Post Copenhagen thoughts
12/31/09
Post Copenhagen thoughts
For many global warming skeptics the recent unraveling of Copenhagen's best laid plans might hold some promise that public media may be rethinking the need to finally grant them a greater modicum of attention and credibility.
There is no question in my mind that the subject of climate change certainly needs serious scrutiny by the media in general and it should be done by people well qualified to explain the fact that there is no catastrophic warming in evidence that would warrant exorbitant efforts and money to mitigate and achieve---nothing.!! It must be obvious to a lot of people in our modern Western world, so often so preoccupied with ideological issues of perceived greater importance, such as, for instance, environmentalism and its global warming offshoot or the injustices of having rich people as long as there are so many poor. We know that impending catastrophes sell more newspapers and TV time than an explanation to the public that the science of global warming is not yet settled.
But to me there is a much more important message to the Western world as a result of Copenhagen. It is a message that reminds us of what we are, namely-"corruptible human beings"! It is a message also that says that the social fabric of our Western society has been put at increasing risk ever since we decided to ignore, more and more, our appreciation for and adherence to the basic moral tenets of our Christian beliefs and political convictions.
It may well be, at least in my opinion, that the slowly dawning realization of an all powerful USA post-WW II had an intoxicating yet destructive impact on our social structures. At that point in time we could do anything! But what happened?
The fairly formal and certainly civilized mores of the day, 60 years ago, slowly gave way to the experimentations with women's lib, 2-breadwinner families, pre-schooling of little kids in order to create more work time for parents resulting, among other things, in more rapid maturing of children, a loss of good manners, a rise in self centered conduct together with "guilt-complex" pay-offs to children by parents for leaving them to fend for themselves for longer hours.
And this is saying nothing about increasing stresses and strains within families, broken families, one-parent families, "do-your-own-thing" feminism families and all the miseries this has caused the country since. Schools were never equipped to parent children, but many parents expect them to do so nevertheless, which is just an excuse by parents to blame someone else.
And blaming someone else has become the country's common coin in social behavior. When you cause an accident, try to blame the other party and on and on.
What's worse, reduced parental time with growing children is sensed by them intuitively as being robbed of something they need and which belongs to them. So we shouldn't be surprised that cheating, in school, on the sports fields, in business and in politics and now in science as well, has hit us big time.
I am afraid that, rather than seeing the issue of the cheating scientists, as an isolated affair, it really is part and parcel of our overall deteriorated western cultural condition. Looking at it that way, it doesn't take a genius to realize that political and social leadership needs to make itself heard loudly to remind everyone that such conduct will no longer be condoned anywhere in our society and will be punished severely. At the same time, the Damoclean sword of tort law should be sheathed in order to return to the simple, common sense concept that everybody re-takes responsibility for his or her personal actions.
The basic lessons here are that our complex technological Western world is unlikely to survive very long, neither economically nor politically without on the one hand, a dedicated top level scientific establishment that lives by the old honor code and on the other is guided by a dedicated political establishment that believes in the oaths of office it commits to for the execution of its myriad duties and responsibilities on behalf of all of us.
Although others may already have uttered similar thoughts I have not seen any other expressions along the same lines as the above, neither in the press nor in any of my other news and information inputs. But I believe it needs to be said.
Post Copenhagen thoughts
For many global warming skeptics the recent unraveling of Copenhagen's best laid plans might hold some promise that public media may be rethinking the need to finally grant them a greater modicum of attention and credibility.
There is no question in my mind that the subject of climate change certainly needs serious scrutiny by the media in general and it should be done by people well qualified to explain the fact that there is no catastrophic warming in evidence that would warrant exorbitant efforts and money to mitigate and achieve---nothing.!! It must be obvious to a lot of people in our modern Western world, so often so preoccupied with ideological issues of perceived greater importance, such as, for instance, environmentalism and its global warming offshoot or the injustices of having rich people as long as there are so many poor. We know that impending catastrophes sell more newspapers and TV time than an explanation to the public that the science of global warming is not yet settled.
But to me there is a much more important message to the Western world as a result of Copenhagen. It is a message that reminds us of what we are, namely-"corruptible human beings"! It is a message also that says that the social fabric of our Western society has been put at increasing risk ever since we decided to ignore, more and more, our appreciation for and adherence to the basic moral tenets of our Christian beliefs and political convictions.
It may well be, at least in my opinion, that the slowly dawning realization of an all powerful USA post-WW II had an intoxicating yet destructive impact on our social structures. At that point in time we could do anything! But what happened?
The fairly formal and certainly civilized mores of the day, 60 years ago, slowly gave way to the experimentations with women's lib, 2-breadwinner families, pre-schooling of little kids in order to create more work time for parents resulting, among other things, in more rapid maturing of children, a loss of good manners, a rise in self centered conduct together with "guilt-complex" pay-offs to children by parents for leaving them to fend for themselves for longer hours.
And this is saying nothing about increasing stresses and strains within families, broken families, one-parent families, "do-your-own-thing" feminism families and all the miseries this has caused the country since. Schools were never equipped to parent children, but many parents expect them to do so nevertheless, which is just an excuse by parents to blame someone else.
And blaming someone else has become the country's common coin in social behavior. When you cause an accident, try to blame the other party and on and on.
What's worse, reduced parental time with growing children is sensed by them intuitively as being robbed of something they need and which belongs to them. So we shouldn't be surprised that cheating, in school, on the sports fields, in business and in politics and now in science as well, has hit us big time.
I am afraid that, rather than seeing the issue of the cheating scientists, as an isolated affair, it really is part and parcel of our overall deteriorated western cultural condition. Looking at it that way, it doesn't take a genius to realize that political and social leadership needs to make itself heard loudly to remind everyone that such conduct will no longer be condoned anywhere in our society and will be punished severely. At the same time, the Damoclean sword of tort law should be sheathed in order to return to the simple, common sense concept that everybody re-takes responsibility for his or her personal actions.
The basic lessons here are that our complex technological Western world is unlikely to survive very long, neither economically nor politically without on the one hand, a dedicated top level scientific establishment that lives by the old honor code and on the other is guided by a dedicated political establishment that believes in the oaths of office it commits to for the execution of its myriad duties and responsibilities on behalf of all of us.
Although others may already have uttered similar thoughts I have not seen any other expressions along the same lines as the above, neither in the press nor in any of my other news and information inputs. But I believe it needs to be said.
posted by Schaesberg at 8:24 AM
