Security: Familyland, Fatherland, or Homeland? - 6

Rise of the Strong Man

This series, among other things, is about what makes the "strong man" attractive to a particular segment of a culture (Security: Familyland, Fatherland, or Homeland?, 2, 3, 4, 5).

That can be analyzed from several perspectives within several academic disciplines.

Today, I want to revisit this phenomenon from the perspective of how it hovers always just below the covers in the United States (and nations like the United States).

It is the psychological or social perspective of groups that I am getting at.

According to expert observers, it is a surprisingly common understanding that liberals and conservatives alike are aware of and generally have agreement about:

A NAZI Family?

The photo to the left is a photo of a family in the NAZI governed Germany of long ago.

Have you ever noticed how many "family" words are associated with the concept of "nation" in literature, politics, and government?

A quick check of a few relevant metaphors (forefathers, father of the constitution, Uncle Sam, motherland, fatherland, homeland, father of the nation, founding fathers, mother of the nation, family of nations, etc.) makes me want to look at perhaps the key source-metaphor for this notion:

... a common metaphor, shared by conservatives and liberals alike -- the Nation-as-Family metaphor, in which the nation is seen as a family, the government as a parent and the citizens as children ...

(The Nation-as-Family Metaphor). To expand upon this concept a bit, consider these comments:

It’s no accident that our political beliefs are structured by our idealizations of the family. Our earliest experience with being governed is in our families. Our parents “govern” us: They protect us, tell us what we can and cannot do, make sure we have enough money and supplies, educate us, and have us do our part in running the house.

So it is not at all surprising that many nations are metaphorically seen in terms of families: Mother Russia, Mother India, the Fatherland. In America, we have founding fathers, Daughters of the American Revolution, Uncle Sam, and we send our collective sons and daughters to war. In George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984, the voice of the totalitarian state was called Big Brother.

As George Lakoff discussed at length in his 1996 book, Moral Politics, this metaphorical understanding of the nation-as-family directly informs our political worldview. Directly, but not consciously. As with other aspects of framing, the use of this metaphor lies below the level of consciousness.

(The Nation As Family, PDF). It is important to remember the part of the concept indicating that "the use of this metaphor lies below the level of consciousness", because in this post today we are going to try to take a look at part of that iceberg we can see, which is not only conscious, but is also attached to the bulk that is not conscious.

(Security: Familyland, Fatherland, or Homeland?). That quote from the first post in this series begs the question: "how does that take shape?"

That question spawns the following answer:

"The answer came from a realization that we tend to understand the nation metaphorically in family terms: We have founding fathers. We send our sons and daughters to war. We have homeland security. The conservative and progressive worldviews dividing our country can most readily be understood in terms of moral worldviews that are encapsulated in two very different common forms of family life: The Nurturant Parent family (progressive) and the Strict Father family (conservative).

What do social issues and the politics have to do with the family? We are first governed in our families, and so we grow up understanding governing institutions in terms of the governing systems of families.

In the strict father family, father knows best. He knows right from wrong and has the ultimate authority to make sure his children and his spouse do what he says, which is taken to be what is right. Many conservative spouses accept this worldview, uphold the father’s authority, and are strict in those realms of family life that they are in charge of. When his children disobey, it is his moral duty to punish them painfully enough so that, to avoid punishment, they will obey him (do what is right) and not just do what feels good. Through physical discipline they are supposed to become disciplined, internally strong, and able to prosper in the external world. What if they don’t prosper? That means they are not disciplined, and therefore cannot be moral, and so deserve their poverty. This reasoning shows up in conservative politics in which the poor are seen as lazy and undeserving, and the rich as deserving their wealth. Responsibility is thus taken to be personal responsibility not social responsibility. What you become is only up to you; society has nothing to do with it. You are responsible for yourself, not for others — who are responsible for themselves."

(Understanding Trump, by Dr. Lakoff, Distinguished Professor of Cognitive Science and Linguistics Emeritus at the University of California at Berkeley, emphasis added).

When events are seen in ways that indicate "things are going bad," the reactionary members of the populace who hold this strict father world view become sycophants and/or authoritarian followers (Beware of the Sycophant Epidemic, 2).

History tells us that it solves nothing and in fact brings the house down on our heads:

For example, the Encyclopedia Britannica pointed out the ingredients of the DNA of that history, which incidentally, also applies to our current culture's genetic code:

"In the Study Toynbee examined the rise and fall of 26 civilizations in the course of human history, and he concluded that they rose by responding successfully to challenges under the leadership of creative minorities composed of elite leaders. Civilizations declined when their leaders stopped responding creatively, and the civilizations then sank owing to the sins of nationalism, militarism, and the tyranny of a despotic minority. Unlike Spengler in his The Decline of the West, Toynbee did not regard the death of a civilization as inevitable, for it may or may not continue to respond to successive challenges. Unlike Karl Marx, he saw history as shaped by spiritual, not economic forces."

(Stockholm Syndrome: The Declaration of Intellectual Dependence). Take note of the three genes in the cultures of suicidal civilizations: "nationalism, militarism, and the tyranny of a despotic minority".

(Previous Post). What remains to be seen is whether the strong man disease will infect enough despots to become "the new normal" (Follow The Immunity - 4).

The previous post in this series is here.

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Agnotology: The Surge - 20

Deadly Corporate Media Denial

I. Faux Snooze

There is a clear and growing awareness in the public, of the United States at large, about the reality of climate change (Global Warming Concern at Three-Decade High in US, Gallup Poll).

This, in spite of a dearth of coverage in the media: "In 2016, evening newscasts and Sunday shows on ABC, CBS, and NBC, as well as Fox Broadcast Co.'s Fox News Sunday, collectively decreased their total coverage of climate change by 66 percent compared to 2015" (Media Matters, cf. Media Matters Report Shows Stunning Lack of Climate Change Coverage on TV Networks in 2016).

Thus, the U.S. presstitutes (In the Fog of The Presstitutes, 2, 3, 4) are operating like the third world media: "Overall, we find that about 40 percent of adults worldwide have never heard of climate change. This rises to more than 65 percent in some developing countries, like Egypt, Bangladesh and India" (Climate Change Awareness and Concern in 119 Countries, Yale Univ.).

But, the public is aware of the presstitutes, and they do not like them (Americans' Trust in Mass Media Sinks to New Low, Americans' View of Press).

Meanwhile, the hear-no-climate change, see-no-climate-change, and say-no-climate-change ideology has landed its first U.S.eh? government (voted in by a minority - right-wing voters).

So, now the Administrative and Legislative branches of American government are controlled by climate deniers.

The Judicial branch may not be as far gone, but they too are headed in that direction (Here Come De Conservative Judges, 2, 3, 4, 5).

II. The Military Is Not With The Deniers

For the better part of a decade Dredd Blog has been pointing out that the military sees global warming induced climate change as the greatest threat to the security of Americans:

A recent report will catch the attention of anyone who can focus enough to see down the road further than their nose:

"The CNA Corporation brought together eleven retired three-star and four-star admirals and generals [they lost it so use The Wayback Machine Version] to provide advice, expertise and perspective on the impact of climate change. CNAC writers and researchers compiled the report under the board's direction and review.

The report includes several formal findings:

* Projected climate change poses a serious threat to America's national security.

* Climate change acts as a threat multiplier for instability in some of the most volatile regions of the world.

* Projected climate change will add to tensions even in stable regions of the world.

* Climate change, national security and energy dependence are a related set of global challenges."

(Global Climate & Homeland Insecurity, Dredd Blog, 2009). This was followed up on more recently (Global Climate & Homeland Insecurity - 2, Dredd Blog, 2016).

The conundrum this presents is palpable:

"We spend more on national security than the rest of the world combined ..."

"The Military is the lead federal agency on climate change ... and that is ... extremely dangerous ... we may lose the republic ..."

(Professor / Colonel Wilkerson, quoted from video below). The increase in military spending on conventional squabbles, while cutting environmental spending, is madness of the criminal sort (MOMCOM's Mass Suicide & Murder Pact, 2, 3, 4, 5).

III. Civilization's Trance

The civilization meme complex is a product of the darkest and oldest of trances:

"In other words, a society does not ever die 'from natural causes', but always dies from suicide or murder --- and nearly always from the former, as this chapter has shown." - A Study of History, by Arnold J. Toynbee

(When You Are Governed By Psychopaths - 7). After all these years of recorded history we as a species have not learned to choose our trances carefully (Choose Your Trances Carefully, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8).

IV. Conclusion

After all these eons and epochs, once again: Civilization Is Now On Suicide Watch, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.

The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.

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MOMCOM In The Outer Limits Of The Twilight Zone

T-Rex of State

In a recent post I provided a video featuring a presentation at MIT by Prof. Dr. Noam Chomsky.

It covered the reasons behind the doomsday clock having been moved from seven minutes until "midnight" (a.k.a. "lights out for civilization") to 2.5 minutes until midnight.

The subject of that post was the ongoing murder-suicide process by power centers within our current civilization (Civilization Is Now On Suicide Watch - 9).

The actors "in that movie" are official anti-social-behavior power-centers that surprisingly mimic the characteristics of the demise of previous civilizations:

In other words, a society does not ever die 'from natural causes', but always dies from suicide or murder --- and nearly always from the former, as this chapter has shown."

(A Study of History, by Arnold J. Toynbee). Once the most-oft-quoted historian, Dr. Toynbee discovered a pathological behavior often repeated in societies, including the largest society, civilization itself.

That behavior is still with us because it has not been addressed and epigenetically modified (On the Origin of Cultural Epigenetics).

The locus of these suicidal dynamics is harbored in three entities which I have called "MOMCOM."

MOMCOM is an extension of Eisenhower's "military-industrial complex" (MOMCOM: A Mean Welfare Queen).

Those three areas (military, oil, media) are the center of the origin of the current suicidal tendencies, because the military has the nukes, big oil has the other "nuclear option" (climate change), the media have the power of deceit, so, together they comprise the complex MOMCOM.

Their (or its) firstborn offspring is Oil-Qaeda (Oil-Qaeda: The Indictment, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6).

This family of players is not wavering from the mass-murder-suicide path they have been intentionally taking for decades (Humble Oil-Qaeda).

Instead, this deadly family has intensified their suicidal behavior (MOMCOM's Mass Suicide & Murder Pact, 2, 3, 4, 5).

They have financed political criminality to the point it has now openly taken over the U.S.eh? government.

If you want to know what they are doing, simply look at what they accuse sane people of doing (House Science Committee Leader Says Climate Scientists Are Trying to Control People’s Lives).

Next, realize how many years and how much money it has taken them to deceive substantial segments of society (Global Warming Disinformation Database).

Their basic behavior is to double down, even in the light of conclusive evidence against them (The Universal Smedley - 2, Oil Giants Caught Bribing Nigerian Money Launderer In Major Scandal, How World War I ushered in the century of oil).

By using the phrase "double down" I am including the habit of warmongering imperialism (The Peak Of The Oil Wars - 10, cf. The Fleets & Terrorism Follow The Oil - 2).

One of the reasons this suicidal behavior has not been stopped by western societies (by culturally evolving beyond the genetic dispositions of suicidal civilizations past), is primarily the power of propaganda hidden in plain sight:

THE conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society.

Our invisible governors are, in many cases, unaware of the identity of their fellow members in the inner cabinet.

They govern us by their qualities of natural leadership, their ability to supply needed ideas and by their key position in the social structure. Whatever attitude one chooses to take toward this condition, it remains a fact that in almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons — a trifling fraction of our hundred and twenty [now 320] million — who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind, who harness old social forces and contrive new ways to bind and guide the world.
...
It is the purpose of this book to explain the structure of the mechanism which controls the public mind, and to tell how it is manipulated by the special pleader who seeks to create public acceptance for a particular idea or commodity. It will attempt at the same time to find the due place in the modern democratic scheme for this new propaganda and to suggest its gradually evolving code of ethics and practice.

(A Closer Look At MOMCOM's DNA - 4). That quote is taken from the American book which has the title "Propaganda."

It was written by "The Father of Spin," a.k.a the Father of the American PR Industry (cf. Exceptional American Propaganda Inspired NAZI Goebbels).

He and his wife opened the business now known as "public relations" ... their first customer was then named The War Department.

I guess there is only one question remaining, since today some elections are taking place: (Will Elections Cure The Disease?, 2, 3, 4).

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"And now we return you to your regular programming ..."

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The Shapeshifters of Bullshitistan - 5

"I am not an American Company"

In the previous post I wrote:

"Well, we covered The Don, The Banners, and Sgt. Dog in the previous posts of this series (The Shapeshifters of Bullshitistan, 2, 3).

So, today let's cover the Mighty Quinn, a General of Bullshitistan if there ever was one."

(The Shapeshifters of Bullshitistan - 4). So, in today's episode let's cover T-Rex, the guy from the tradition "I am not an American company." (The Private Empire's Social Media Hit Squads).

Recently T-Rex forgot to put on his camouflage package, and therefore went alt-pro shape-shifter out in alt-right public view:

"Secretary of State [T-Rex] is skipping a NATO meeting, but he is planning to travel to Russia next month. His travel schedule is raising alarms in Europe." - NPR
...
"[T-Rex's] decision to miss his first NATO meeting but visit Russia a week later plunged his department into damage control, frustrated allies and left analysts scratching their heads at an administration that once again is rubbing Europe the wrong way and raising questions about its commitment to its Western allies." - CNN
...
"America’s newly-installed secretary of state [T-Rex] is to skip his first Nato meeting, it has been announced, and will instead greet the president of China and then travel to Russia." - Telegraph

The media's consternation is misplaced due primarily to a dearth of knowledge of the history of Oil-Qaeda, so let's just briefly go through it from recent on back into the more distant past:

"Speaking from the Black Sea resort town of Sochi, Russian President Vladmir Putin lauded ExxonMobil, calling the company Russia’s 'old and reliable [dirty oil] partner.'"

(Deepwater Horizon Keeps On Killing & Drilling - 3). That took place several years ago in 2014.

Going back further, Oil-Qaeda all along has been in sufficient control of "America's lifeblood" ("Oil is the lifeblood of America's economy" - ibid) via surreptitious State Department machinations:

John D. Rockefeller, in his 1909 Random Reminiscences of Men and Events, recalled, "One of our greatest helpers has been the State Department. Our ambassadors and ministers and consuls have aided to push our way into new markets in the utmost corners of the world." But he left out a key explanation for the government's interest. Standard Oil was the biggest U.S. company, putting a hundred ships to sea, buying and selling oil in Latin America, Germany, and the Far East. It also operated a global intelligence system. "By 1885," according to one historian, "seventy percent of the Standard's business was overseas and it had its own network of agents through the world, and its own espionage service, to forestall the initiatives of rival companies or governments."

(The Private Empire's Social Media Hit Squads). Is it any wonder, then, that T-Rex would come out of the closet, come from behind the curtain, and show us how things have always been over at the State Department?

Their secular religion (Oilah Akbar! Oilah Akbar!, 2, 3, 4, Hateful Oilboarding For Oilah Akbar, Oilah Akbar in Afghanistan, You Rejected Your Only Savior For Oilah) has shaped and shifted world events since your grandmother and grandfather tried to figure it out long ago:

Long before politicians mewled helplessly about the power of “Big Oil”, carbon-based fuels were shaping our very political, legal, intellectual, and physical structures.
...
For instance, the invasion of Iraq in 2003 was a pivotal moment in America’s strategic outlook. America, a global hegemon whose empire was weakening, seized the second largest oil deposits in the world as a way of preventing its economic and political decline.
...
The last declining global hegemon, Great Britain, also engaged in a brutal and highly controversial British occupation of Iraq, in the 1920s, pressed aggressively by the well-known British conservative, Winston Churchill.
...
From the moment he arrived at the Admiralty, a young man of destiny, Churchill started to prepare the fleet for the Battle of Armageddon he believed was inevitable.
...
Then, in 1911, the German Kaiser provoked the Agadir crisis ... Churchill went to the Admiralty and his outlook transformed. He was immediately confronted with the decisive question: to convert the navy from coal to oil ... the "fateful plunge" was made ... in April 1912 ... five oil-burning battleships were approved.
...
Britain was well supplied with coal [but not oil]. It was the Royal Navy which was the impetus for the development of the oil industry in Britain. The problem was supply and the security of that supply. Initially, the British government purchased shares in the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, subsequently, British Petroleum [BP].
...
Then, to prevent further disruptions, Britain enmeshed itself ever more deeply in the Middle East, working to install new shahs in Iran and carve Iraq out of the collapsing Ottoman Empire.

Churchill fired the starting gun, but all of the Western powers joined the race to control Middle Eastern oil.

(The Universal Smedley - 2, cf The Fleets and Terrorism Follow The Oil - 2). There is little wonder that sometimes T-Rex will forget to play-pretend (which shocks the media).

He recently did so by accidentally pointing out the Russia thingy, thereby revealing that the media are lost in space, and causing a "YAH" psychological reaction a la You Are Here.

T-Rex is in Jurassic Park baby, acting out the final scene (the Anthropocene).

The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.

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T-Rex to Lady Liberty:

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The Shapeshifters of Bullshitistan

Have you finished the wall yet?

I. Foreward

I thought I would continue the phrase I coined during the Bush II Administration ("Bulshitistan"), however, I though it should be placed in a series rather than in random places in comments and the like.

The language spoken in Bullshitistan is designated as BS-01.5572, but in scientific circles it is called "double-speak," a language which has been studied incessantly (Propaganda Is A "Toxic Asset", quoting Professor Lutz).

II. Swamped

It is in honor of the quickest draw in the swamp:

It took former President George W. Bush 1,205 days to reach a majority disapproval rating. Former President Barack Obama crossed that threshold in 936 days.

And President Donald Trump did it in just over a week.

The Republican, who was sworn in on Jan. 20 as the least popular president in at least 40 years, hit majority disapproval in a record eight days, a new

"Dood, that was an awesome EO !"

Gallup poll of 1,500 Americans finds. As of Saturday, 51 percent of Americans disapproved of Trump.

Trump’s majority disapproval rating comes after a tumultuous first week in office that was capped off with his widely protested executive order banning immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries. After the president’s first day in office, millions of women and men protested his agenda in the Women’s March on Washington and sister marches around the world.

(President Trump Smashes Record for Getting Majority of Americans to Disapprove of Him). What do you expect from the author of The Art of the Deal?

III. The High Priestess

The high-priestess of BS-01.5572, The ConWay, wrestles with her tongue in cheek to cross the eyes and dot the teeth of her victims:

With doublespeak, banks don't have "bad loans" or "bad debts"; they have

The Tommy

"nonperforming assets" or "nonperforming credits" which are "rolled over" or "rescheduled."

Corporations never lose money; they just experience "negative cash flow," "deficit enhancement," "net profit revenue deficiencies," or "negative contributions to profits."

(ibid). The ConWay graduated from The Donald University with the highest honor, "Silver Tongued Devil", and is a close ideological descendant of The Patron Saint of The Plutocracy (Ayn Rand: Patron Saint of The Plutocracy, 2, 3, 4).

Currently,  The ConWay is casting aspersion spells on those who are making fun of her for running off the rails to temporarily make things up in violation of the fundamental rule (BS-01.5572.Rule.001): "only things that the base will believe can be made up out of whole cloth" (Bowling Green massacre? Kellyanne Conway has taken alt facts up a notch).

IV. So Called

The Shapeshifters of Bullshitistan (SOB) are constantly at war with the  So-Called Realm, (SCR, a place where facts and law matter).

SOB has recently given SCR a "take that" motion, which backfired (U.S. appeals court denies request to restore Trump's immigration ban).

One thing to note is that the Federal Court of Appeals is not paranoid about lies (It Takes A Culture To Raise A Compulsive Liar), so SOB will take that into consideration (according to the SOB rule-book, generally, the next step is to threaten SCR with an invasion).

Stay tuned.

The next post in this series is here.

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Yep. Desolation Row ...

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R.I.P. Leonard Cohen

The New Yorker

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Everybody knows ...

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The Peak of Sanity - 11

Corporate Media Climate Change Reporters

This series primarily concerns the sanity of groups, cultures, and civilizations (The Peak of Sanity, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10).

A story related to the subject matter of this series, but narrower in scope because it concerns political group sanity, caught my eye (Majority Of Trump Voters Believe Global Warming Is Real, Poll Finds).

So, in this episode of this series, I want to focus on the current U.S. Election, since I have not explicitly focused on it as a whole.

I did some consideration of limited aspects of the ongoing election in a related post (The Donald University vs. The Lord GOP University).

In today's post, I want to focus on public perception of fossil fuel use caused global warming, and the resulting Damaged Global Climate System (The Damaged Global Climate System, 2, 3, 4, 5).

And, I want to do that in the context of the knowledge, or lack of knowledge, that likely voters have of the scientific consensus on that scientific issue.

A NASA post points out that the consensus is monumental:

Multiple studies published in peer-reviewed scientific journals¹ show that 97 percent or more of actively publishing climate scientists agree: Climate-warming trends over the past century are extremely likely due to human activities. In addition, most of the leading scientific organizations worldwide have issued public statements endorsing this position. The following is a partial list of these organizations, along with links to their published statements and a selection of related resources.

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AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES

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Statement on climate change from 18 scientific associations

"Observations throughout the world make it clear that climate change is occurring, and rigorous scientific research demonstrates that the greenhouse gases emitted by human activities are the primary driver." (2009)²

• American Association for the Advancement of Science

  "The scientific evidence is clear: global climate change caused by human activities is occurring now, and it is a growing threat to society." (2006)³
• American Chemical Society

  "Comprehensive scientific assessments of our current and potential future climates clearly indicate that climate change is real, largely attributable to emissions from human activities, and potentially a very serious problem." (2004)⁴
• American Geophysical Union

  "Human‐induced climate change requires urgent action. Humanity is the major influence on the global climate change observed over the past 50 years. Rapid societal responses can significantly lessen negative outcomes." (Adopted 2003, revised and reaffirmed 2007, 2012, 2013)⁵
• American Medical Association

  "Our AMA ... supports the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s fourth assessment report and concurs with the scientific consensus that the Earth is undergoing adverse global climate change and that anthropogenic contributions are significant." (2013)⁶
• American Meteorological Society

  "It is clear from extensive scientific evidence that the dominant cause of the rapid change in climate of the past half century is human-induced increases in the amount of atmospheric greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide (CO2), chlorofluorocarbons, methane, and nitrous oxide." (2012)⁷
• American Physical Society

  "The evidence is incontrovertible: Global warming is occurring. If no mitigating actions are taken, significant disruptions in the Earth’s physical and ecological systems, social systems, security and human health are likely to occur. We must reduce emissions of greenhouse gases beginning now." (2007)⁸
• The Geological Society of America

  "The Geological Society of America (GSA) concurs with assessments by the National Academies of Science (2005), the National Research Council (2006), and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2007) that global climate has warmed and that human activities (mainly greenhouse‐gas emissions) account for most of the warming since the middle 1900s." (2006; revised 2010)⁹

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SCIENCE ACADEMIES

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International academies: Joint statement

"Climate change is real. There will always be uncertainty in understanding a system as complex as the world’s climate. However there is now strong evidence that significant global warming is occurring. The evidence comes from direct measurements of rising surface air temperatures and subsurface ocean temperatures and from phenomena such as increases in average global sea levels, retreating glaciers, and changes to many physical and biological systems. It is likely that most of the warming in recent decades can be attributed to human activities (IPCC 2001)." (2005, 11 international science academies)¹⁰

• U.S. National Academy of Sciences

  "The scientific understanding of climate change is now sufficiently clear to justify taking steps to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere." (2005)¹¹

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U.S. GOVERNMENT AGENCIES

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• U.S. Global Change Research Program

  "The global warming of the past 50 years is due primarily to human-induced increases in heat-trapping gases. Human 'fingerprints' also have been identified in many other aspects of the climate system, including changes in ocean heat content, precipitation, atmospheric moisture, and Arctic sea ice." (2009, 13 U.S. government departments and agencies)¹²

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INTERGOVERNMENTAL BODIES

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• Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

  “Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, and since the 1950s, many of the observed changes are unprecedented over decades to millennia. The atmosphere and ocean have warmed, the amounts of snow and ice have diminished, and sea level has risen.”¹³
  
  “Human influence on the climate system is clear, and recent anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases are the highest in history. Recent climate changes have had widespread impacts on human and natural systems.”¹⁴

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OTHER RESOURCES

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List of worldwide scientific organizations

The following page lists the nearly 200 worldwide scientific organizations that hold the position that climate change has been caused by human action.
[List of Worldwide Scientific Organizations]

U.S. agencies

The following page contains information on what federal agencies are doing to adapt to climate change.
[List of Agencies, PDF]

(Scientific Consensus: Earth's climate is warming, emphasis added). The evidence for the professional opinions of some 97% of scientists is unequivocal.

In contrast to that monumental consensus of professional opinion, the ignorance of the voting public as to the aforesaid understanding that the scientific community has, is also monumental:

• With the exception of Ted Cruz  voters, most supporters of the Democratic and Republican candidates think global warming is happening (Sanders: 93%, Clinton: 92%, Kasich [no longer a candidate]: 71%, Trump: 56%). By contrast, fewer than half of Ted Cruz supporters—38%—think global warming is happening.
• Supporters of the Democratic candidates are much more likely to think global warming is caused mostly by human activities (79% of Sanders supporters and 76% of Clinton supporters). Supporters of the Republican candidates are more likely to think it is caused mostly by natural changes in the environment (60% of Cruz supporters and 55% of Trump supporters), or are divided on the issue — 49% of Kasich supporters think global warming is mostly caused by humans, 46% think it is mostly caused by natural changes.
• Fewer than half of any candidate’s supporters are aware that virtually all climate scientists have concluded human-caused global warming is happening. However, supporters of the Democratic candidates are the most likely to think at least 90% of climate scientists are convinced (Sanders: 38%, Clinton: 27%). Far fewer supporters of the Republican candidates understand the scientific consensus (Kasich: 11%, Trump: 3%, Cruz: 2%).
• When asked how worried they are about global warming, a majority of Clinton (83%) and Sanders supporters (80%) say they are very or somewhat worried about it. Fewer than half of the Republican candidates’ supporters are very or somewhat worried about global warming. Kasich supporters are the most likely to say they are worried (nearly half—44%), followed by about one in three Trump supporters (35%) and about one in six Cruz supporters (17%).
• Supporters of all Democratic and Republican candidates—except Cruz—are more likely to vote for a presidential candidate who strongly supports taking action to reduce global warming.
• Conversely, supporters of all Democratic and Republican candidates—except Cruz—are less likely to vote for a presidential candidate who strongly opposes taking action to reduce global warming.
• While very few voters say global warming will be the most important issue to them when picking a candidate to vote for this year (2%), about half (49%) say it will be among several important issues. Supporters of the Democratic candidates are most likely to say it will be among several important issues (Sanders: 74%, Clinton: 70%). By contrast, fewer than half of the Republican candidate supporters say the same (Kasich: 42%, Cruz: 33%, Trump: 30%).
• Among the issues voters say will influence their vote for President in 2016, global warming ranked 5th in importance of the 23 issues asked about among Sanders voters (59% say it is “very important”) and 11th highest for Clinton supporters (51% say it is “very important”).
• By contrast, supporters of the Republican candidates are least likely to say global warming is very important to them among the 23 issues (Trump: 18%, Kasich: 13%, Cruz: 13%).
• About half of Sanders and Clinton supporters would be willing to join – or are currently participating in – a campaign to convince elected officials to take action to reduce global warming (51% and 47%, respectively). By contrast, fewer than one in five supporters of the Republican candidates would be willing to do so (Kasich: 17%, Trump: 16%, Cruz: 11%).
• Registered voters support a broad array of energy policies, including many designed to reduce carbon pollution and dependence on fossil fuels, and to promote clean energy. The Democratic candidates’ supporters are the most likely to strongly or somewhat support such policies, but supporters of the Republican candidates do as well, including: Funding more research into renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power (Sanders: 93%, Clinton: 91%, Kasich: 86%, Trump: 76%, Cruz: 64%); providing tax rebates to people who purchase energy-efficient vehicles or solar panels (Sanders: 94%, Clinton: 92%, Kasich: 80%, Trump: 70%, Cruz: 59%).
• At least half of supporters of all candidates except Cruz also would support: Regulating carbon dioxide as a pollutant (Clinton: 91%, Sanders: 87%, Kasich: 74%, Trump: 62%, Cruz: 47%); requiring fossil fuel companies to pay a carbon tax and using the money to reduce other taxes such as income taxes by an equal amount (Sanders: 88%, Clinton: 85%, Kasich: 53%, Trump: 51%, Cruz: 27%).
• Most Sanders and Clinton supporters (90% and 87%, respectively) and over half of Kasich voters (61%) support setting strict carbon dioxide emission limits on existing coal-fired power plants to reduce global warming and improve public health, even if the cost of electricity to consumers and companies would likely increase. Half of Trump supporters do as well (50%). By contrast, only 36% of Cruz supporters agree.
• Most Sanders and Clinton supporters (90% and 76%, respectively) and over half of Kasich voters (61%) think the U.S. should reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, regardless of what other countries do. About half of Trump supporters agree (49%), but only four in 10 Cruz supporters (40%) do.
• [Note: Cruz and Kasich are no longer candidates]

(Global Warming and the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election, emphasis added). The ignorance of the voting public as to the scientific consensus is dangerous.

Regular readers know that I put the blame for this ignorance on the mass media propaganda, funded by Oil-Qaeda (The Authoritarianism of Climate Change, cf. Dredd Blog Series Page, under "OIL" and "OIL-QAEDA").

IMO they are dementia generators (Etiology of Social Dementia, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13), and are also the prime subjects of Agnotology (Agnotology: The Surge, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17).

In closing, let's look beyond our noses and consider a kind, albeit ominous warning:

“Experience has shown that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.” – Thomas Jefferson

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“If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." - Thomas Jefferson

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"Leave no authority existing not responsible to the people." - Thomas Jefferson

The previous post in this series is here.

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"Progress" is not "forgetting and repeating" ...

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Choose Your Trances Carefully - 6

About that civilization virus

I. The Stage

Academics know that the word "civilization" has been "doublespoken" by violent propaganda (Life under the Chief Doublespeak Officer, cf. The New Doublespeak: Why No OneKnows What Anyone's Saying Anymore, New White Trash: Doublewide Doublespeak).

Way too many American English words also have been doublespoken, which is a deadly phenomenon (Good Nomenclature: A Matter of Life and Death).

Honest language is an essential essence to alleviate shadowy notions that have been injected into the word "civilization."

Yes, like with a "coffee" cup that we can pour many liquids besides coffee into, some poisonous some not, we can doublespeak words until they also become poisonous.

II. "Worse Than Previously Thought"

If you think that "civilization" has only one meaning, and that one meaning equates to nothing but good, to the point that nothing cataclysmic can go wrong, then please explain what the once upon a time most-often-quoted historian had to say about the subject:

"In other words, a society does not ever die 'from natural causes', but always dies from suicide or murder --- and nearly always from the former, as this chapter has shown."

(A Study of History, by Arnold J. Toynbee). May I ask: "if murder and suicide are the common thread of civilizations past, what pray tell does "civilization" mean then?

It is true that the word has meant different things to different people, such as one celebrated American, Ralph Waldo Emerson:

Emerson’s later work, such as The Conduct of Life (1860), favored a more moderate balance between individual nonconformity and broader societal concerns. He advocated for the abolition of slavery and continued to lecture across the country throughout the 1860s.

By the 1870s the aging Emerson was known as “the sage of Concord.” Despite his failing health, he continued to write, publishing Society and Solitude in 1870 and a poetry collection titled Parnassus in 1874.

Emerson died on April 27, 1882, in Concord. His beliefs and his idealism were strong influences on the work of his protégé Henry David Thoreau and his contemporary Walt Whitman, as well as numerous others. His writings are considered major documents of 19th-century American literature, religion and thought.

(Bio). Emerson influenced Thoreau, Whitman, and other respected academics and non-academics alike.

So, why did Emerson say:

“The end of the human race will be that it will eventually die of civilization.”

(Ralph Waldo Emerson). In the 19th Century he perceived something, discovered something, or observed something that gave him a disconcerting understanding of the future of "civilization."

It was no light matter to him, because he came to the point of seeing "civilization" as the destroyer of the human species.

Scientists of the day had access to the same evidence that Emerson analyzed, but like scientists and poets today, they did not have a unified understanding of the essential meaning of "civilization":

"Darwin relied on much the same evidence for evolution that Lamarck did ..." - Understanding Evolution

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“One would say that [man] is destined to exterminate himself after having rendered the globe uninhabitable.” - Lamarck (1817)

(See Genesis: The Evolution of Biology, by Jan Sapp, p. 274, fn. 14; quoting from Lamark's writings)

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"Lastly, I could show fight on natural selection having done and doing more for the progress of civilisation than you seem inclined to admit. Remember what risks nations of Europe ran, not so many centuries ago, of being overwhelmed by the Turks, and how ridiculous such an idea now is! The more civilized so-called Caucasian races have beaten the Turkish hollow in the struggle for existence. Looking to the world at no very distant date, what an endless number of the lower races [Chuck was a tad-bit racist eh?] will have been eliminated by the higher civilized races throughout the world." - Charles Darwin (1881)

(emphasis added). So, those who studied biology came to different conclusions about the meaning of "civilization" (e.g. Lamarck essentially agreeing with Emerson, but not so much so with Darwin).

Darwin thought that social evolution would purify "civilization" by exterminating the "inferior, less evolved" races.

As to mystics, Gandhi implied that "civilization" is a good idea if ever attained: "What do I think of Western civilization? I think it would be a very good idea" (Mahatma Gandhi).

Yet, Gandhi did not base his observation of "civilization" on a militaristic dominance: "The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated" (Mahatma Gandhi).

The doublespeak concerning "civilization" seems to be both an ancient as well as a modern phenomenon.

III. Civilization Is a Group

The double-mindedness concerning the meaning of the word "civilization" may have been based on, and still may be based on, observations of group dynamics.

For example, “Insanity in individuals is something rare – but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.” – Friedrich Nietzsche

Evidently "the father of Psychoanalysis" came to see that there is something to Nietzsche's observation:

"If the evolution of civilization has such a far-reaching similarity with the development of an individual, and if the same methods are employed in both, would not the diagnosis be justified that many systems of civilization—or epochs of it—possibly even the whole of humanity—have become neurotic under the pressure of the civilizing trends? To analytic dissection of these neuroses, therapeutic recommendations might follow which could claim a great practical interest. I would not say that such an attempt to apply psychoanalysis to civilized society would be fanciful or doomed to fruitlessness. But it behooves us to be very careful, not to forget that after all we are dealing only with analogies, and that it is dangerous, not only with men but also with concepts, to drag them out of the region where they originated and have matured. The diagnosis of collective neuroses, moreover, will be confronted by a special difficulty. In the neurosis of an individual we can use as a starting-point the contrast presented to us between the patient and his environment which we assume to be normal. No such background as this would be available for any society similarly affected; it would have to be supplied in some other way. And with regard to any therapeutic application of our knowledge, what would be the use of the most acute analysis of social neuroses, since no one possesses power to compel the community to adopt the therapy? In spite of all these difficulties, we may expect that one day someone will venture upon this research into the pathology of civilized communities.
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Men have brought their powers of subduing the forces of nature to such a pitch that by using them they could now very easily exterminate one another to the last man. They know this——hence arises a great part of their current unrest, their dejection, their mood of apprehension."

(Civilization And Its Discontents, p. 39-40, PDF, emphasis added). Senator Lindsey Graham recently broke the ice and diagnosed his group as "batshit crazy" (US News).

Perhaps we need more of that type of analysis, because, for example The Romney's personal diagnosis of the election success of The Donald results in blaming the votes of a multitude of voters on an individual, i.e., on The Donald.

The notion of "group analysis" that Freud advocated would come to a different diagnosis.

It would likely diagnose the group of voters as neurotic, the same group that Senator Graham diagnosed as "batshit crazy" (cf. The Donald University vs. The Lord GOP University).

IV. Culture Is A Group Phenomenon

The essence of "culture" can be dealt with effectively in the same manner because it is a group characteristic and dynamic too:

That paper should now be seriously considered because it seeks to analyze some of the behavior in the terms that Dredd Blog has advocated for a few years now.

We have been arguing that such analysis would be more likely to lead to revelations of systemic dysfunction, then hopefully lead to remedies:

In this theoretically informed study I explore the broader cultural changes that created the conditions for the credit crisis of 2008. Drawing on psychoanalysis and its application to organizational and social dynamics, I develop a theoretical framework around the notion of a manic culture, comprised of four aspects: denial; omnipotence; triumphalism; and over-activity. I then apply this to the credit crisis and argue that the events of 2008 were preceded by an incubation period lasting for over two decades during which a culture of mania developed. Then, focusing especially on the Japanese and South East Asia/LTCM crises, I argue that a series of major ruptures in capitalism during this incubation period served not as warnings, but as opportunities for a manic response, thereby dramatically increasing the risks involved. I also argue that this mania was triggered and strengthened by triumphant feelings in the West over the collapse of communism. I suggest therefore that this manic culture played a significant role in creating the conditions for the problems that led to the credit crisis.

(A Culture of Mania, by Dr. Mark Stein, 2011, emphasis added). A free PDF of the entire paper is available for download.

Dr. Stein goes through the structural components of mania sequentially applying those components to the cognition and behavior of professionals in a group, an organization, which qualifies as a meme complex.

(When You Are Governed By Psychopaths - 2). Senator Graham boiled it down, while Dr. Stein elaborated at length.

Both psychoanalysts were quite effective.

V. Conclusion

I think I have made the point by using the words that have been seriously given to us by observers down through time.

And upon occasion, I have also used words of a more recent, but equally availing nature:

People'd call, say,"Beware doll, you're bound to fall."
You thought they were all kiddin' you

(Like A Rolling Stone). The study of the foggy concept of "civilization" ends up revealing a trance or two, which are hopefully useful to ponder.

So, from now on: Choose Your Trances Carefully !

The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.

Will This Float Your Boat - 10

Chesapeake Bay: Largest estuary in the U.S.A.

In some previous posts of this series the subject was: the number of people affected by sea level rise (SLR) in the North East.

Specifically, I focused on the Hudson River and "Hudson" / NY Bay area.

But, I also wrote "[e]xpand the scope of these wonderful opportunities south to New Jersey ..." (Will This Float Your Boat - 9).

So, today we will go a bit further south for a look at a well known area that has a similar SLR problem as the Hudson River Bay area, but one that is a larger estuary than the Hudson Bay: we will consider the ports and the estuary of Chesapeake Bay:

"With its expansive coastline, low-lying topography, and growing coastal population, the Chesapeake Bay region is among the places in the nation most vulnerable to sea-level rise."
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"Average sea levels in the Chesapeake Bay have been rising. Many places along the bay have seen a one-foot increase in relative sea-level rise over the 20th century, six inches due to global warming and another six inches due to naturally subsiding coastal lands--a factor that places the Chesapeake Bay region at particular risk."
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"Already, at least 13 islands in the bay have disappeared entirely, and many more are at risk of being lost soon."

(Chesapeake Bay and Global Warming, 2007-08, emphasis added). If you think that description reads like the description of the vulnerable coast of New England, at Hudson River Bay, it is because it is under the exact same threats from SLR:

The harms associated with climate change are serious and well recognized. The Government’s own objective assessment of the relevant science and a strong consensus among qualified experts indicate that global warming threatens, inter alia, a precipitate rise in sea levels, severe and irreversible changes to natural ecosystems, a significant reduction in winter snowpack with direct and important economic consequences, and increases in the spread of disease and the ferocity of weather events. [quoting U.S. Supreme Court]
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"By volume, more than 95 percent of U.S. international trade moves through the nation's ports and harbors, with about 50 percent of these goods being hazardous materials." [quoting NOAA 'Ports']

(Will This Float Your Boat - 8). For those who don't get it yet (the threat to national security, national economy, and American stability), see the satire @ Will This Float Your Boat - 9, and the information about the great difficulty involved with official processes dealing with solving port problems (The Agnotology of Sea Level Rise Via Ice Melt).

Likewise, for those who do not get the danger to current civilization, apply these principles and realities to the 196 countries with more than 4,764 ports of current civilization (World Port Source).

As I indicated above, previous posts covered the port-related danger to the San Francisco Bay area (The Evolution of Models - 5 and 6), as well as New York's Hudson River Bay (FERC Plan To Limit Overpopulation?).

So, today let's consider what ports are involved in the Chesapeake Bay area:

Virginia:

Port of Alexandria
Port of Norfolk
Port Cape Charles
Port of Chesapeake
Port of Hopewell
Port of Newport News
Port of Piney Point
Port of Portsmouth
Port of Richmond
Port of Yorktown

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Maryland:

Port Annapolis
Port of Baltimore
Port of Cambridge
Somers Cove Marina
City Yacht Basin
Naval Air Station Patuxent River
Solomons Island Harbor

(World Ports: Virginia, Maryland). These ports that impact multiple millions of Americans (e.g. international commerce) are under the same threats as the New York and New England ports (danger of Greenland Ice Sheet melt-collapse generated SLR).

The greatest danger is not recognizing the danger, and the second greatest danger is the inability to do anything about it in real time, once anyone even notices.

This was discussed in the context of other ports:

However, several barriers to climate adaptation have been recognised (Becker 2011, IAPH 2011, UKCIP 2007), including inconsistency between organisational planning timeframes (5 – 15 years) compared with climate projections of 30 – 90 years; as well as the uncertainty of local climate projections leading to decision-makers delaying action until there is perceived to be more certainty. To help address these concerns, this report proposes a hybrid “risk / vulnerability” approach to understanding and adapting to climate change. That is, consideration of current day vulnerabilities to extreme weather events, integrated with an assessment of future climate risks." (Climate Resilient Ports, emphasis added).

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"First proposed more than 20 years ago, the Savannah Harbor Expansion Project has been studied and delayed more times over the past two decades than anyone can count. So it’s no surprise that the big news at the Georgia Ports Authority (GPA) this year has been the approval of the massive project to deepen the Savannah River and harbor to expand the Port of Savannah’s capacity.

The Savannah Harbor Expansion Project (SHEP) finally got the go-ahead in October – 15 years after it first received a congressional OK in 1999 – when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Georgia Department of Transportation and the GPA signed a Project Partnership Agreement (PPA). After years of studies, delays and lawsuits that both stalled the project and pushed projected costs sky high, construction was scheduled to begin by the end of 2014 on what has been called the most critical infrastructure development project in Georgia in decades." (Georgia Trend, emphasis added).

(The Agnotology of Sea Level Rise Via Ice Melt). Even when states seriously consider the danger to their coastal ports, cold molasses moves faster.

Several states under neoCon control have been ignoring the SLR threat for years and decades, because "it does not compute" or "it is outside our comfort zone" (The Epistemology of Goldilocks RE: Sea Level Rise).

It is the folly of fools to think that ignoring this problem is going to make it go away.

The terrors frozen deep inside Greenland and Antarctica are rising to the song of an accelerated threat, rising to the song of global warming induced climate change, rising to drown the Earth destroyers (The Question Is: How Much Acceleration Is Involved In SLR?, 2, 3, 4).

The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.

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If I was a Terrorist:

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A 1958 video which shows we went into the catastrophe with our "eyes wide open."

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