that followed that experience convinced me that modern art is not my thing. Time also nurtured a suspicion that it is not a lot of people’s thing, which does not, however, mean a lot of people do not pretend to appreciate unmade beds and pieces of gold suspended in liquid just because their authors call them art and art specialists agree.

Recently, I’ve come to view the transition push much the same way I view modern art. To me, that sort of activity is not art. The transition is not a transition, either. It’s a struggle to make something that doesn’t make sense, make some. Pretty much like modern art.

Take this recent observation from the Wall Street Journal: Companies Stall Climate Action Despite Earlier Promises. Well, nobody could have seen that coming, could they? Nobody at all could foresee that making a promise is easier than sticking to this promise, especially when said promise has no foundation in reality.

Apparently, per that story, a lot of companies outdid themselves on the promising and then ran into trouble trying to live up to it. Why? Well, because of “higher costs, slow advances in technology and political pressure.”

Imagine political pressure against emission reduction. Or rather, knowing the governments in question, it’s probably pressure to combine business as usual with net zero — an endeavour doomed from the start.

To us here, the above comes as no surprise at all. Yet it is presented as news, which means it would be a surprise for some people. Why might that be? Well, it would be for the same reason that a pair of glasses on the floor of a gallery becomes a work of art for the art aficionado passing by, and when I say aficionado I actually mean someone who really, really wants to pass for knowledgeable about art. Because it’s all the rage.

Unfortunately for all of us, while art snobs are harmless, the admirers of the transition in government literally hold the strings of the national purse and can make life harder or easier for us at will. The French government recently did the former when it said it would ask fuel retailers to sell petrol and diesel at cost.

"There is something we can work on, is to avoid that there are abusive margins done on refining," President Macron said this weekend. Apparently, any margin is currently “abusive” from where Macron stands, so the French government is banning profits. Temporarily.

If you think that’s bad, you should hear about the original idea. That was to force fuel retailers to sell below cost. Because that’s how bad things are with fuel prices in France, where a litre of petrol cost close to 1.95 euro and was among the highest on the continent as of last week.

Also, that’s how badly Macron wants to avoid a repeat of the Yellow Vests. He wants to avoid it so much that he might end up with that repeat. Because he’s refused to lift fuel taxes, even temporarily.

Because, and I will quote Bloomberg lest you suspect me of biased interpretation, “the government cannot afford to cut taxes on diesel and gasoline if it is to continue financing the green transition and the welfare state.”