And God created Man in His Own Image........
I recently returned from a trip to visit family members in Colombia, South America. There are quite a number of good things about Colombia. No windfarms, for a start. Close encounters with a scaly, light-blue iguana, and the oversized toads that come out in the evening. And there exists a certain vitality among many of the poorer people that seems generally lacking in their British counterparts. Without a benefits system to fall back on, the Zen saying 'No work, no food' becomes urgently relevant. Go to the indoor fruit and vegetable market at eight in the morning and you will witness a scene teeming with folk from the countryside around announcing their wares to all-comers: 'aguacate, aguacate, mango, guayaba' they shout, as if we didn't have eyes to see what's on display today. Reeling from the shock to the senses at such a time of day, you can try to wear it off with a quiet ride on the bus. Here, however, the 'ayudante' - literally, 'helper' -leans out of the door of the moving vehicle to shout out the destination to any likely customer on the street. This would all drive our local friendly EU health-and-safety tsars apoplectic, for sure. But that is part of their job: to suck the lifeblood out of the languorous European beast. A century ago, D.H. Lawrence was writing about Europe, and how old, tired, and stuck it had become. Imagine how much worse it is nowadays! The European soul continues to be worn down by softly softly totalitarianism, rendered compliant, complacent, sheeplike, and world-weary. A trip to a country like Colombia only serves to highlight this rudely.
Unfortunately, I was not the only person to be visiting Colombia at the time. My sojourn coincided with the jet-set arrival of none other than the Saviour of Humankind Himself, Mr. Al Gore ('Just call me the Messiah. I don't mind.'). He was there as part of his global mission to save us all from ourselves, particularly through the holy medium of carbon taxes. While the idea of carbon taxes is hard enough to take in Europe, it is doubly criminal in a country where half the population can barely feed and house itself. Sadly, Colombians have a special weakness for the saviour complex (Jesus Christ and former President Alvaro Uribe come readily to mind), and the current President indicated that he welcomes Salvador Gore's initiative. To put things bluntly: in poorer countries, the imposition of yet another tax would most likely lead to many unnecessary deaths through material deprivation. The doctrine of carbon taxes is a form of hatred of humanity in action. My own feeling is that Al Gore and his ilk have something evil about them (I choose this word carefully and deliberately, and intend to expand on its use in a future blog).
It has been suggested elsewhere that Warmism is indeed a new religion. To my knowledge, however, the striking similarities between the psychological profiles of Warmist theology and Judeo-Christian-Islamic salvationism have yet to be spelt out. Until now, that is....
It is my observation that modern Warmism replicates quite precisely much of the pathological psychology at the root of the Judeo-Christian-Islamic complex (a psychology that has resulted in a great deal of human misery and destruction of the face of the Earth during the last 2000 years). I shall attempt to briefly sketch a few of the salient features below.
First and foremost, both are pervaded by a strong sense of human inadequacy and sinfulness, with all the guilt and generally feeling rubbish about being alive that necessarily accompany this assessment of the human condition. The Genesis story involving a woman, a man, a serpent and an apple is well-known as the mythical source for Christianity. In Warmism, the feeling emanates from the notion that we are destroying the planet through our actions, which will lead to us all yelling and screaming before being swallowed up in a fiery hell. We are a plague on the face of the Earth, and should be ashamed at our existence in the first place. Put on the kettle and feel the guilt; catch a plane and face eternal damnation. The Judeo-Christian complex lying unchallenged in our breasts is thus transferred directly into environmental angst and sackcloth.
This 'plague on the face of the Earth' thinking is the source of the humanity-hating that is a feature of at least some 'environmental' writing and rhetoric. We are no good, we are sinners, we are destroying the planet, it would be better if we all just shot ourselves and disappeared. I know about this, because I felt similarly myself a few years ago. Looking at the stupidity and destructive effects of the human species, I could feel only despair that sometimes tipped over into rage. I no longer see things this way: I have deeper alchemic/shamanic experience, plus exposure to the minds of some more positive souls, to thank for this change of heart.
Then there is the Apocalypse. This is an integral feature of at least more fundamental forms of Christianity, and is a nightmare fantasy that has been readily hijacked by the so-called Environmental Movement. Catastrophic global warming visions of cities going underwater, of continents of ice and snow crashing into the oceans, could come straight from the pages of Revelations. And, as with the nightmare scenarios of the Bible, the effect of these visions is to terrify and terrorise the populace, thus rendering it ripe for manipulation. Following the lead of the Christian missionaries who went before them, the Warmist zealots recognise the value of getting people young. Indoctrination of young, open, pliable minds is best. This is stated quite explicitly in the blurb accompanying the 'fact sheets' produced by Hi-Energy (Highland and Islands Scotland) for primary schools: 'Engaging with young people on the subject of energy is vital if they are to drive this industry forward in years to come.' And, given that their 'fact sheets' assert the incontrovertible truth of catastrophic global warming, we know what sort of energy is being touted here. I read that lots of kids are getting stressed out by the global warming propaganda at school. This is all shameless missionary-style brainwashing.
Fear not, however, good people. Redemption is at hand. The Saviour is with us. NOW. His name, Al Gore: Messiah for our troubled times. I exaggerate not. Al Gore has taken on the mantle completely. He has incarnated to save us from our sins; and to save the polar bears too. In common with the Abrahamic religions, there is the notion of the Chosen People. Our sins can be absolved, forgiven. Just believe, cover your mountains with turbines and pay your carbon taxes, and ye shall be saved. Isn't that great? Actually, lest we forget: there is something else that both Christian and Warmist saviours have in common. They are both total frauds.
In reality, the Warmist zealots function within a framework of what Jungians call unconscious shadow projection. Christianity does the same, manifesting the Shadow in the form of the Devil, the Anti-Christ, pagans and other non-believers. In Warmism, the complex is transferred onto carbon (black as the Devil!), users of aeroplanes, and scum-of-the-earth deniers. The intolerance demonstrated towards non-believers marks out Warmists as the true inheritors of the mantle worn previously by Conquistadors, Inquisitors, and the like. Instead of being reasonable thinking people who are merely sceptical of the official creed, those who dare to ask questions are evil 'deniers', standing in the way of the one and only truth, irritating obstacles to total world domination by those who have seen the Light.
And, once more in common with their Abrahamic buddies, the Warmists claim to be saving the world while they are simultaneously creating misery and planetary damage. Think destruction of landscapes and habitats; wiping out rainforests and food-producing land for biofuels; brainwashing and terrorising the kids.
My point is this: the pathological religious complex which has come to dominate the western world over the past two thousand years has been hijacked by our modern (pseudo) environmentalists. It is a psychology that comes only too naturally to many of us, and transfers, effortlessly and complete with all its neuroses, onto environmentalism, thus rendering this pathological as well.
