Friday, October 01, 2010

A Pragmatic, Short-term Solution


This is a video by 1010 Climate Change Campaign.  I don't want to get into the statistics about climate change, I believe, as the Church seems to say, charity demands we treat the environment with respect.
The makers seem embarassed by the reaction to this video, if the link doesn't work, see it here.

I find the video frightening, it seems to illustrate well a modern attitude to forming opinion: if people disagree with you destroy them or at least coerce them, it stems very much from our culture of relativitism.

I am sure this expensive video was produced with a tongue in the cheek but blowing up of human beings in a world beset with terrorism and war indicates a certain narrowness of vision, even of a disrespect for the human person. It reminds me of the Pope's sobering words which followed his comments Narzism:
... let us never forget how the exclusion of God, religion and virtue from public life leads ultimately to a truncated vision of man and of society and thus to a "reductive vision of the person and his destiny"
Opinion is formed according to fashion, there is no room for debate, or for nuanced opinion. Right is on the side of the majority, which today seems to be a euphenism for those who control public opinion.

As the Pope said:
If the moral principles underpinning the democratic process are themselves determined by nothing more solid than social consensus, then the fragility of the process becomes all too evident - herein lies the real challenge for democracy.

The inadequacy of pragmatic, short-term solutions to complex social and ethical problems has been illustrated all too clearly by the recent global financial crisis.
He could have used any contempory issue to illustrate "[t]he inadequacy of pragmatic, short-term solutions to complex social and ethical problems".

12 comments:

Clare@ BattlementsOfRubies said...

How absolutely stupid.
And how interesting that in employing humour they let slip the very aggressive antipathy they have for anyone who doesn't agree with their morally superior agenda.
Imagine if 40 Days For Life, or a similar pro life group put out an ad like that.
"No pressure" indeed.
( Oh and by the way, they have taken the video down But you can see it here:
http://learningtobeanewlywed.blogspot.com/
In the age of the internet, it's harder to cover up your bloopers)

P Standforth said...

Believe what we tell you is right, or we kill you; That's a real argument from science that is.

Totally appalling.

gemoftheocean said...

Ah, heck, Father. See if you can get them to make the video public. You're supposed to accept a "private friend request" to see it.

Clare@ BattlementsOfRubies said...

Doh!
I had another URL on my clipboard.
Apologies
Here's the yourube link to watch that video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKgtWWCGQZ8

gemoftheocean said...

Clare, would you like to try that link again? It doesn't seem to have any such video on the blog, nor does one turn up when you type in "2010 climate change" in the searchy engine of such blog.

[And I'd dearly like to see what the climate change pimps are peddling to the youth.]

Anthony said...

Father, I enjoyed your post very much, but it seems to contain a slight contradiction. You point out that the video "stems very much from our culture of relativitism" 9i.e. the doctrine that one man's view is as good as another's), but you go on to state that, in this society: "Opinion is formed according to fashion, there is no room for debate, or for nuanced opinion" - surely this endless 'room for debate' is precisely the mark of relativism and NOT of Catholic Truth (after all, one does not wish for 'room for debate' when the Holy Father has spoken).

Furthermore, the equation with Nazism is strange, since Hitler was explicitly NOT a relativist! He did not like debate, or think that truth emerged from democratic discussion - he thought there was an absolute: the racial destiny of the Germans, which stood, for him, as a fact of the world that could not be silenced. As such, it seems wrong to equate relativism with both a lack of debate (it's distinguishing feature) and with Nazism (a non-relativistic system of though)

Sorry for this intrusion - Thank you for the good and holy work that you do

FatherTF said...

The makers have been embarrassed by the negative reaction and have been trying all day to get it off YouTube while others have been re-posting it. Going viral as we speak.

FatherTF said...

This link works at the moment.

Fr Ray Blake said...

Anthony, yes there is endless debate but then society seems to give up the debate and come down on the side of a particular opinion former, but because there is no right or wrong it has no way of judging an individual's opinions.

This ties in a little with Pope's warning on celebrity culture: X is good because Y endorses it, we sell our moral judgement to Y until he is discredited. Like Germany in the 20's & 30's, far reaching debate took place but eventually tiring of the debate German's opted for the strong man and gave up debating.

gemoftheocean said...

Thanks for the good link. I love the "energy saving lightbulbs." The ones that cost a lot more, made out of mercury, and good luck cleaning up the toxic waste if you drop and break one.

Way to go, stupid governments everywhere, mandating this GreenScam. Maybe we should just tie the perps to the biggest SUVs we can find and drag them.

Michael Clifton said...

I saw thevideo via your second suggstion just now ie 4.00pm and also looked at more of the tripe in the other suggested viewings. CO2 only grows when the sunspot activity is at a certain level. They cannot explain the various ice ages. The end of the world is in the hands of the Almighty not that shower.

parepidemos said...

Father, I just thought you might like to know that this offensive film has been withdrawn by the 10:10 group. It should never have been made.

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