Submitted by D.B. Stealey
This article went viral when it was first published. Well worth reading:
“Our planet has been slowly warming since last emerging from the “Little Ice Age” of the 17th century, often associated with the Maunder Minimum.
Before that came the “Medieval Warm Period”, in which temperatures were about the same as they are today. Both of these climate phenomena are known to have occurred in the Northern Hemisphere, but several hundred years prior to the present, the majority of the Southern Hemisphere was primarily populated by indigenous peoples, where science and scientific observation was limited to non-existent.
Thus we can not say that these periods were necessarily “global”. However, “Global Warming” in recent historical times has been an undisputable fact, and no one can reasonably deny that. But we’re hearing far too often that the “science” is “settled”, and that it is mankind’s contribution to the natural CO2 in the atmosphere has been the principal cause of an increasing “Greenhouse Effect”, which is the root “cause” of global warming.
We’re also hearing that “all the world’s scientists now agree on this settled science”, and it is now time to quickly and most radically alter our culture, and prevent a looming global catastrophe. And last, but not least, we’re seeing a sort of mass hysteria sweeping our culture which is really quite disturbing. Historians ponder how the entire nation of Germany could possibly have goose-stepped into place in such a short time, and we have similar unrest. Have we become a nation of overnight loonies?
See full story here:
It’s all about taxes. The European Union is teetering on bankrupcy. They cannot afford to give up this lucretive revenue source. The movement is backed by bankers and accountants more than science.
On another forum:
Tallbloke says:
Tom says:
Nick says:
“Some of the climate change people want this, they want to control the lives of every human and tell them what they can, or cannot do.”
This is starting to sounds like some of those rants I hear about One World Government types flying around in black helicopters. I doubt even Rog, for all his disagreements with the accursed Warmista, would buy into this one.
A couple of years ago, NASA launched a satellite carrying an instrument designed to resolve co2 emission down to 10m. The plan was, to use this to enforce taxation of all emitters, under cap and trade.
The rocketry did a loop de loop and the satellite is now measuring fish droppings at the bottom of the southern ocean.
How we cheered!
I live in the UK, the most surveilled place on earth. You can’t walk down the street without being captured on camera. Your cellphone constantly tells where you are, who you talk to, etc. Your internet provider knows where you surf, what you buy, who you email, what your political views are… The state has access to these records, without the need for a court order. The bureaucrats love having the POWER to snoop and micromanage peoples lives and ‘profile’ them. After all, “they know best”.
Global! Warming! Alarm! gives those who would love to extend this system worldwide the perfect excuse. What you drive, what you eat how much you breathe when exerting, how you heat your home, how you cool your home, how MUCH you heat or cool your home; all these will become subject to regulation, with penalties for using more than has been deemed appropriate by bureaucrats who live well paid and comfortable lives at our expense. To what purpose? The state knows from its scientists that reduction of human co2 emission will have virtually no effect whatsoever on the global average temperature. What it is really all about is making people feel they have to keep their heads down and do as they are told. It’s about social control and political power over individual citizens.
Protest against this gross erosion of our liberty and intrusion into our lives will be tolerated, provided those protesting don’t protest so hard that there’s any danger they might actually change anything.
Think I’m a black helicopter nutcase?
I heard that in America, 9-11 has been used as an excuse to radically extend the powers of the security forces to enter homes, hold people without charge or access to a lawyer, and so on.
Tell me it ain’t so, I’ve always looked to the american people to defend the right of the individual from arbitrary state interference.
But it’s OK they tell us, these powers will only be used against ‘terrorists’.
Jean Charles de Menezes family know all about it.
There are people out there who rank ‘climate deniers’ alongside ‘terrorists’, and they have managed to enter the corridors of power.
I may be over-reacting, but after years of abuse, accusations of malicious intent, insinuations about my mental state, threats and dirty tricks, it can be hard to work out who has the twisted perspective.
Here’s a comment from someone on a website where I criticised a book called “Climate Change Denial: heads in the sand” recently.
56 “And once again, please DNFTT [Do not feed the troll] TB [TallBloke], you are only giving them an opportunity to further their nonsense. It is pointless trying to reason and argue with Dunning-Krugers and ideologues…pointless.”
Haydn and Cook have looked into the fascinating psychological underpinnings of the denialism and “skepticism” movement. The psychological aspect of those in denial or “skeptical” of AGW has been ignored for too long IMO.
What is also interesting (and at times amusing) is that those afflicted with these traits, are so oblivious to their plight (some might say deluded) that they feel compelled to come here and defend their ideology,
The person in question will twist, distort and misrepresent your position….
And here’s a quote from the book itself:
“Just because there a professor of something denying climate change does not mean it is not true, it is just that the professor is in denial. This is why one must make use of the preponderance of evidence in science, the collective view.” – John Cook (“Climate Change Denial”, 2011).
John Cook and his acolytes have a lot to say about the mental state of people who have doubts about the IPCC view of climate change, making frequent reference to Dunning-Kruger, delusion and etc
It’s a scarily brief step from
“The professor is in denial” to “The professor is delusional” to “The professor would be better off keeping quiet” to “The professor has been removed to a mental institution for the good of himself and society”.
First they came for the professor…
Think “It can’t happen here”?
We live in interesting times, when lessons of the dangers of fascism have been forgotten, and we cozily imagine it could never happen again. I’ll just point out, at the risk of falling foul of Godwins Law, that the German National Socialist Party used folk tales about ecology and the preservation of ‘nature’ to underpin their despotism.
The Committee for Anti-Climatic Activities (CACA) is watching you, and has access to all your internet ramblings…
Tallbloke, I’m behind you on that thesis. The written words around the subject are taking on an increasingly shrill tone, a Goebbels-like cadence. Railing, if you will. This time supposedly cloaked in the dispassionate guise of the “climate scientist”. The only problem is, is that despite a mountain of contrary evidence, the tone gets increasingly shrill…how long before weapons get drawn? The Elitist’s warren of privelege is under assult by reasoning people, and believe you me, that hornet’s nest will not go quietly.
Just as reasoning people looked on with impotent horror at the Anschluss, so be it now with the Climato-propagandists. The population is complacent once again. I certainly hope not, but the numbers seem to increase of people who don’t assert a dram of critical thought. They may have a rude awakening.
The recent NPR blog post wherein the poster stated that it was “visions of polar bears” (or somesuch) that swung her heart towards CAGW as the universal cause of everything, is typical of the degree to which reason has been cast aside. It’s painful to read such glurge, because one must consider that people will actually publically endorse such a thing…and expect “action” based on that endorsement.
I’m glad I’m getting old.
@ Tallbloke
The escalation in rhetoric, social/political tension, violence, and threats of violence over the past few years is palpable. I fear it will not end well.
I’m in accord with the first three comments. It will not end soon, and will not end well, but end it will, one way or another.
The only thing that is any measure of comfort is the chance that myself and my family will be in the minority who will be able to afford energy. I dearly hope that the entire world will have access to cheap and abundant energy, not merely some elite minority. It is not looking too favourable for that possibility right now, despite the theory underpinning the movement being torn to shreds daily.
“Surely it’s time for climate-change deniers to have their opinions forcibly tattooed on their bodies.
“Not necessarily on the forehead; I’m a reasonable man. Just something along their arm or across their chest so their grandchildren could say, ‘Really? You were one of the ones who tried to stop the world doing something? And why exactly was that, granddad?’
“On second thoughts, maybe the tattooing along the arm is a bit Nazi-creepy. So how about they are forced to buy property on low-lying islands, the sort of property that will become worthless with a few more centimetres of ocean rise, so they are bankrupted by their own bloody-mindedness? Or what about their signed agreement to stand, in the year 2040, lashed to a pole at a certain point in the shallows off Manly? If they are right and the world is cooling – ‘climate change stopped in the year 1998′ is one of their more boneheaded beliefs – their mouths will be above water. If not …
“OK, maybe the desire to see the painful, thrashing death of one’s opponents is not ideal. But, my God, these people are frustrating. You just know that in 20 years’ time, when the costs of our inaction are clear, the climate deniers will become climate-denial-deniers. “Who me? Oh, no, I always believed in it. Yes, it’s hard to understand why people back then were so daft. It’s so much more costly to stop it now.”
“That’s why the tattoo has its appeal.
“Not that the other side isn’t frustrating. There’s a type of green zealot who appears to relish climate change. Every rise in sea levels is noted excitedly. Every cyclone is applauded and claimed as a noisy, deadly witness for their side.”
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/the-dangers-of-boneheaded-beliefs-20110602-1fijg.html
Thanks a lot for the primer. I had not seen it and I enjoyed it. The website is in Middlebury, Vermont home of Middlebury College, arguably one of the bastions of Leftism in the US. Yet the college advertises on the website. I guess there are some cool folks at the college.
TallBloke,
It is truely frighteneing….because what these people don’t realize is that when it comes down to the nitty-gritty, Americans will not fold like a cheap suit…like the sissy Europeans did.
The Left will actually have to violently force Ameriacns to this type of living, because they don’t have the numbers on their side, and the American Military will never turn on it’s own people.
Why do you think they are so aggressive with trying to ban weapons?
They have a surprise waiting for them if they keep this up!
Curiousgeorge says:
June 6, 2011 at 4:01 pm
@ Tallbloke
The escalation in rhetoric, social/political tension, violence, and threats of violence over the past few years is palpable. I fear it will not end well.
==============================================
Not so, it may not go well for a time, but it will end well. You see, I know some things about conflict. Cowards are the ones conflict doesn’t end well for. They can tattoo that. (Or fantasize about blowing up innocents because of the concept.) Or whatever cowardly act they wish. There are still enough freedom loving(and freedom desiring) people in this world to make a positive act toward securing such freedom, not only for them, but also for generations to come.
This is not to say we don’t have work to do, but we’re moving in that direction now. We sat complacent for too long. But, the usurpations and threats of usurpations have awaken the masses. The wealth is being stolen and they are angry. These totalitarian lunatics will either sit down and shut up for a spell or go the way of Stalin, Pot, Hitler and the rest.
From Samizdata, 2008:
It’s gotten worse since then. Much worse. And they’re still at it.
Best description:
GreenShirts
Fits in well with them using the term deniers.
Thanks
JK
Smokey: Sounds like Australia today. That’s why I would never live there
I remember when Peden’s article was rejected by the Addison Independent.
And he is right. Leftwing politics seem to be the prime forcing agent of AGW.
“Before that came the “Medieval Warm Period”, in which temperatures were about the same as they are today.” and “Thus we can not say that these periods were necessarily “global”.
Towards both posits, skeptics have advanced science enough to know they are not true. I recently grabbed this from another commentator here……but I can’t remember whom, but they have my thanks.
http://pages.science-skeptical.de/MWP/MedievalWarmPeriod.html
Further, towards the temps……. we know by recent melting in Greenland, the MWP was significantly warmer than today. They grew grain up there! When rye becomes a cash crop in Greenland, we can state that the temps are similar to the temps during the MWP, but, not until then.
tallbloke says:
June 6, 2011 at 4:29 pm
Some Australians certainly seem to have a very bad case of AGW disease.
On your first point: those comments from warmists look decidedly like projection to me.
See full story here:
http://www..middlebury.net/op-ed/global-warming-01.html
Could use some updating.
For example, Sen. Inhofe’s site which did show “more than 400+” now shows “More Than 700 International Scientists Dissent Over Man-Made Global Warming Claims ”
Here:
http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Minority.Blogs&ContentRecord_id=2674e64f-802a-23ad-490b-bd9faf4dcdb7
The Progressive Agenda has been to trick the masses into their World View. It has worked for quite sometime….The Problem?
The Problem has been that Americans are typically moderate people, and the Progressive World View is quite Radical….so they are attempting to require people to decide against their gut instincts, and Free-Thinking people will naturally never feel quite right about it, and they will always instintively question the agenda. This has been a major problem for them, and now the Left is getting desperate, and are developing similar tactics as did the Gentelmen of the 1930’s Germany did.
It is my opinion! Take it for what it is worth!
But….go to a Left Wing Economics Blog and do battle with them about what the direction of the Economic System is America should go and things become a little more clearer!
@ James Sexton:
Ergot, thy name be Wry. Later distillations produced some mighty lofty Kool-Aid.
/sarc (just in case)
pat says:
June 6, 2011 at 4:45 pm
“Leftwing politics seem to be the prime forcing agent of AGW.”
===================================================
Of the people that I mentioned in my earlier post, they all had one obvious fiscal commonality. Joe McCarthy wasn’t too far off. Its sad because there are some misguided yet well meaning leftists. They just don’t see the human suffering caused by such misguided concepts and precepts.
jim karlock says:
June 6, 2011 at 4:42 pm
Best description:
GreenShirts
Fits in well with them using the term deniers.
I prefer the term I coined: the Warmista
It doesn’t take the plural, it is a group noun so it is already ‘plural’, no ‘s’ required. Very few get the reference.
Probably a good thing too.
The link to Nazi Germany is relevant. The same central planning type of thinking that prevailed in Germany before WWII is driving this hysteria. It’s worth reading Friedrich Hayek’s “The Road to Serfdom” to see the pattern.
The abuse of the word Science isn’t new. Until recently, I assumed that Nature Magazine, which is central to the peer review process for so many of the CAGW papers, had been pure until recently taken over. Then I read Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom. He wrote it during the Second World War and quotes from an editorial in Nature:
“The contribution of science to the war effort should be a major one, for which the Scientific Advisory Committee may well be largely responsible. Moreover, the work must not cease with the end of the war. It does not follow that an organization which is satisfactory under the stress of modern warfare will serve equally well in time of peace; but the principle of the immediate concern of science in formulating policy and in other ways exerting a direct and sufficient influence on the course of government is one to which we must hold fast. Science must seize the opportunity to show that it can lead mankind onward to a better form of society.”
The dictatorial thinking that led to German socialism, then National Socialism, finally led to the EU and its Global Warming scam.
“As we can see above, carbon dioxide absorbs infrared radiation (IR) in only three narrow bands of frequencies, which correspond to wavelengths of 2.7, 4.3 and 15 micrometers (µm), respectively. The percentage absorption of all three lines combined can be very generously estimated at about 8% of the whole IR spectrum, which means that 92% of the “heat” passes right through without being absorbed by CO2. … If the entire atmosphere were composed of nothing but CO2, i.e., was pure CO2 and nothing else, it would still only be able to absorb no more than 8% of the heat radiating from the earth.”
All the sciences are in a similar quagmire: they take a small bit player in a system and make it the Almighty Driver. So we have DNA determining behavior and cognition, the infinitesimal force of gravity forming galaxies and stars, and manmade CO2 driving earth’s climate.
But this comes with a price – experts who know best become fixated with engineering others’ lives, and alternative scientific views and theories become instant “psuedo science.”
Alec Rawls probably sums up the IPCC corruption best: “What I found interesting in the IPCC report is how blatant the statistical fraud is, omitting the competing explanation from the models completely, while pretending that they are using their models to distinguish between anthropogenic and natural warming. These people are going to hang on to their power grab until the bitter end.”
Errata: Mann’s “Hockey Stick” (ca. 1998) was certainly not published with the IPCC’s First Assessment Report (1991); it was the Third Assessment Report (2001).
Mike Bromley says:
June 6, 2011 at 5:02 pm
@ James Sexton:
Ergot, thy name be Wry. Later distillations produced some mighty lofty Kool-Aid.
/sarc (just in case)
================================================
lol, Mike, I know Anthony likes us to do that, but I think so much is lost in the humor, that I wish people wouldn’t. Yes, I, myself, have gotten bent out of shape over some missed wryness, but when that occurs, it suffices to say “James, STFU, I was only kidding” or something of that nature. Then the humor is even more effective. BTW, puns and wordplay is much fun for me.
I happened to see about 5 minutes of the Weather Channel today, which I normally don’t turn to for any weather information. The tripe that the weather channel spouts is just incredible. According to them, all weather that is not average is due to global warming caused by CO2. This is what people hear constantly, and most of them believe it. They also made the claim that hot weather causes more deaths than cold, despite statistics that say otherwise. The denier label has been applied to the wrong side of the debate.
Considering the current political climate, it’s a great time to move out to the country and become more self-sufficient. That’s what we did. Now we are teaching our children how to raise animals and grow their own food. We do not pay the electric or gas companies. For now it’s freedom, but for later it could mean survival.
Charlie Foxtrot says:
June 6, 2011 at 6:32 pm
…
The denier label has been applied to the wrong side of the debate.
True dat.
That is a really, really long entry. I’ll sumarize an important part:
“Man-made CO2 doesn’t appear physically capable of absorbing much more than
two-thousandths of the radiated heat (IR) passing upward through the atmosphere.
And, if all of the available heat in that spectrum is indeed being captured by the current CO2 levels before leaving the atmosphere, then adding more CO2 to the atmosphere won’t matter a bit.”
This is what I’ve said for years….
CharlieFoxtrot says, “I happened to see about 5 minutes of the Weather Channel today, which I normally don’t turn to for any weather information. The tripe that the weather channel spouts is just incredible. According to them, all weather that is not average is due to global warming caused by CO2. ”
And who is a large owner of the Weather Channel (majority owner)?
The very same owner has a large piece of The Economist.
Both are a mouthpiece for the CAGW hypothesis.
Please Google it if you are interested because I would rather not name the owner in case it causes offense.
What the agenda is I do not know. Possibly CAGW diverts attention from issues in our western political system (corruption) that have allowed banks to become too powerful. Possibly there may be another motive such as increasing taxes and “world government” or control of all activities by the elite.
Whatever the motives, one cannot but be worried that our media might be subject to manipulation.
Does anyone have data on exactly how much heat is trapped by the atmosphere as a percentage. The reason I ask is that if it is greater than 8% CO2 is not a greenhouse gas, and the numbers I have seen from Pro-AGW websites all hover around 50%. Which unless the past four years of science have failed me an atmosphere of pure CO2 would be a lot like Mars, oh wait they do have an almost pure CO2 atmosphere already.
Editor’s Science Bio
James A. Peden
D.B. thought that was me, but sadly it’s not.
The warmista seem to believe that cold, hungry and angry people will just lie down and die.
I’m into my eighth decade and might just live long enough to see the start of Hell on Earth.
An excellent article 7th June 2011 in Financial Post. Please take the time to read it
http://opinion.financialpost.com/2011/04/07/climate-models-go-cold/
David Evans consulted full-time for the Australian Greenhouse Office (now the Department of Climate Change) from 1999 to 2005, and part-time 2008 to 2010, modelling Australia’s carbon in plants, debris, mulch, soils, and forestry and agricultural products. He is a mathematician and engineer, with six university degrees, including a PhD from Stanford University in electrical engineering. The comments above were made to the Anti-Carbon-Tax Rally in Perth, Australia, on March 23.
—-I wouldn’t agree that the Little Ice Age began to ease in the 17th century. I have been reading a book (A natural History of Selbourne by Gilbert White) which is a collection of letters by a vicar of a small village in southern England to a couple of friends over 20 or so years. It’s mainly about the wildlife over the seasons in the area but it also mentions the weather at that time, which is the late 18th century.
For January 1768 he mentions that it was so cold that the thermomenter reached -14F INDOORS, and that the snow reached the tops of the hedgerows.
As well as this record, there were Frost Fairs held onn the River Thames until 1814, and don’t forget that Christmas Cards were ‘invented’ in the mid-19th century and always depicted heavy snow at Christmas.
—-PS — I notice that the minus sign was on one line and the 14F on the next: it was supposed to be ‘minus 14 Farenheit indoors’ in January 1768.
[Reply: It depends on your browser. On my screen it’s all on one line. ~dbs, mod.]
Good post, Tallbloke!
When I was a kid my Grandmother used to lecture me about ‘the road to hell being paved with good intentions’. I used to think that this old maxim was applicable to Warmista, but now I seriously doubt the good intentions and instead see malicious intent behind the remorseless erosion of freedoms. A couple of years ago, I become involved in the ‘Neighbourhood Watch’ scheme in our part of suburban London; I was amazed at the high level of surveillence that the London Police deem to be reasonable and a normal part of their anti-crime and anti-terror strategies. While I must admit to being nervous of terrorists, particularly the homegrown variety, and not at all sympathetic to the criminal class in general, it seems to me that the authorities here use an authoritarian strategy as an ambulance at the bottom of the cliff rather than a humanist one which would put fences at the top of the cliff, in that the level of deprivation which are normal for many of the teenage kids I taught in suburban Comprehensives (High Schools) seems a sure way of ensuring a good supply of anti-social behaviour, anti-Brit attitudes and just plain old common-or-garden deviant behaviour and does not seem to be seriously addressed by any politicians. The violent, criminal and irresponsible behaviour by students that I witnessed in classes on an ongoing basis opened my eyes to the incredibly low levels that sections of a so-called civilised society can sink to when no-one cares enough to do something positive about their lot in life. Municipal authorities with shrinking incomes that prefer to close libraries and close down facilities for the very young and the very old in favour of hiring ‘climate change managers’ is a symptom of a society that has lost both its way and its humanity.
In my view, the ruling elites have taken the cynical view that the techniques of former Comunist regimes should be applied in the UK to enforce the laws and curtail the hard-won rights and freedoms of the ‘peasantry’. The global warming scam is a convenient device that enables those elites to tax the populace in order to make up the shortfall in the economy caused by the majority of the ruling elites’ own collective stupidity and old-fashioned greed. Most of that group here are apparently uninterested in science, ethics and morality but most interested in pursuing their accustomed easy money and unending priviledge, as witness the apallingly inept and incredibly expensive Climategate whitewashes. The criminality exposed in the Parliamentary Expenses Scandal and the (small) number of members of both Houses who are now serving jail sentences for various financial crimes is telling of their attitudes and their overweaning sense of entitlement.
When the previous UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his environmental lieutenant Ed Milliband scorned sceptics as ‘flat earthers’ and ‘deniers’ after the watershed events during and after the Copenhagen environmental debacle, I suspected immediately that they were using those tactics to prop up a Marxist-style con. I have seen nothing that convinces me otherwise.
Oh, but the science IS settled. It says that despite the continued steady rise in CO2 concentration global tempertures have been steady (if fluctuating) sine 1995. My authority is none other than Professor Phil Jones of the Climate Research Unit (courtesy of one of his emails).
The MWP was warmer than today by 2C and recent research shows that it was a world wide event. (See CO2 science web site for list of papers. http://www.co2science.org)
A previous warm period, the Roman Optimum, was warmer still. Evidence? Red grape vines were grown to the north of York in the UK. The same grapes now grow as far north as Dijon in France some 300 miles south and several degrees warmer than York today.
It is easy to use good proxies for past climates no need for anyone to actually do measurements at the time.
What is needed to counter the Warmista assault is organization. Look at all of the existing formal organizational structure they have going for them. I’ve seen nothing equivalent from the rational people inhabiting this rock.
Have we become a nation of overnight loonies?
No, I think if you look back in history you will find the Human race have always been loonies. Clever loonies I grant you, but loonies none the less.
Curiousgeorge says:
What is needed to counter the Warmista assault is organization. Look at all of the existing formal organizational structure they have going for them. I’ve seen nothing equivalent from the rational people inhabiting this rock.
The Warmista are organized by individuals at the top who stand to gain personally and politically. Who would you nominate to organize the skeptics? (And would the nominated organizer accept?)
TonyG says:
June 7, 2011 at 8:47 am
Curiousgeorge says:
What is needed to counter the Warmista assault is organization. Look at all of the
The Warmista are organized by individuals at the top who stand to gain personally and politically. Who would you nominate to organize the skeptics? (And would the nominated organizer accept?)
That’s a very good question, which I have no answer to. Hopefully, someone will step up who embodies the following qualities. Measure the candidates for public office by this.
GOD, give us men! A time like this demands
Strong minds, great hearts, true faith and ready hands;
Men whom the lust of office does not kill;
Men whom the spoils of office can not buy;
Men who possess opinions and a will;
Men who have honor; men who will not lie;
Men who can stand before a demagogue
And damn his treacherous flatteries without winking!
Tall men, sun-crowned, who live above the fog
In public duty, and in private thinking;
For while the rabble, with their thumb-worn creeds,
Their large professions and their little deeds,
Mingle in selfish strife, lo! Freedom weeps,
Wrong rules the land and waiting Justice sleeps.
Josiah Gilbert Holland
Carl Chapman, I happened to order Hayak’s ‘Road To Serfdom’ only today. And there is a groundswell of sceptical opinion here in Australia despite Socialist ABC and Fairfax media. Our government is sinking fast in the polls. Only got in with the support of the minority Greens.
Curiousgeorge says:
That’s a very good question, which I have no answer to. Hopefully, someone will step up who embodies the following qualities. Measure the candidates for public office by this.
Problem is this:
Men who possess opinions and a will;
Men who have honor; men who will not lie;
Nobody wants to hear the truth, whatever the truth may address. We’re happier electing leaders who tell us the lies we want to hear and blame the opposition for everything that goes wrong, while all the while it matters little which “side” is in charge.
As for a skeptic leader, I would nominate Anthony, but I suspect he would decline.
Gilberts poem is idealistic, no doubt. But if we do not have some standard by which to judge those who would lead, then we may as well throw in the towel right now.