Monbiot Considers The Problem With Freedom

As I've lamented before, my passion for writing about these issues is at the bottom of my real life duties and expectations priority list.  The spring-time jobs are coming in fast an' furious, three posts laying there waiting for some free time.  I did notice an interesting read worth sharing while I'm out on assignment.  Once again George Monbiot nails it.
___________________________________________________________

The Problem With Freedom Posted: 07 Apr 2017 01:05 AM PDT Freedom is used as the excuse for ripping down public protections on behalf of the very rich. By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 5th April 2017 http://www.monbiot.com/2017/04/07/the-problem-with-freedom/ Propaganda works by sanctifying a single value, such as faith, or patriotism. Anyone who questions it puts themselves outside the circle of respectable opinion. The sacred value is used to obscure the intentions of those who champion it. Today the value is freedom. Freedom is a word that powerful people use to shut down thought. When thinktanks and the billionaire press call for freedom, they are careful not to specify whose freedoms they mean. Freedom for some, they suggest, means freedom for all. In certain cases, this is true. You can exercise freedom of thought and expression, for example, without harming other people. In other cases, one person’s freedom is another’s captivity. When corporations free themselves from trade unions, they curtail the freedoms of their workers. When the very rich free themselves from tax, other people suffer through failing public services. When financiers are free to design exotic financial instruments, the rest of us pay for the crises they cause. Above all, billionaires and the organisations they run demand freedom from something they call “red tape”. What they mean by red tape is public protection. An article in the Telegraph last week was headlined “Cut the EU red tape choking Britain after Brexit to set the country free from the shackles of Brussels”. Yes, we are choking, but not on red tape. We are choking because the government flouts European rules on air quality. The resulting air pollution frees thousands of souls from their bodies. Ripping down such public protections means freedom for billionaires and corporations from the constraints of democracy. This is what Brexit – and Trump – are all about. The freedom we were promised is the freedom of the very rich to exploit us.

Profiles in Lucidity - George Monbiot

Lucidity is defined as  A) The quality of being easily understood; completely intelligible; comprehensible, B) The ability to see things clearly; rationality; sanity.  George Monbiot fits the bill on all counts.  

I bring it up since for me most news accounts I read or hear these days are painful because of reporter’s superficial, heck downright childish perspectives and gapping blindspots.  Not to mention the general normalizing and humoring of Serial Lies as a way of conducting business.  They have nothing to offer but filler and leave one as clueless as when we began their stories.  

On the other hand, when it comes to recognizing and explicating down to Earth physical and human realities and their impact on humanity and our society George Monbiot has a brutally cold realism that I find refreshing.  Plus his stories are packed with links to his original sources enabling all readers to further familiarize themselves, rather than expecting us to simply take his word for it.  He wants to inform and encourage readers to learn more on their own. 

It seems he believes in the Constructive Debate were better understanding of all sides and were arriving at the most objective complete understanding is the goal.  Rather than those petty Republican dogma driven dog-chasing-tail debates were never arriving at any actionable conclusions is the goal of the exercise.

Tragically too few these days represent that sort of sober approach to living and dealing with problems and a threatening future that promises to get ever tougher with continuing human failures.  I've been thinking about it since I'm working on yet another Monbiot bootleg (thought I continue endeavoring to get through to him and arrange some sort of official sanction - and have succeeded, see the comments) and I was trying to think of a solid way to show my appreciation.  Thus, this index with links to Monbiot’s blog posts going back to September 2015 after that I have a link to Alternate's complete index.  

I start with a few of his recent UK’s Guardian Op-eds which should be required reading for anyone intending to oppose and moderate Trump Administration damage to our American government.  Oh, and I encourage you to copy this and pass it around.  I would think there are many who would benefit from becoming familiar with Monbiot's work.

Frightened by Donald Trump? You don’t know the half of it.

George Monbiot | November 30, 2016

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/nov/30/donald-trump-george-monbiot-misinformation

Many of his staffers are from an opaque corporate misinformation network. We must understand this if we are to have any hope of fighting back against them

Reality Check - George Monbiot - Drums of War

I'm a tradesman, a carpenter, evolved into a handyman during these "semi" retired years, which turn out to be way more crowded with commitments and distractions than expected.  My plan had been becoming a semi-recluse devoted to reading, ruminating on my experiences, on the world and trying to write about it.  But as John said: Life is what happens while you're busy making plans.  No complaints, there's a beauty to being needed (and loved) and being able to make a difference, even if writing potential and output suffers.  Still, there are things I feel a need to enunciate that I simply can't get the time required to do them any justice.  Then I read something like this piece from Monbiot and it's bingo - finally something real and potentially useful understanding.

All this is by way of explaining to George Monbiot and Guardian editors, why I've taken the liberty of bootlegging and Reposting yet another full text of an article of his.  Monbiot studies these issues full time and does an excellent job of describing his objective understanding.  He's sharing information that's no longer optional.  It's become required background understanding.  Many more people need to wake up and get up to speed on what has just happened; why it happened; what it means for us, the USA and the world and what you can do to help minimize the coming destruction of decades, heck a century's, worth of progress and awareness.  

These are now extraordinary times !
  

Every single wasted day and 
every unaroused US citizen 
will cost our nation and the world dearly !  

A STITCH IN TIME ~ SAVES NINE !  

Wake up America, this is not a drill ! 
We are under attack by the oligarchs !

Keep in mind the most fundamental observation of this past election is that "The Lie" has become accepted political currency.  Normalized as part of modern living. United States of America is no longer a government with a President, it is now a business with a CEO in charge of marketing and PR.  And people seem okay with that.  Are you? 

For the record, jettisoning honesty is an utterly insane strategy for left, right, rational and faith-based and most of all, for future generations!  Yet, this fundamental far-reaching lack of honesty is largely ignored, an example of destructive seepage if there ever was one.  

The following article by George Monbiot offers a basic, yet detailed overview of the reality that our politicians and our media and our business leaders are doing their utmost to ignore.  If you are concerned, this will offer you valuable background.  Information can be power.  

Thank you Mr. Monbiot for being such an astute observer.
_______________________________________________________________

The Drums of War By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 23rd November 2016 The combination of automation, complexity and climate change is dangerous in ways we haven’t even begun to grasp. Wave the magic wand and the problem goes away. Those pesky pollution laws, carbon caps and clean power plans: swish them away and the golden age of blue-collar employment will return.  This is Donald Trump’s promise, in his video message on Monday, in which he claimed that unleashing coal and fracking will create “many millions of high-paid jobs”. He will tear down everything to make it come true. But it won’t come true. Even if we ripped the world to pieces in the search for full employment, leaving no mountain unturned, we would not find it. Instead, we would merely jeopardise the prosperity – and the lives – of people everywhere. However slavishly governments grovel to corporate Luddism, they will not bring the smog economy back. No one can deny the problem Trump claims to be addressing. The old mining and industrial areas are in crisis throughout the rich world. And we have seen nothing yet. I have just re-read the study published by the Oxford Martin School in 2013 on the impacts of computerisation. What jumps out today,

Monbiot Examines Neoliberalism History and Trump's Rise

I realize I'm doing a little bootlegging here, but we've just elected a pathological liar, a tax cheat, a freeloader, a defrauder of employees, and way too many gullible Americans are looking to this con-artist showman expecting he's going to be their savior and turn back time and tide for them.  Thus, I'm hoping George will forgive and approve, likewise for the Guardian.   

( https://contribute.theguardian.com/us )

It would make for a ludicrous movie, but pissed off Americans, an impotent out of touch Democratic Party, along with an apathetic public who's forgotten that a healthy democracy demands an informed and engaged public - have made sure that our future will be witnessing our government get battered and who knows how badly dismantled before the Alt-Right is through steamrollering our traditional values.  The Kochs and other oligarchs will see great returns on their diligent investment in the hysterical Alt-Right PR fabrication machine which has been dedicated to dumbing down, race baiting, fear mongering and enraging our public.  While everyone is busy with those contrived distractions we continue allowing our environment, that we depend on for everything that nurtures our lives, to continue being damaged and destroyed at an ever increasing pace. The tragedy is beyond words.  Let George Monbiot give you a lesson in how we got here.

The Deep History Behind Trump’s Rise

By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 14^th November 2016

How a ruthless network of super-rich ideologues killed choice and destroyed people’s faith in politics

The events that led to Donald Trump’s election started in England in 1975. At a meeting a few months after Margaret Thatcher became leader of the Conservative party, one of her colleagues, or so the story goes, was explaining what he saw as the core beliefs of conservatism. She snapped open her handbag, pulled out a dog-eared book, and slammed it on the table. “This is what we believe,” she said. A political revolution that would sweep the world had begun.

The book was The Constitution of Liberty by Frederick Hayek. Its publication in 1960 marked the transition from an honest, if extreme, philosophy to an outright racket. The philosophy was called neoliberalism. It saw competition as the defining characteristic of human relations. The market would discover a natural hierarchy of winners and losers, creating a more efficient system than could ever be devised through planning or design. 

Anything that impeded this process, such as significant tax, regulation, trade union activity or state provision, was counter-productive. Unrestricted entrepreneurs would create the wealth that would trickle down to everyone.

This, at any rate, is how it was originally conceived. But by the time Hayek came to write The Constitution of Liberty, the network of lobbyists and thinkers he had founded was being lavishly funded by multimillionaires, who saw the doctrine as a means of defending themselves against democracy. Not every aspect of the neoliberal programme advanced their interests. Hayek, it seems, set out to close the gap.

Examining roots of our collective failure. George Monbiot

Finally, someone telling it like it is.  George Monbiot wrote an article that ought to appear on every single politician, business person and especially every limp journalist's plate tomorrow morning.  

Monbiot's article is copyrighted by the Guardian.  Thanks to their generous open license policy I have selected 486 words worth of quotes that I hope will make an impression, or at least interest you enough to read his full article.

The climate crisis is already here - but no one’s telling us.

by George Monbiot | August 3, 2016 | The Guardian

What is salient is not important. What is important is not salient. The media turns us away from the issues that will determine the course of our lives, and towards topics of brain-melting irrelevance.

This, on current trends, will be the hottest year ever measured. The previous record was set in 2015; the one before in 2014. Fifteen of the 16 warmest years have occurred in the 21st century. Each of the past 14 months has beaten the global monthly temperature record. But you can still hear people repeating the old claim, first proposed by fossil fuel lobbyists, that global warming stopped in 1998. … 

Explaining Why AGW Is No Religion

My pal left with one final pot-shot to the effect: "Yes it is a religion. so there!"

Imagine my surprise this morning when I saw that Dr. Joseph Romm has recently written a book, that from the reviews, does an admirable job of explaining the scientific basis for our Anthropogenic Global Warming understanding in a clear question and answer format.

So for those who think AGW is a religion, you now have yet another opportunity to learn about the details of why AGW is a physical fact supported by much (… mega) research and observational evidence.

But then you'd first need to extract yourselves from your own faith-based bubble of perception and be open to taking advantage of objective learning opportunities.  Can you do it?

___________________________________________________________________

Book review: Climate Change, What Everyone Needs to Know

Posted on 17 November 2015 by John Abraham

http://www.skepticalscience.com/romm-book-review.html

A new book makes the case that those who understand the basics of climate change and clean energy will be the “smart money” in the coming years. Those who don’t, however, will make bad decisions for themselves and their family. They might, for instance, end up holding coastal property after prices have begun to crash due to due the growing twin threats of sea level rise and storm surge.

In short, climate change isn’t just something every educated person ought to know about because it will impact future generations or because everyone will be talking about it during the upcoming Paris climate talks. It is something everyone needs to know about now because “Climate change will have a bigger impact on your family and friends and all of humanity than the Internet has had.”

Recurrent Fury: Conspiratorial Discourse in the Blogosphere

Looks like a SkepticalScience.com double-header considering the noteworthy Guardian.com article by Dana Nuccitelli that SkS shared this morning.  The reason is that I know all too well that implying a grand conspiracy, denigrating scientists and the reactionary dismissal of the significance of a "97% consensus" among actual experts regarding the causes and dangers of society's relentless injection of atmospheric insulation (read greenhouse gases) are about all we can get out of climate science contrarians these days, so I thought this was a must article to add to this collection.

It's about a new study:  "Recurrent Fury: Conspiratorial Discourse in the Blogosphere Triggered by Research on the Role of Conspiracist Ideation in Climate Denial"

By Stephan Lewandowsky, John Cook, Klaus Oberauer, Scott Brophy, Elisabeth A. Lloyd, Michael Marriott

__________________________________________________

Climate denial linked to conspiratorial thinking in new study

Posted on 8 July 2015 by dana1981

http://www.skepticalscience.com/climate-denial-linked-to-conspiratorial-thinking-recurrent-fury.html

A new study has examined the comments on climate science-denying blogs and found strong evidence of widespread conspiratorial thinking. The study looks at the comments made in response to a previous paper linking science denial and conspiracy theories.

Motivated rejection of science

Three years ago, social scientists Lewandowsky, Oberauer, and Gignac published a paper in the journal Psychological Science titled NASA Faked the Moon Landing—Therefore, (Climate) Science Is a Hoax: An Anatomy of the Motivated Rejection of Science. 

The paper detailed the evidence the scientists found that, using survey data provided by visitors to climate blogs, those exhibiting conspiratorial thinking are more likely to be skeptical of scientists’ conclusions about vaccinations, genetically modified foods, and climate change. This result was replicated in a follow-up study using a representative U.S. sample that obtained the same resultlinking conspiratorial thinking to climate denial.

Of course science denial and conspiracies go hand in hand

This shouldn’t be a terribly shocking result. When confronted with inconvenient science, those in denial often reject the evidence by accusing the experts of fraud or conspiracies. We saw a perfect example of this behavior just a few weeks ago. When scientists at NOAA published a paper finding that there was no ‘pause’ in global warming, one of the most common responses from those in denial involved the conspiratorial accusation that the scientists had somehow fudged the data at the behest of the Obama administration.

Nevertheless, nobody likes being characterized as a conspiracy theorist, and so those in the denial blogosphere reacted negatively to the research of Lewandowsky and colleagues. Ironically, many of the attacks on the study involved conspiratorial accusations, which simply provided more data for the social scientists to analyze. For example, the authors were accused of everything from faked data to collusion between Lewandowsky and the Australian government.

This is what manufactured denial looks like. - Readfearn

Here's a recent must read article that I'd love to repost over here since it fits right into my collection.  But, I don't think this one's in the cards.  I can still post this teaser that hints at what you'll find within Readfearn's thorough expose'.  

_______________________

What happened to the lobbyists who tried to reshape 

the US view of climate change?

Climate change skepticism

Graham Readfearn

Friday 27 February 2015 

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/feb/27/what-happened-to-lobbyists-who-tried-reshape-us-view-climate-change

"In early 1998, ... 

Representatives from major fossil fuel corporations and industry groups had joined forces with operatives from major conservative think tanks and public relations experts to draft what they called their Global Climate Science Communications (GCSC) plan. 

In a memo the plan boldly declared its goal …" 

Australia's Greg Hunt's War on Science

{edited 2/14/2014 evening}

The right-wing tactic of silencing all who disagree with their economic schemes and of willfully ignoring valid scientific information reaches new heights of contempt for society's welfare.  In Canada we have a government destroying important scientific data and research stations (see here and here).  

Now in Australia they want to legislate immunity from environmental protection laws.  They are demanding the right to completely disregard environmental concerns and laws.

It's like they still haven't figured out we are talking about our life-support system !  

Michael Safi has written an article reporting on the details of this latest insult to humanity.  Here are some key quotes, but I encourage you to visit The Guardian for the full story.

Chinese Academy of Sciences comments on Heartland / Watts claims

Since I've found that Anthony Watts and Heartland Institute can't be taken at face value, {considering their respect for the truth is non-existent}, I decided to email the Chinese Academy of Sciences in the hope of getting to the bottom of the mystery of the missing substance behind claims of a collaboration and June 15th Gala unveiling of the NIPCC attack on climate science.

Dear CAS Representative,

Anthony Watts at
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/06/12/h ... -ceremony/

claims
Heartland’s NIPCC report to be accepted by Chinese Academy of Sciences in special ceremony:

"All three men will be in Beijing for the Chinese Academy of Sciences event on June 15, 2013 to speak about the translation of Climate Change Reconsidered. Scores of additional scientists, economists, and policy experts reviewed and contributed to the volumes."

But I can't find any such event being announce at your website?
http://english.cas.cn/Ne/
=========================

Is this event happening?

Any information you can offer will be appreciated.
Thank you for your time and hopefully interest.

Sincerely,
PM

This morning I received a reply to my question.