I know someone who received a MA in business from Stanford who does environmental impact reports for a living. Occasionally, however, on Facebook she'll post that the end of the world is near because of climate change. It's a weird juxtaposition. Greta is her heroine. Not every Ivy League graduate necessarily has critical thinking skills.
Social Justice is the bastard offspring of Protestantism and Marxism, and it inherits from the former parent the moralization of everything and from its latter parent the politicization of everything. (I've seen this referred to as 'secular theology', which I think means an ideology that resembles religion in its adherence to dogma, moralism and some journey to a Promised Land, while removing the metaphysical elements aka a god or gods.) Also, this is why these people are so much fun to be around!
I think what this means for us is that these are basically quasi-theological beliefs, so they are both quite contagious and also impervious to reason, logic or facing up to any negative results to their social experiments.
Also, as with the religious uprisings of the Reformation and the Bolshevik uprisings of the Russian Revolution, destruction does not in any way deter these True Believers, if anything they would prefer to destroy anything in their path rather than renounce their sacred beliefs.
So I am saying that most of the institutions of the Western World have been taken over by a fundamentalist religious cult?
I'm fascinated by this mix of cluster b personality traits combining to create some of this. Great conversation with Michael on Callin about it in addition to this video. These activists are unable to metabolize anxiety and are exhibiting traits of mental disorders. I think covid lockdowns didn't help.
Very interesting. A couple of years after I graduated from high school I was reading a Time magazine at my parents one day just before I was to start at Cal Poly to study engineering, there was an article that predicted the coming of another ice age, that was 1975. There are 7.7 billion humans and in total we all use a lot of energy, who'd think that it's not going to have some affect on the atmosphere? Of course it will, and the atmosphere has been morphing since it came to be hundreds of million of years ago. Should we try to minimize our impact? Of course, but in a reasonable and thoughtful way. Since so many of these folks are nihilists and nothing matters anyway why don't they accept they're doomed and jump off the Golden Gate Bridge for example - the view is pretty awesome. I see the word sustainable everywhere these days - but few things actually are - its become a great big marketing feel-good buzzword. But, don't forget the first law of thermodynamics...
"[insects are] really gross!" -- ok but come on, it's no more gross than eating ground up cow muscle. It's just that what we eat now is normalized. There was a time when we didn't eat cows. Saying we shouldn't diversify and adapt our diet is very closed-minded. And I say this as a guy who loves a good burger.
I like Michael's general points, but isn't some of this akin to saying in the mid-late 80s "Well, I guess we shouldn't do anything about the holes in the ozone layer because those CFCs are essential for air conditioning. If we regulate the CFCs in order to save the ozone layer, people will die from heat stroke!"
Yet we didn't do that -- we found alternatives to the things that were harming the Earth, and life went on. I get the feeling that Michael largely wants to continue the status quo even though we know that fossil fuels have severe environmental impacts. I'm not arguing against his criticism of liberals / wokeness / stupid policy.... but I do think there's more middle ground to find common sense solutions to these problems instead of just going with the status quo and hoping we don't kill ourselves (or our great grandchildren) all because it's easier to keep chugging along burning fossil fuels instead of making change.
Adding on a bit.. Michael, when you talked about farmers around 21:38, it gave me an explanation for why the Coastal Private U’s had left agriculture to the land grants “cow colleges” for all these years and have suddenly become interested. Because the land grants have actually been helping farmers since they were founded, through their three part mission, research, extension and education. But suddenly the Coastal Privates have jumped on this in their new departments or schools of the environment. It not only disses farmers themselves, but also the academics who have traditionally worked with them. A bit of disciplinary imperialism.
Michael, thanks for this exploration of the ideas of why these ideas have taken hold. I’d like to share this widely.. but it’s for subscribers only? Maybe you could unpaywall this one.. I think it’s super important for others to hear.
I know someone who received a MA in business from Stanford who does environmental impact reports for a living. Occasionally, however, on Facebook she'll post that the end of the world is near because of climate change. It's a weird juxtaposition. Greta is her heroine. Not every Ivy League graduate necessarily has critical thinking skills.
Great conversation. Can I coin a new term for green gaslighting? ---> Greenlighting.
Social Justice is the bastard offspring of Protestantism and Marxism, and it inherits from the former parent the moralization of everything and from its latter parent the politicization of everything. (I've seen this referred to as 'secular theology', which I think means an ideology that resembles religion in its adherence to dogma, moralism and some journey to a Promised Land, while removing the metaphysical elements aka a god or gods.) Also, this is why these people are so much fun to be around!
I think what this means for us is that these are basically quasi-theological beliefs, so they are both quite contagious and also impervious to reason, logic or facing up to any negative results to their social experiments.
Also, as with the religious uprisings of the Reformation and the Bolshevik uprisings of the Russian Revolution, destruction does not in any way deter these True Believers, if anything they would prefer to destroy anything in their path rather than renounce their sacred beliefs.
So I am saying that most of the institutions of the Western World have been taken over by a fundamentalist religious cult?
Sure seems like it.
I'm fascinated by this mix of cluster b personality traits combining to create some of this. Great conversation with Michael on Callin about it in addition to this video. These activists are unable to metabolize anxiety and are exhibiting traits of mental disorders. I think covid lockdowns didn't help.
Once again, Michael is right on the mark!
(Love 'Greenlighting', by the way - great term, Jeff Keener!)
Very interesting. A couple of years after I graduated from high school I was reading a Time magazine at my parents one day just before I was to start at Cal Poly to study engineering, there was an article that predicted the coming of another ice age, that was 1975. There are 7.7 billion humans and in total we all use a lot of energy, who'd think that it's not going to have some affect on the atmosphere? Of course it will, and the atmosphere has been morphing since it came to be hundreds of million of years ago. Should we try to minimize our impact? Of course, but in a reasonable and thoughtful way. Since so many of these folks are nihilists and nothing matters anyway why don't they accept they're doomed and jump off the Golden Gate Bridge for example - the view is pretty awesome. I see the word sustainable everywhere these days - but few things actually are - its become a great big marketing feel-good buzzword. But, don't forget the first law of thermodynamics...
The fog of woke. The truth can’t be racist or misogynistic or transphobic. It just is. So when you try labeling truth as such, we all must resist. How? Like this: https://open.substack.com/pub/joshketry/p/how-do-we-build-a-network-of-people?utm_source=direct&r=7oa9d&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Copy of Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks album cover in the background means Michael has good taste in music. 🎼
I want to hear the religion part of the interview at the end. Where do I go?
what happened to comments on wokeism as religion
"[insects are] really gross!" -- ok but come on, it's no more gross than eating ground up cow muscle. It's just that what we eat now is normalized. There was a time when we didn't eat cows. Saying we shouldn't diversify and adapt our diet is very closed-minded. And I say this as a guy who loves a good burger.
I like Michael's general points, but isn't some of this akin to saying in the mid-late 80s "Well, I guess we shouldn't do anything about the holes in the ozone layer because those CFCs are essential for air conditioning. If we regulate the CFCs in order to save the ozone layer, people will die from heat stroke!"
Yet we didn't do that -- we found alternatives to the things that were harming the Earth, and life went on. I get the feeling that Michael largely wants to continue the status quo even though we know that fossil fuels have severe environmental impacts. I'm not arguing against his criticism of liberals / wokeness / stupid policy.... but I do think there's more middle ground to find common sense solutions to these problems instead of just going with the status quo and hoping we don't kill ourselves (or our great grandchildren) all because it's easier to keep chugging along burning fossil fuels instead of making change.
Adding on a bit.. Michael, when you talked about farmers around 21:38, it gave me an explanation for why the Coastal Private U’s had left agriculture to the land grants “cow colleges” for all these years and have suddenly become interested. Because the land grants have actually been helping farmers since they were founded, through their three part mission, research, extension and education. But suddenly the Coastal Privates have jumped on this in their new departments or schools of the environment. It not only disses farmers themselves, but also the academics who have traditionally worked with them. A bit of disciplinary imperialism.
Michael, thanks for this exploration of the ideas of why these ideas have taken hold. I’d like to share this widely.. but it’s for subscribers only? Maybe you could unpaywall this one.. I think it’s super important for others to hear.
Great interview!
The arrogance of Liberal elites......pretty much every dilemma we find ourselves in right now is because of this.