Guest post by Thomas Fuller
Well, with the calming passage of 24 hours, let’s take another look at the 10:10 video showing the splatterfest of gore as skeptics play the more volatile roles from the worst portions of the movie ‘Scanners.’
It’s still disgusting.
I spent four years in the Navy and have seen a lot. The film did not upset me physically or emotionally. My reaction was mental (Cue Michael Tobis: “See? Fuller’s going mental…”)
What disgusts me first is its target. The video is meant for the young. Young people get blown up by a calm and engaged teacher in the first scene, and music and sports and film figures appealing to the young are both victims and perpetrators throughout.
Our reaction is irrelevant. They are not talking to us. They are talking to our children.
What are they saying? That it’s okay to ostracize, bully and dismiss those who don’t agree that climate change is uber alles (Oops! Godwin alert, Godwin alert) and that skeptics or the children of skeptics are fair game for… whatever.
As there is no real attempt at humour in the video, there’s no point in pretending it’s a parody. It’s instructional. It’s not even aimed at helping children work towards reducing emissions. It’s about helping children take aim at those who do not.
This is worse than Orwellian, although Eric Blair would certainly understand the meaning behind this message. And I don’t want to (and internet traditions would forbid me in any case) link this to the propaganda tactics of World War II. So somewhere in between those two, there is a special place in hell reserved for those whose intent it is to legitimize the cruelty of children towards each other based on what has evidently become a religious belief. And I hope that none of the film’s makers reaches that special place ahead of their allotted timespan–but I hope they get there.
Joe Romm and Bill McKibben have already announced they are ‘Shocked! Shocked!’ that gambling is going on in their casino and that their perpetual campaign of invective and calumny has produced people who actually believe them and hate skeptics. So I guess it’s no harm, no foul. Just as it was not their fault when a disturbed environmentalist took hostages at the Discover Channel headquarters, just as when the WWF made an ad showing planes flying into New York skyscrapers, just as when a Greenpeace blogger told skeptics the world over that ‘we know where you live.’ And as Anthony Watts knows full well, they also know where you work. But none of this is the fault of those who whip up the frenzy and the furor of those stupid enough to believe their hyperbole, enough to do something vicious, cruel, stupid or illegal.
So I guess I can’t blame hysterics like Romm and McKibben, who spend their days babbling about hell and high water and related mystical miseries, for any of the troubles we’ve seen. Except for the kids who will be downloading that video tonight. Both William Golding (Lord of the Flies) and J.M. Barrie (Peter Pan) knew full well that children need no help in being cruel. But this gives them license and legitimacy. And for that, Joe and Bill, I do hold you responsible. You sent the message first–it took years for 10:10 to make it explicit.
Thomas Fuller http://www.redbubble.com/people/hfuller
Thomas Fuller href=”http://www.redbubble.com/people/hfuller
Viv Evans says:
October 2, 2010 at 8:09 am
why is it that nobody is disturbed by the obvious connection between this video and the suicide bombers in this world
I am wondering too how the writer of the script and the makers of the video didn’t stop to think how people could associate the imagery with Al Quada suicide bombers. But then again, there are those in the political left who think the leaders of Al Quada are the same as the Founding Fathers. So who knows!?
barbarausa says:
October 2, 2010 at 8:45 am
Often as not, the skit would plunge into one of the brillinatly intricate and strange animation sequences.
Wich where made by the American in Monty Python named Terry Gilliam 🙂
Who also made some extraordinary films like for example Time bandits, The Fischer King, Brazil, 12 monkeys and Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
Good to see that some people mention Jacob Bronowski in all of this, its the best antidote in this maddness.
————-
P Gosselin,
Thank you for the wonderful Bronowski clip. It is a penetrating message about science.
I still have my dog eared copy of ‘The Ascent of Man’ that I purchased and read in the 1970’s. What a profoundly inspiring view for all of mankind. It made me stand in wonder of my species’ capacity for rational humanness.
John
jeremy of W.A. says: October 2, 2010 at 3:39 am
Further to my comments on Satire, Monty Python etc. I forgot to include self-deprecation.
Self deprecation is the art of putting oneself down for the amusement of others. Self satirisation is pretty much the same thing.
This clip is a self satarising piece that uses a ‘cartoon’ image of homicidal greenies blowing up dissidents – in order to attract attention, perhaps even attract a laugh, but overall to put the message across about energy saving.
There’s way to many serious people around these days.
=============================================================
Jeremy. You have truly lost the plot now with this piece of drivel.
Doug
I’m wondering where these young environmental activists keep getting money from to build these web sites and buy movie equipment.
A picture from the 10:10 web site:
http://www.1010global.org/sites/default/files/uploads/ckfinder/images/bestival-loves-1010-flash.jpg
After all these years the 60’s are still alive.
On another thread, Barry Woods says on October 2, 2010 at 5:14 am
Speak to your MP. Send emails to the BBC …
Robert says:
October 2, 2010 at 11:12 am
“[…]Wich where made by the American in Monty Python named Terry Gilliam 🙂
Who also made some extraordinary films like for example Time bandits, The Fischer King, Brazil, 12 monkeys and Monty Python and the Holy Grail.”
You mean Jabberwocky, not the Holy Grail.
Let’s think about this… mike roddy states on Oct 2, 7:33 AM – “…As in deaths from historic heat waves in Russia, France, and India.
There’s a lot more to come. Try reading the scienco on the subject. And yes, Anthony Watts and Tom Fuller will share responsibility for these horrors.”
Hmmm we’re not to use the German N-word (I stand by this)… but Mike Roddy can come on here and accuse Anthony of being complicit in genocide. I would suggest a Wall of Shame thread so that comments such as these could be moved OUT of the thread they are dropped in and into somewhere that they can hang as grotesque trophies. This could be done until the posters contact you and either explain or apologize for their behaviour in a way that you are comfortable with.
A Temporary Posting Ban could be put in place until they contacted you, Permanent for repeat offenders. Your /mod msg could just note the reason and a link to the comment on the Wall of Shame instead of a bare Removal. Just some ideas on how to deal with hate-mongering trolls. You’ve done an excellent job, thus far with raising the level of debate among us and for this I thank you and I hope the ideas help. I’m not being one-sided, my suggestions offer a chance to make amends or explain and I offer encouragement to hold us all (regardless of what side of whatever debate) to the same standard.
Sorry if my suggestion seems presumptuous but you’ve made an audience out of us that chafes at our respect for your rules when we see someone come on here and accuse you of being a genocidal madman when you helped teach us so much about putting ourselves above that sort of … crap.
Peace to all.
DirkH says:
October 2, 2010 at 11:19 am
“[…] You mean Jabberwocky, not the Holy Grail.”
Oh, i forgot, he directed the Holy Grail as well, together with Terry Jones. Sorry.
DaveF says:
October 2, 2010 at 10:30 am
Jimmy Haigh 9:49am
So was the rabbit in there when you went, Jimmy?
Fortunately it was sleeping off after a feast of Crusaders and I survived to tell the tale…
Richard Sharpe says:
October 2, 2010 at 11:18 am
“[…]Speak to your MP. Send emails to the BBC …”
Don’t. Search for “Richard Curtis” and you find:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11458726
Amino Acids in Meteorites says: “I am wondering too how the writer of the script and the makers of the video didn’t stop to think how people could associate the imagery with Al Quada suicide bombers. ”
Viv Evans says: “why is it that nobody is disturbed by the obvious connection between this video and the suicide bombers in this world?”
Hi guys,
In a nutshell: because it’s not. Longer answer…
At first, I briefly entertained the notion that they were trying to say that skeptics are commiting their own “suicide” in not accepting their message. But if that were the case, the people would’ve pressed their own buttons. And if it were anything like a suicide bomber message, things would’ve been reversed (a few zealots among skeptics) and they would’ve said “die, deniers!”, or something along that line. But that’s not what it was. It was a few skeptics among a throng of believers, executed for not going along with the group.
It’s not a message at all. This just reeked of being their fantasy. One or two skeptics, the desire to just make them go away… Even their “apology” reflected this, in that they believed only “one or two” people found their otherwise “extremely funny” (their own words) message to be offensive.
So there it is. Desperation, pure and simple.
jeremy of W.A. says:
October 2, 2010 at 3:39 am
There’s no self deprecation in the 10:10 piece. In MP terms, the Black Knight insisting on being able to fight despite loosing limbs to “flesh wounds” is
self deprecation (and typical MP silliness).
In No Pressure, the Red Button blowing up the pusher would be self deprecation. The Red Button blowing up those who won’t bow to pressure is simply a power statement – I’m right, you refuse to follow, I’m disposing of you, I will face no consequences.
Katabasis says:
October 2, 2010 at 5:47 am
I’m already sick to death of seeing people who presume to speak for me as a Brit making specious claims that it is a “cultural thing”.
Thank you Katabasis. I understand Monty Python type humor. I didn’t think this video was like it. And I didn’t think the average Brit thinks something this extreme was funny. You confirmed that to me. Thanks again. 🙂
English Monty Python lover says:
October 2, 2010 at 5:19 am
@ur momisugly jeremy of W.A “Go and view Monty Python and the holy Grail. Look up Satire in the dictionary. Then take a course in being British (N.B. work very hard on the Irony / Sarcasm section)”
So you think this film is satire? Been said already by quite a few people, but perhaps you should consider that satire and irony mostly work because they expose and exaggerate underlying truths.
Hmm, interesting. That would confirm what some commenters are feeling, that this movie was actually a threat, a bullying.
mike roddy says:
October 2, 2010 at 7:33 am
“Died” is correct. As in deaths from historic heat waves in Russia, France, and India.
There’s a lot more to come. Try reading the scienco on the subject.
You drank the Kool Aid man.
There are people dying now because of biofuel programs, not 100 years from now in some global warming “science” fiction. Do you care about that?
anna v says: October 2, 2010 at 9:02 am
Heck, you can go further than that. At this stage of the game, for every person who dies from increased warming, four lives are saved from decreased freezing.
Gore-rrific!
I’m not aware of anyone dying from biofuel programs – you’ve consumed the kool-aide. Have there been some plant accidents I’ve not heard of? Or are you including farm machinery accidents?
The green revolution has spread round the world, and the American farmer no longer feeds the world, he just produces as if he still were.
Remember, leftists always end up killing millions. Lenin/Stalin, Hitler (National SOCIALISTs) Mao, Khmer Rouge.
Here is a similar piece of propaganda, directed at someone you hate. Persuade the children to eliminate the ‘non-conformists’.
http://www.explonential.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/child_suicide_bomber.jpg
.
jeremy of W.A. says:
October 1, 2010 at 9:26 pm
‘blah blah’
I think General Mc Auliffe’s response to other agents of coercive authoritarianism , whilst not very British (which I am), is most appropriate to patronising bollocks about senses of humour:
“Nuts”
From Telegraph article …
No remorse, no apology, premeditated and timed to perfection. These folk are more dangerous than at first perceived. Underestimate the deviousness of fanatics at your peril, especially the ones exhibiting classic behavioural idiosyncrasies.
AndyW says:
October 2, 2010 at 6:05 am
Interesting how the number of posts on these blog posts differ between science and entertainment.
A really scientific post = 50 posts
A post on a film – 5000 posts
Shows how much this entire blog just falls into entertainment for the masses and not something doing much good ?
Andy
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Most of us (usually) know enough to shut up, when in over our heads.
Anthony is nice enough to put up “entertainment” posts, to let us “masses” join in the conversation. That’s why this site is so successful.