Why COP26 will Inevitably be Crap
People in positions of power are much more interested in being the source of persuasion rather than providers of quality information.
You may be aware that most journalists do likewise.
The most important truths are rarely reported as news. They are rarely mentioned in the mass media, or even social media, at all.
But even essential history goes unnoticed, as does essential science.
Instead, there are silly slogans, like #TogetherForOurPlanet.
Most people in positions of considerable power and influence are not only crap but cruel. They have many tools of persuasion to use and abuse at will, and they use them for ill, even during a still deadly, ongoing pandemic and a really crappy climate crisis.
Nothing has been done to wash off the crap smothering stupid minds through News Crap and other crazy sources of misinformation, disinformation and delusion.
The powers behind assorted thrones and smartphones continue to use their puppets to spout falsehoods and fiddle with the facts.
The real estate market is mistaken for real communities.
Images of holiday destinations are mistaken for the real world.
Images of extravagant dining are mistaken for sustainable agriculture.
Expensively promoted events are mistaken for important activities.
Individuals frequently observed through the mass media are mistaken for real leaders.
But what are real investments and real communities?
Where is the real world?
Sustainable agriculture is obviously an important activity, but what is it, and how are you investing in it?
What is unsustainable agriculture and how much of it do you consume each week?
What do you know about agricultural revolutions and the problems associated with them?
What do you know about industrial revolutions more generally and the problems they continue to cause?
What do you know about political revolutions and their causes and consequences?
Climate is an energy equation. It is a quantitative phenomenon. It can be mathematically measured, with the right tools.
Most journalists are not interested in truth. They have been trained to create sensationalist headlines and clickbait.
Most politicians are not interested in truth. They have been trained to hide hideous facts under a blanket of propaganda. They ignore radiative forcing while simultaneously allowing greedy interests to profit from military force and destruction.
Most members of the Revolutionary Climatological Needlepoint Committee have been at the forefront of the climate revolution since at least 1789. They are aware that mechanised textile production took off industrially in Britain at around that time, with the spinning jenny and spinning mule.
Perhaps you equate machinery with greater productivity and lower prices for end products.
But machinery has never released the poor from the struggle for survival. It has consumed them and often killed them, directly or indirectly.
What is an end product?
Is it a rubbish tip?
Being appropriately aware of history, including prehistory, is necessary.
Being appropriately aware of the present and future is also necessary.
You may associate the Industrial Revolution with John Wilkinson and/or Robert Owen.
What is your acquaintance with coke as a fuel?
What do you know about co-operatives and co-operativeness?
What do you know about Original Stories from Real Life; with Conversations Calculated to Regulate the Affections, and Form the Mind to Truth and Goodness, and the usefulness of such stories at climate conferences?
What do you know about Thoughts on the education of daughters: with reflections on female conduct, in the more important duties of life, and how to participate wisely in the climate revolution?
What is your acquaintance with proto-feminism and proto-industrialisation?
What is your acquaintance with the Revolution Controversy?
What do you know about noble lies and pious fictions?
What do you know about the etymology of the word crap and its original association with agriculture?
What do you usually do with husks?
What do you usually do with chaff?
What is your acquaintance with spin doctors?
What is your acquaintance with Trickery Today?
What is your acquaintance with public interest journalism and necessary ethics?
What do you know about well-informed investing?
Who are the real world leaders?
What is your commitment to urgent global climate action?
The Revolutionary Climatological Needlepoint Committee is currently designing a sampler of its members' actual, factual sentiments.
If so, perhaps it has something in common with the Enquiry Concerning Political Justice and its Influence on Morals and Happiness and/or Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus.
It may even have something in common with the Declaration of Sentiments.
It may possibly also have something in common with Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark.
It is unlikely to have much in common with Memoirs of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman unless in the form of misery literature.
Anthropogenic climate change is a monster. It has been created by the modern Prometheus with horrifying consequences.
How do you compare science fiction with science fact, and for what purpose?
How do you compare fictional horror with factual horror, and for what purpose?
Most news reporting about governments has always been crap.
Most responses of powerful organisations to the needs of societies have been crap.
Any non-crap governments, non-crap news reports and non-crap organisational responses to the problems facing the world have been of minor importance.
These are the facts. They must be acknowledged. They must be acted upon wisely.
Although self-education is important, as are personal attempts to live with intelligent frugality, the sublime of nature must be respected for the power it retains and will always retain.
The ethical grasps moral reasoning.
The epistemological grasps knowledge.
But what grasps political power other than ambition?
What clings to power other than tradition?
What do the words grasp and cling mean to you in various contexts?
How do you attempt to grasp facts and acknowledge their importance?
How do you attempt to cling to reality and respond to it wisely?
Perhaps you are aware that ignorance and arrogance are shitting on your future.
How are you attempting to shift the world away from ignorance and arrogance and towards the truth?
And once you have done so, what are you intending to do to harness that movement for the greater good?
If you already know the truth, and know what do to with it, you are a real world leader.
How do you compare Victor Frankenstein with Pygmalion?
What do you know about the dangers associated with the digital sublime?
What do you know about the dangers associate with ivory towers?
The Revolutionary Climatological Needlepoint Committee has been preparing for COP26, and beyond it, very well indeed, as you may have noticed.
What do you know about the predatory abuses and non-predatory uses of sentiment analysis and public opinion?
How do you compare Frankenstein's monster with Galatea and Pinocchio and survey data?
How do you compare theories of advanced capitalism with Indigenous mythologies?
The Spirit of Enlightenment has always devoted proper attention to improving the world. She has done so especially carefully on Friday afternoons for many centuries now.
Yet only enlightened beings have taken adequate notice. The ignorant and the arrogant continue to avoid her services, and her warnings.
How do you know you are preparing properly?
How do you know you are caring properly?
How do you know you are holding powerful people properly to account?
How do you know you are assessing facts properly?
How do you know you are preparing for the long-term future appropriately, not only for yourself but for future generations?
How do you know you are contributing appropriately towards a civilised atmosphere?
Crap politicians continue to treat the public like shit.
How do you assess risks?
What do you know about conservation biology?
How do you prefer to conduct a population viability analysis, and for which species, and where?
Experiences of art and entertainment do not improve political situations, either.
When the "international community" is incapable of distinguishing between legitimate government authorities and an assortment of usurpers, upstarts, dictators and domineering cliques, who is capable of doing so?
How do you tell the difference between a successful society and a failed state?
All members of the Revolutionary Climatological Needlepoint Committee currently regard themselves as non-state actors, unless they happen to be associated with ethereal states of one sort or another.
How do you attempt to invest in the world, and for whose benefit?
When sovereign states do not meet their treaty-based international obligations, they are fragile.
Perhaps you have attempted to imagine a sublime state and communicate it to a suitable audience.
Any political crisis is a societal problem.
A personal or group crisis may or may not require social and/or political intervention.
An environmental crisis requires well-informed interventions.
Indeed, all interventions, in any type of crisis, should be well-informed and appropriately compassionate.
How have you attempted to address an ecological crisis recently?
How have you attempted to address a societal crisis recently?
How do you identify and interpret the ongoing relevance of ancient plays?
How do you interpret the influence of ancient works on early 19th century poetry and mid 19th century painting?
What do you regard as ordinary experiences?
Perhaps you regard a financial crisis as something ordinary.
Perhaps you regard a public health crisis as something ordinary.
You may regard your work as ordinary.
You may regard your political views as ordinary.
You may even regard your leisure activities and home life as ordinary.
Perhaps you regard Eliza Doolittle as ordinary.
Perhaps you believe a mythological comedy is ordinary.
Perhaps you believe your biases are ordinary.
Perhaps you believe the redistribution of income and wealth is ordinary.
Perhaps you regard a famous play as ordinary.
But what is happiness in relation to politics, economics and the environment?
What do you know about political risk and economic collapse?
What do you know about societal collapse?
You may not think much about the future if you are too worried to think about it and would rather distract your mind from worrying.
You may be happier simply living for the present moment without much thought for the future.
You may be an ordinary politician with an ordinary attitude to your place in history.
You may not think much of historical samplers.
You may not think much of future samplers and other examples, which is why COP26 will inevitably be crap.
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