I’m pretty sure they won’t listen, now.
When I first heard bits of Don McLean’s song “Vincent” I didn’t immediately understand what and who he was singing about. It’s incredibly haunting, the refrain, which seems disconnected from anything to actually do with Vincent (Van Gogh) and what we might know about what was in his mind. I don’t know where it came from, but the refrain reached down and touched something in me:
Now, I understand what you tried to say to me
And how you suffered for your sanity
And how you tried to set them free
They would not listen, they did not know how
Perhaps they’ll listen now
It comes back to me at times when I encounter willful ignorance, or other forms of advanced stupidity – the worst of which is someone pretending ignorance, in the face of truth and knowledge. In order to do that, one has to know what the truth is, then act like they believe something completely different, sometimes in the face of someone else who knows the truth, which they disregard; it’s a multi-way lie and it’s what politicians do. I suppose they’d say it’s their job.
That all sounds a bit cryptic and roundabout but I can’t think of any other way of backing forward into this topic. Our political leaders are generally playing a great routine of “who’d a thunk!?” with regard to climate change. Back in the day, it was called “greenhouse gas emissions” and then “global warming” but finally the powers that control the world decided on the less intimidating-sounding “climate change.” It lacks the emotional impact of “ecological suicide” and that’s the point.
Al Gore was a representative, then a congressman in 1985, when this was recorded:
Did Sagan, the great educator and communicator, get through to Al Gore, who later went on to achieve some fame for his “An Inconvenient Truth” film? An old friend of mine was part of security the presidential communications detail under the Reagan administration, and he was present (setting up the audio) when Al Gore was getting some briefings – he said Gore was one of the smartest people he had ever seen, he’d sit and doodle and not appear to be listening at all but when the time came for questions, Gore would ask the most probing questions that showed he had a profound command of the material that he had apparently not been listening to. My friend is hard to impress and has been around a lot of very smart people, so I tend to take what he says seriously.
Sagan doesn’t say anything we haven’t heard a dozen times, by now. But that was 1985. 1985 was about the time that the fossil fuels industry began their program of disinformation. There was plenty of time for our elected representatives to do what they are supposed to do – serve The People’s interest, and educate themselves and make changes. I wonder if Sagan knew he was pissing into the wind. Probably – he was certainly experienced enough with the ways of the world, and had probably seen the disinformation program coming a long way off. He delivers his thoughts with the usual Sagan aplomb, in spite of everything.
I wonder what Sagan would have thought of the way the Trumpies handled the pandemic. Would have have tried to keep positive and helpful, like Fauci did, or would he have blown his top? I feel like Fauci had enough experience with public science and American anti-intellectualism that he should never have played along with the Trumpies as long as he did.
It sucks that the best that ‘representative democracy’ can manage is to haul someone like Sagan to give congressional testimony, then ignore them.
I had a Japanese colleague like that. Spent half his life on planes, subject matter expert in polymer chemistry. Watched him sit through an hour long presentation with at least forty pretty densely technical slides, and visibly fall asleep. This was something I’d seen other senior Japanese do, and in other cases it came across as kind of a powerplay – look, I’m so important I can just snooze through your bit. Except… when the presentation came to an end he perked up, and asked a technical question about the content of slide 26, a slide I knew for a fact he hadn’t seen with his eyes, because they’d been closed between slides 15 and 35. But the question was absolutely on the money and cut to the essence of what was at issue. It was amazing.
When I wrote up on HIV/AIDS in June, several items I read on Fauci told how he responded to ACTUP’s justified claims that the US government was murdering people, including accusations aimed directly at him. If he was bothered, he didn’t show it. He responded to ACTUP the same way he responded to Black americans: by building trust, and dealing with the crisis. Twice we’ve seen him put his job before his feelings.
I too would have liked Fauci to be more confrontational and defiant of Chump. But I suspect he knew defiance would mean replacement, and Birx the berk (or worse) would have been put in charge. Appeasing the petty tyrant didn’t make Fauci into another Lysenko. I firmly believe he was doing the best he could while walking a tightrope.
The one question I have for GW deniers is this: “What evidence would it take to convince you that you are wrong?”
The idea being, if they know anything at all about the falsifiability principle in science (sorry Mano), they ought to realize that if nothing would convince them they are wrong, then their belief is faith, not science.
There was one time I got to ask that question to a GW denier in person. His answer was in two parts, and very revealing:
1) I’d be convinced if I saw a convincing demonstration of how carbon dioxide leads to warming (easy enough),
2) but if I ever see an email from you on this subject, I shall delete it unopened.
OK, then. I guess that tells me what I should have guessed already.
The other point of asking this question is that, if the Antarctic melts and all the coastal cities are going under water in the next decade or so, I want to know exactly when I can go to him and tell him “I told you so.” That’s the upside of the disaster from where I stand, anyway.
… Fauci had enough experience with public science and American anti-intellectualism that he should never have played along with the Trumpies as long as he did.
Fauci knew that if he spoke truth to power, the next Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases would be someone like Dr. Scott Atlas, Dr. Joseph Mercola, or Dr. Joseph Ladapo.
My Governor and Attorney General (who shall remain shameless), aided and abetted by my state legislature, have effectively made it illegal for local authorities to mandate vaccines, or even masks. They are complicit in the spread of the virus, not to mention the misery, and even death, of a great many persons.
Maybe the next serious mutation of the virus will come from Missouri.
As Mike the Mad Biologist often writes, “Rage is the appropriate emotion.”
It sucks that the best that ‘representative democracy’ can manage is to haul someone like Sagan to give congressional testimony, then ignore them.
Well it beats having someone like “The potty peer”, Christopher Walter Monckton, 3rd Viscount Monckton of Brenchley asked to testify at, IIRC, the US Senate on climate change so that climate change deniers can use his nonsensical ramblings to justify no action.
The potty peer is perhaps the only hereditary peer in the UK history to get a letter from the House of Lords telling him to stop claiming membership.
@1 sonofrojblake
California had a US Senator S. I. Hayakawa that did the same exact thing. Only y’know it was the United States Senate so he had even more reason.
seachange @ # 7 – But when did Hayakawa wake up and show any indication of having any clue?
I was named after that song. I’d rather it wasn’t in any way associated with the professional arsehole class if at all possible…
The Finnish Stopped Soviet Mines from Exploding by playing a Single Polka Song on Repeat