Fafocene Diaries #05: “Pragmatic” frogs and boiling slowly.

Sunday 21st June 2026. (What are the Fafocene Diaries? See here). 

Well,  France is getting it now, and we in the UK get it next week. Humans who are rich enough, lucky enough will have a bad time of it, even with their airconditioning.  Humans who aren’t rich, who are sick, young or old, they will suffer.  Many will die or suffer long-term consequences (heart attacks, strokes, domestic violence etc etc).

All the other species we “share” this planet with? Most of them will suffer. Most of them are fucked.  

All this was predictable and predicted.

All – well, at least some of this – was avoidable, or at least postponable.  We might, with energy efficiency, massive investment in renewables, a sustainer/conserver culture etc – have flattened the emissions curve a bit from the 1970s on.

But we didn’t.

And there are many many reasons for that. Systems have inertia (enacted inertia at that). Systems have obduracy.  At the time that the carbon dioxide warnings really got loud (late 1970s) the economic and social problems in the rich countries were piling up, thanks to the end of Keynesianism.  The ‘conservatives’ were too busy planning a second cold war – with possible nuclear showdown – in their effort (successful, ultimately) to spend the Soviet ‘war machine’ (such as it was) into the ground.

And among the reasons for that is ‘pragmatism’.  There are always hand-maidens who are determined to appear as ‘sensible’, ‘moderate’ – not like those crazy impractical un-appeasable lunatics who don’t understand the Grown Up policy is always to bend to the prevailing orthodoxy, to not displease our lords and masters.

Recently someone used the word “pragmatic” to refer to how we should look at the British State as it slides into authoritarianism

I replied thus

They came back with the usual can’t-actually-read/narcissistic pearl clutching 

And so to the kiss off

Because the frog boils slowly,

We need to look at the actions of the frogs in the boiling water.

Some are Squealers, hand-maidens and “pick-mes”.

They are by no means the biggest problem we face, but they are, nonetheless a problem.

My feelings today? Rage, despair, resignation, rage, despair, foreboding.  So, the usual.

Was this useful? If so, why? If not, why not?

What did you agree with? What did you disagree with?  What have I got right, and, more importantly, what have I got wrong, misconstrued, overlooked.

What should I be reading/watching?

What do you think of ‘Fafocene’ as a term? Does it work for you? What does it miss, beyond the fact that not everyone Fucked Around the same amount?

What other topics would you like the Fafocene Diaries to cover?