Some people like to make it all very VERY complicated (whether they know that is what they are doing or not). And you can do that. You can make climate change and what we are supposed to do about it so fantastically complicated that you scare off most potential allies and actors. You can make... Continue Reading →
Pronoun trouble and the end of the world
"We" need to do x. "We" need to do y. "We" need to do z, bell the cat, save the world. Who is this "we" you speak of, white man? That's my problem. Any time I hear a sentence with the word "we" in it about how "we" just need to get the right technology-support... Continue Reading →
We should give our age in ppm. No, hear me out. (I’m 97ppm, btw.)
One thing people don't get about climate change is just how quickly the blanket of C02 is thickening because of our emissions. Sure, there's that Al Gore on his elevator stunt in the film "An Inconvenient Truth." And there's this that shows we are thickening the blanket more and more quickly (because we are burning... Continue Reading →
Cognitive and Affective Reasons for ‘Deficit of Information’ “Activist” Crap – or “The scraped knee theory of #climate doom”
"CARDIAC" - geddit? Not my most forced backronym ever, but close. So, why do we get stuck in describing problems - like, I dunno, the imminent collapse of the ecosystems that make human civilisation possible, to choose an example entirely at random - endlessly, rather talking about the solutions? Blah blah, yes, belling the cat.... Continue Reading →
“Besides that, how did you enjoy the play, Mrs Lincoln?” – and so it is for climate change: MRDA becomes MLA
President Lincoln was assassinated in early 1865, while watching a play. His wife was with him at the time. It led to the macabre joke in the title above, which "means" roughly "yes, let's pretend not to talk about the horrific things that we both know have happened, and let's make idle chitchat." Or that's... Continue Reading →
“Isn’t it entropic, I really do think” – or “How Groups Zombify, and what, in theory, was to be done…” #HowGroupsZombify
If you are Really Damn Old you may recognise the song lyric reference in the first half of the title. "Whatever," as the young people used to say. "How Groups Zombify" - HGZ, as we will call it, (but which could also stand for Hypocrites Going Zealous?) is a key question. For me, anyway. Not... Continue Reading →
Martin Luther King – “Perhaps we shall not overcome after all.” (#satire)
"Our Dumb Century" by the folks at The Onion is a staggering satirical achievement. Lots more to say, but this fits my current mood (see the Cher, incentive structures and our inevitable doom post etc)
Neologism of the decade: nihiliberalism
(or should that be nihilogism of the decade?) There's this and this bit of an interview with the late Mark Fisher. "Now we are faced with nihiliberalism rather than neoliberalism. The phrases justifying neoliberalism are mechanistically repeated, but there’s no real conviction in it anymore." Hat-tip to @Dant_Lane for bringing this to my attention. Basically,... Continue Reading →
Did you exchange a walk on part in the war…
for the lead role in a cage. Yeah. Probably I did. Didn't you? Didn't we all? Or most of us at least. Somewhere between the Scylla of egomania/unfettered narcissism and the Charybdis of slave morality/abnegation for its own sake, lies... what exactly? Strutting and fretting our hour upon the burning platform, as we see our... Continue Reading →
Cher, incentive structures and our inevitable doom
Cher is on the CD in the lovely Arcadian café I am sitting in. “Do you believe?”, she is asking me https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZXRV4MezEw And then she sings the magic words “I really don’t think you’re strong enough.” Too right, Ms Cher. Strength is the issue. Last night I had a zoom call with an academic who... Continue Reading →
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