Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Green Guilt

The good Dr Paulinus has this eerie video on his blog. I am no red necked climate change denier, we really must take the human effects on the environment seriously, but I am incredibly worried that there is a new dogmatism that is grabbing hold of the hearts and minds of the young. One used to hear alot about Catholic guilt, though outside of Catholic novels of 1930s and 40s I have never really met it. Green guilt seems very much on the rise, especially amongst the young. It brings with it a sense of hopelessness. I am more anxious about the psychological effects on the younger generation and the furtherance of a dystopic hopelessness, than the ecological issues.

So much of Green propaganda emphasises the utter hopelessness of humanity and the downward spiral that can only be arrested by a radical change in not just attitudes but actions too. I just wonder if videos like this will be replaced 20 years on by wilful acts of violence and destruction, a sort of violent fideism, springing from frustration with politics, democracy and hedonism.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is that green guilt or green hate?

Fr Ray Blake said...

Guilt easily moves to hatred, that is what makes me fearful.

Anonymous said...

The planet will survive whatever we do, even if it takes millions of years to recover. It is the human race that may not survive.

Paulinus said...

Yes it's odd that those who would slate the Church for inducing guilt (I always thought that the Body of Christ was in the business of remitting guilt but never mind) would themselves invent a whole range of green 'sins'

Physiocrat said...

That video has a sinister edge to it and the exaggeration does nothing to make it more convincing. In so far as climate change is a consequence of consumerism, Greenpeace has a point, but climates have always changed and the real problem is that human societies are ill adapted to coping with such upheavals.

But even if climate change is just a scare, resources cannot be consumed at their present rate for much longer and fixes such as green energy can turn out to be a snare and a delusion.

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