*** I further apologize for the "shit" in the title and the one I just used there. Let's get on with this ____ shall we?
I don't often post about the same topic twice in a row, but this is a case where I am attacking the same topic from two different angles. I was supporting Greta Thunberg in my last post, but this post I'd like to draw some attention to all the inexplicable rage against her. She is proving to be quite a polarizing force on the internet even though I can't quite understand where all the rage is coming from.
Some of the "rage" is just people being loyal to their tribes. They don't believe the shit they're shoveling (I hope), they're only doing it to preserve jobs, reputations and positions in their clubs. For example, a loyal fossil fuel lobbyist will accuse Greta of being alarmist and stirring up disaster anxiety without yet having sufficient evidence to support it. Then asked what will happen if Greta gets what she wants, they will launch into well rehearsed, alarmist diatribes about the economic Armageddon that will be the result of the switch from fossil fuel to alternate sources of power, without having sufficient evidence to support it... and then put a cherry on top of that sophist ice cream cone by calling people who disagree with them hypocrites.
That I understand. It's self-preservation. It's happening a lot with conservative/republican/right wing political leaders who are bought and paid for by big business, particularly in Canada these days, because it's election time and they're all singing for their suppers. Well, maybe not so much singing as shit slinging.
And I understand the parroting of this nonsense by voters and lowly members of the political parties and right wing support groups (a lot more of whom believe the shit they're shoveling through loyalty rather than research). They'll tell you Greta is a highly paid pawn of the evil, multi-trillion dollar alternate energy barons who plan to take over the world. They'll also tell you voting makes a difference because, again, politicians are singing for their supper. They're all telling people that if you don't vote, you have no voice. The majority of people didn't vote last election, they could have changed the result (i.e. Trump or Trudeau). Right around now they're falling just a bit short (or not) of blaming non-voters for the problems of the country. What they may or may not realize is this election, like all the others since I've been alive, is so fixed it's like a heavyweight fight. The two combatants are genuinely fighting so they'll get more fights in the future. Don King owns both fighters, so no matter who wins, he'll do the same thing with them. Don King is owned by the Las Vegas Gaming Commission and he does what they tell him to do. Usually... I wonder if even Don King might have been different if he were ever able to stand up to his bosses. Hmmm...
That is not to say they're all bad now. I believe Trudeau has to fight a few more bouts to have the good uppercutted, jabbed and body-blown completely out of him. Jagmeet Singh is probably so new to the game that he doesn't think he'll be taking any dives yet. Scheer is young too but he knows the game and he's on board with crooked prize fighting. For the right purse I bet he'd take a dive in a pre-election debate for crying out loud. But in the end all good fighters who throw their hats into the (boxing) ring either quit boxing to retain their integrity, honesty, principles and semi-clear consciences, or they do the easy thing: surrender to the dirty and dark side of it and play along with the fight fixing.
Similes... what are they like?!?! Okay in case it hasn't hit you like a George Foreman telephone pole jab, the boxers are the candidates, Don King is the government and the Las Vegas Gaming Commission is made of up the banks and big businesses who sponsor the fights. There is just too much money in politics! And money destroys everything. You can't get into it without coming out with some money muck stuck to you no matter how clean you are.
The recent example of Cho Guk in Korea is a perfect illustration. He has now resigned. He was as squeaky clean as they come here in Korea! That was his brand. And even HE had so many dirty secrets that he had to give up his lifetime of working toward the reform of the legal system here in Korea. The legal system that includes the passing of laws to allow for easier governmental and financial corruption. And now that he's been publicly humiliated and forced to step down as Justice Minister, who will take up the cause? Nobody. For one reason, there IS nobody in politics who is less dirty than Cho Guk, and for reason number two, this is why Cho Guk's dirt was exposed: so he'd step down and the cause of ridding the government and business in Korea of corruption would have no champion. And the whole thing would be quietly forgotten about while corruption rattles on. I wouldn't even be surprised to find out all the charges against him were fabricated by douchebag government and business officials and leaders who wanted to protect their corrupt ways of life. But I wouldn't be surprised to find out they were all true either. Probably less surprised with the latter.
Which brings us to Canada on the eve of election. Don't kid yourselves Canada, all the candidates are dirty. They're shit. Good people don't enter politics or they don't last long before they quit or turn bad. They certainly don't make it to the leadership positions in their parties. I am going to let these guys off the hook a tiny bit and say that the whole social construct of our country has been arranged to perpetuate this. I haven't seen a good candidate in any election in Canada since before I was able to vote and I don't think there's been one. I mean one who would, (and COULD), stand up to the people who really run the country. Incorruptible, unable to be bought, if you can name even one I'll buy you a bucket of poutine. And not the fake kind, I mean the kind with real, dry curd cottage cheese.
And this brings us back to our hero. Greta Thunberg is not just trying to get the corrupt governments of all these corrupt countries like the U.S. and Canada to change, she's also trying to get some young folks interested in changing their entire corruption fostering system while they're kids are, ideally, not yet corrupted.
The above phrase is genius. It can be used for many causes. The governments in countries like Canada, the U.K. and most particularly the U.S. are the best use I can see for it. We are so sold on our shitty systems, which include the quadrennial circuses called elections, that we don't see how silly we look. Obvious mind control going unnoticed. We all complain about our workweeks for example. They're long. We could all use a day off. What about a vacation. Or even a long lunch? Yeah! Shit yeah! We're overworked and underpaid. This is an injustice! I'm outraged!
What about those Europeans trying to get a 4-day workweek? Those ^^^ same people above will say, "Lazy arseholes!"
This is our system. It's cleverly implanted in our upbringing. It is also what insinuates strong concepts of ownership, reproduction, tax paying and consumerism in our brains. But these Big Brother brain washings can be countered if we start early. That's what the Greta Thunberg movement is aiming for long term. And I think THAT is what is scaring the shit (all this shit I've been referring to) out of people. So reaction to fear is very often anger.
I'm not going to just post supporting arguments. Here's someone who disagrees. Just read the first part where you will find this: "But the Greta phenomenon has also involved green lobbyists, PR hustlers, eco-academics, and a think-tank founded by a wealthy ex-minister in Sweden’s Social Democratic government with links to the country’s energy companies. These companies are preparing for the biggest bonanza of government contracts in history: the greening of the Western economies. Greta, whether she and her parents know it or not, is the face of their political strategy."
Then there's this gem about Canadian John McCall MacBain founder of the European Climate Foundation donating almost a million bucks to Trudeau's election campaign. It's supposed to be the "biggest bribery scandal in Canadian history" but not many heard about it until now at election time or shit slinging time.
These things may be true. Maybe there are evil businessmen and women jumping on the soon-to-be profitable greening of the planet. It's inevitable really. This past weekend I was at the veritable MANSION of my family of best friends in Pyeongtaek. It was Heather, Mike and the kids' official housewarming party! It was a fun time and the food was just as good as Thanksgiving, which I missed the Monday before. There was no turkey but check out this chicken!
Now being American, they won't be celebrating Thanksgiving till late November, which seems extremely late, but, I'll help them with their celebrating anyway. I will be dropping in and I will likely eat TWO Thanksgivings worth of their turkey when I do. They're so good to me! Honestly, I don't just like them for the food though. The beer too. lol No, come on! I love those guys. Although, just looking at that chicken... man it was good!
SO anyway...
It was a gorgeous day, unseasonably warm and sunny so I'd say maybe 20 or 30 folks of all ages met to fellowship with the Peet/Spiwaks. This was where I spent most of the party. Even after the sun went down and the temperature dropped to more Canadian levels. The benches and the table were cleverly crafted by Mike and the materials he used were from the construction and installation of the solar panels on the roof on his roof. You can just see the wall on the right side of the pic. That's the top story where the solar panels are.
So I was chatting with one of the guests, I forget his name now, (I just met him that night) and he says he's lived for a few years in a similar unit with similar solar panels and the largest energy bill he's had to pay, in a summer month with air conditioners cooling the entire house, was, are you ready for this?.....……… less than 20 bucks. Alternative sources of energy are becoming cheaper and cheaper too. Sorry, people of Alberta, but this is happening no matter how hard fossil fuel companies try to delay it.
But it IS a good thing. It is NOT something to be scared of. Don't believe the alarmists who will say that Greta is alarmist. Don't believe the corrupt people who will say she's corrupt. Don't believe the greedy who will call her greedy. It's just the bosses of the world transitioning. You know they don't want to leave their cushy, long-term love affair with fossil fuels so they'll try anything to dissuade us from abandoning them for cleaner and greener (not to mention cheaper) sources of energy. But eventually they'll transfer their money into it when they see it is the smarter and fiscally superior thing to do. And when that finally happens, you can bet they'll accept the accolades for helping the environment even though they don't give a shit. Geez I went too long without typing that word.
So the first example is Swedish people investing in green energy. Sure some of them are bad people. In this messed up world, we can't do anything good unless the bad people invest in it. Going back to the Korean example of Cho Guk, Korea's legal system probably would have benefitted from having him as their minister of justice. There's no way to know but I bet he would have made it more transparent and he would have been hated by the rich and crooked of Korea. But he's bad. Koreans didn't want him in that position. And they were right in a way. It should be a good, honest person in that position, but the world is far from perfect. That bad guy might have been their best hope to do some good.
What I'm saying is maybe there are some dirty people associated with the saving of our planet. And when it becomes more profitable there may even be more. Maybe (well definitely) Trudeau is not the best or most honest person for the position of PM in Canada. But he might be the only person able to get a few good things done at this time. Until the revolution comes, we'll just have to depend on the dirty old rulers of the world not to completely turn it into shit.
It's fitting that Greta is Swedish because in Scandinavia they are far ahead of us in this necessary transition. One of the big things, and probably the very first step, is already happening. They have outlawed private schools so as to de-segregate the rich and poor children. This way they will know each other and the ones who become members of government and captains of industry won't feel so disconnected from the poor that they don't mind screwing them so much. The poor will include people they grew up with. In Canada and the U.S. we're going the opposite way. Private schools are on the rise. To say nothing of private prisons. There have been many advancements in Scandinavia that make everybody's lives there better. Their education systems are centuries ahead; they have more equitable legal systems; they have taxation that WORKS; they have government that is not as corrupt and they are very interested in greening our planet. With any luck, Greta's revolution won't just kick our oily, gassy asses into gear with the transition to cleaner energy we could and probably SHOULD be leading the world in, but maybe some of these other things will rub off onto us. We sure could use it! Especially the politics and education!
Just imagine if we had, instead of shit, 4 or 5 candidates to vote for tomorrow that had grown up and been educated in the same schools as us. Imagine maybe even KNOWING one of them personally! Imagine being sure that they cared about us, not just money. Imagine believing what they promise. Imagine them being able to DO what they promise. This can't happen without MASSIVE change in our country and it'll have to begin with the kids.
I hope when I'm dead and gone that Canadians will be able to look back at this time as the start of a cultural revolution by the majority against the greed and injustice of the ruling class. I hope that we will have fair laws and business practices. I hope we will have proper education and at least one or two GOOD politicians every election to vote for. And thanks to people like Greta and events like the worldwide transition to alternative energy, Knock Down the House (and hopefully the impeachment of Trump) I have a little hope. Like Red in Shawshank, I hope. Just a little but I hope.
