Guest Opinion: Dr. Tim Ball

An interesting pattern developed early in the official involvement in global warming. If a person challenged the claim that humans were causing global warming (AGW), it was assumed they were on the political right. If you supported AGW, then you were on the left. This categorization is not related to the science, but to the political nature of the science involved. This occurred in two major parts. The original objective of those using global warming for their political agenda and the marginalizing of those who questioned the science by linking them to industries and their wealthy owners. The author believes the evidence shows that human CO2 is not causing AGW, that the hypothesis is not proved. This article is not written to pick political sides. Rather, it is an attempt to help understand the battles waged and the confusion this created for the public, the politicians, the media, and a majority of scientists.
The world needed the new paradigm of environmentalism. The problem is that a few grabbed it for a political agenda. They used it as a vehicle to take the moral high ground, to claim only they cared about the environment. They argued that everyone else was guilty of environmental destruction because of their avarice and wasteful ways. The debate about global warming is a subset of environmentalism that was also hijacked using the same themes.
At the first Heartland Conference in New York in 2004 Vaclav Klaus twice Prime Minister of the Czech Republic was the keynote speaker. His opening remark that we have just gone through 70 years of communism so why the hell would you want to go back to that brought a standing ovation. It supports the fact that environmentalism and AGW is a political agenda pushed by extremely wealthy and powerful left wing people most of who made their money exploiting the environment. The psychology of that is beyond the discussion here, but consider the hypocrisy of George Soros, Maurice Strong, Bill Gates, the Rockefeller’s, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Ted Turner among many others.
Maurice Strong described himself as “a socialist in ideology, a capitalist in methodology”.
This description appears to apply to them all.
The confusion for the public that wealthy people are also socialists is similar to that about another person. Most people think Adolf Hitler was a right wing fascist, but he was a socialist who also promoted a form of environmentalism. The word “Nazi” stands for National Socialism.
Collectively, most of these wealthy socialists acted through their privileged group called the Club of Rome. The Club was formed in 1968 at David Rockefeller’s estate in Bellagio, Italy. In their 1994 book The First Global Revolution Alexander King and Bertrand Schneider wrote.
“The common enemy of humanity is man. In searching for a new enemy to unite us, we came up with the idea that pollution, the threat of global warming, water shortages, famine and the like would fit the bill. All these dangers are caused by human intervention, and it is only through changed attitudes and behavior that they can be overcome. The real enemy then, is humanity itself.”
They claim the list of enemies is designed to unite people. In fact, it is needed to overcome what they see as the divisiveness of nation-states and to justify the establishment of one-world government or global socialism. They believe that global warming is a global problem that national governments cannot resolve. The changed behavior they want is for all to become socialists.
They finally settled on global warming as the environmental issue best suited for their goal. Of course, the plan was just the beginning. One of my favorite cartoons from the New Yorker showed Moses on the mountain with the Ten Commandments. The caption read “Great idea, who is going to fund it?” Global warming and the identification of human produced CO2 as the problem suited all the political, financial, and pseudo-religious controls a socialist group could desire.
The Kyoto Protocol was presented as a solution to the problem of human-caused global warming. Those who created the Protocol also created the problem. Through the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) they produced the science required to support their claim. It is a well-thought out, well-planned, classic circular argument. One of the early examples occurred in the book Ecoscience: Population, Resources, Environment co-authored by Paul and Anne Ehrlich and President Obama’s current Science Advisor John Holdren. While discussing the non-existent problem of overpopulation they wrote,
Indeed, it has been concluded that compulsory population-control laws, even including laws requiring compulsory abortion, could be sustained under the existing Constitution if the population crisis became sufficiently severe to endanger the society.
The question is who “concluded that compulsory population-control” could be sustained? The answer is the authors did. The next question is who decides “if the population crisis became sufficiently severe to endanger the society?” Again, it is the authors. So, they claim there is a problem, then they decide when it is severe enough to warrant complete suspension of legal controls against such totalitarianism.
More succinctly, they created the problem, created the proof of the problem, then offered the solution. This is what was done with the AGW claim. They assumed, incorrectly, that a CO2 increase causes a temperature increase. They then provided proof by programming computer models in which a CO2 increase caused a temperature increase. They ran the model(s) by doubling CO2, ceteris paribus. The results showed a temperature increase, which proved their claim. Now they could use CO2 as the lever for all their political objectives incorporated into the Kyoto Protocol. Science became the basis of blind faith.
In Kyoto, nations who developed their economies and became wealthy using CO2 were to pay for their sins by giving money to nations who suffered. It was a penance. Catholics paid penance for their sins which included a delay in their entrance to heaven. In the medieval Catholic church, you could buy Indulgences to bypass the punishment. Carbon Credits became the modern equivalent, and Al Gore was the equivalent of The Pardoner selling Indulgences as celebrated in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. With Indulgences and Carbon Credits there was no reduction in the sins. In fact, they encouraged more sins because you simply bought a pass – a get-out-of jail-free card.
Kyoto provided the political basis for the agenda. It was a classic redistribution of wealth that is the goal of a socialist government. Money from successful developed nations was given to less successful developing nations. To collect and redistribute the money required a government that overarched all nation-states. A single world government that managed a world banking system was the ideal. Temporarily the United Nations and the International Monetary Fund would suffice.
Kyoto provided the basis for the financial agenda. Money needed to fund the single world government was a global carbon tax. Many notable people, like Ralph Nader, claimed the tax was the best solution to stop climate change. Funding was part of the plan for the 2009 Copenhagen Conference of the Parties 15 (COP15). The COP can only act on the science provided by the IPCC. Apparently somebody knew the political agenda was based on false science and exposed it by leaking emails from the Climatic Research Unit (CRU). This worked because the scientists controlling the IPCC worked at, or with, the CRU. They controlled key chapters in IPCC Reports, including the instrumental data, the paleoclimate data, and the computer models. They also ensured their presence on the most influential document, the Summary for Policymakers (SPM). The Wegman Report that examined the dispute over the ‘hockey stick’ produced in the 2001 Report recognized the incestuous relationships of the research when they wrote,
Recommendation 1. Especially when massive amounts of public monies and human lives are at stake, academic work should have a more intense level of scrutiny and review. It is especially the case that authors of policy-related documents like the IPCC report, Climate Change 2001: The Scientific Basis, should not be the same people as those that constructed the academic papers.
The leaked information delayed the political process, but it was only temporary. The following year at COP16 in Durban they produced the replacement program called the Green Climate Fund (GCF). It was approved at COP21 in Paris in December 2015.
The process and method of setting up the AGW hypothesis through the UN paralleled those required to form a left wing or socialist government. It automatically identified those scientists who questioned the hypothesis as at least sympathetic to capitalism – guilt by association. It is part of today’s view that if you are not with me, you must be against me. Over the years, a few scientists told me they agreed with the skeptics but would not say so publicly because they were socialists.
Vaclav Klaus was one of the few world political leaders to identify what was going on. He recognized that global warming was a subset of environmentalism. He recognized that it was a blind faith belief system based on no evidence or, at best, manufactured evidence. In his book Blue Planet in Green Shackles, he wrote,
“it should be clear by now to everyone that activist environmentalism (or environmental activism) is becoming a general ideology about humans, about their freedom, about the relationship between the individual and the state, and about the manipulation of people under the guise of a “noble” idea. It is not an honest pursuit of “sustainable development,” a matter of elementary environmental protection, or a search for rational mechanisms designed to achieve a healthy environment. Yet things do occur that make you shake your head and remind yourself that you live neither in Joseph Stalin’s Communist era, nor in the Orwellian utopia of 1984.”
The pattern of identifying those skeptical about the AGW hypothesis as right wing was an inevitable result of the political objective.
I also tend to think that one of the root causes for the trouble caused by United Nations can be found in the lack of robust scientific principles in the governing principles for United Nations climate pane panel (IPCC): PRINCIPLES GOVERNING IPCC WORK. I find the following parts particularly disturbing:
—
Paragraph 1 :
“The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change … shall concentrate its activities …. on actions in support of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change process.”
The prejudice contained in this Paragraph is better seen with an extract from Wikipedia: “The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change .. is an international environmental treaty .. The objective of the treaty is to “stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system”.
Hence the following will be a legitimate interpretation of Paragraph 1:
“The panel shall concentrate its activities on actions in support of stabilizing the greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system”.
Obviously, paragraph 1 in the principles does not nourish a culture of systematic scrutiny, or attempts to falsify parts of the theory about anthropogenic warming. The way of thinking which is crucial to scientific conduct.
—
Paragraph 10 :
“In taking decisions, and approving, adopting and accepting reports, the Panel, its Working Groups and any Task Forces shall use all best endeavors to reach consensus”
Obviously, consensus is a very central value for the Panel. This can be regarded as a dangerous value to endorse – groupthink is a well known cause of unsound decisions – and argument by consensus is a well known logical fallacy.
—
“I regard consensus science as an extremely pernicious development that ought to be stopped cold in its tracks. Historically, the claim of consensus has been the first refuge of scoundrels; it is a way to avoid debate by claiming that the matter is already settled. Whenever you hear the consensus of scientists agrees on something or other, reach for your wallet, because you’re being had.”
– Michael Crichton
I’ll see your headline ending with a question mark and raise you two more.
Fundamentally, one’s view of this issue is theological and philosophical.
Science by itself says nothing without a set of presuppositions or what Del Ratzsch calls “shaping principles”. Most of those on the left and AGW proponents have a “oneist” view of reality – there is no God, nothing beyond material forces at play in the universe. for example, the former head of the IPCC, Rajendra Pachauri wrote in his resignation letter last year, “For me, the protection of planet Earth, the survival of all species and sustainability of our ecosystems is more than a mission. It is my religion and my dharma.”
Thus, for AGW proponents our destiny and the future is determined by combing man and machine as advocated by atheist Yuval Noah Harari in his book, “Sapiens”. The consequence of such ideas is that mankind is destroying the planet by exploitation primarily resulting from capitalism while ignoring the fact that the worst pollution has occurred in former Eastern block communist countries. The ultimate aim is to determine what resources people are allowed to use and how they can use them. This is done by the strong arm of government through the tax code and policy planning. They see CO2 as the sole source of climate variation.
In contrast, those of us who maintain a Judeo-Christian worldview where God exists and is providential in the affairs of humans realize that He made the world and gave us stewardship responsibility. We do not believe CO2 is a pollutant; natural resources are here to help mankind and not delta smelts. We believe innovation comes best from God’s people creating things of value for others. And if something is determine to be harmful, (lead in paint) it is removed and substitutes replace it. We have a long view of history recognizing that there are a multitude of factors that affect climate most of which are naturally occurring.
There’s always meaningful points when the central political motive is touched on by Dr. Ball.
Then there posers like Richard Courtney who come to police labels in the conversation and is a sad example of the sort of skeptic that has assured political decline on the subject for the past 40+ years. Every side interest as a refutation of the basic core alarmist movement and motivation.
Another thread obliterated by RC, not the first time with his wierd British political label reference scaling etc.
cwon14:
Tim Ball’s article is based on historical falsehoods.
I don’t “pose” I state facts and evidence.
“Labels” really do matter when truth is being torn up. Distortion of language is one of the ways people are trying to destroy truth in this thread. I have been responding by defending truth.
Using falsehood damages any case when the falsehoods become exposed. I would have been pleased if I had “obliterated” this thread because I think truth matters and the falsehoods by Tim Ball can only damage opposition to the AGW-scare. The claim that the scare is a left-wing plot is obviously not true outside the US because the left/right split on AGW only exists in the US.
Furthermore, the AGW issue was given its death blow by the Chinese at Copenhagen in 2009. I opposed Margaret Thatcher when she created the scare, and it pleases me that I was able to make a small but direct contributed to the Chinese provision of the ‘death blow’ to the scare in 2009. Meanwhile, your contribution has been to make untrue comments from behind the coward’s shield of anonymity.
Richard
Richard,
Much of your frustration with individuals in this thread seems to stem from the fact that most people do not fully understand socialism or other economic/political models as you or I do. The problem with all these model “labels” is they cannot tell us any more about the reality of economics/politics than the IPCC’s climate models can disclose about weather.
For the sake of argument let’s use the definitions I found below from a web search:
Feudalism – the dominant social system in medieval Europe, in which the nobility held lands from the Crown in exchange for military service, and vassals were in turn tenants of the nobles, while the peasants were obliged to live on their lord’s land and give him homage, labor, and a share of the produce, notionally in exchange for military protection.
Capitalism – an economic and political system in which a country’s trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state.
Socialism – a political and economic theory of social organization that advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole.
Communism – a political theory derived from Karl Marx, advocating class war and leading to a society in which all property is publicly owned and each person works and is paid according to their abilities and needs.
Fascism – an authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization.
I think we can agree we are done with Feudalism and it is most undesirable.
Communism has never, nor ever will be a reality. All attempts to implement, including small “Utopian” experiments, have failed. It is a construct of Karl Marx that will never happen.
Fascism always seems to end up in the hands of bad actors, so I will dismiss this political model as unworkable as well.
So we are left with capitalism and socialism as workable models. But neither exists in the western world as defined. Every country is a hybrid.
Here in the USA I would say we are capitalist. But much of our society depends on socialist constructs. Primary and secondary education is free to all and provided by the government (a socialist concept I strongly support.) Higher education is not free but some is subsidized by government and some is provided by private institutions. The interstate highway system here is a marvel, and created via a socialist construct as well. But generally the US is based on private ownership and most employment is provided by private industry and the self-employed.
Sweden is probably a good deal more socialist and the UK perhaps somewhere in between. But all are capitalist in my opinion since private ownership is basic to their economic models. A little socialism, however, can be a good thing.
Referring to NAZI Germany as left wing or socialist is just nonsense. The place was run by an evil fascist dictator that hijacked a socialist party for his own benefit. The National Socialist Party (NAZI) was run by fascists and its label was a misnomer. You can put lipstick on a pig, you will still have a pig.
I think Tim Ball has a different understanding of “left wing” or “socialist” than you, and mine is likely different than both of you. That has created, for myself at least, a fair degree of confusion about the point he is trying to make.
Oops, intended to sign my name above.
Gregory T Lawn (GTL)
GTL (Gregory):
Sincere thanks for your attempt to provide rational discussion in this thread.
We can all learn from rational exchange and dispute of different ideas. Sadly, it is clear that some others posting to this thread have no desire for rational discussion and they go out of their way to destroy proper debate.
Richard
“Save the Earth Socialism” — the latest leftist secular “religion”
Bible – IPCC Summary
Pope – was Al Gore, now actual Pope
Hell – Earth after runaway warming
The Devil – CO2 was plant food, morphed into satanic gas
Heaven – Living off the grid
Hard to “sell” socialism any other way!
The truth is not very appetizing:
– Chronic slow economic growth
– Chronic high unemployment
– High levels of debt
– Powerful central government
Your points are correct, the digression for some are the cross political allies found in AGW history such as Reagan permitting the IPCC farce on his watch it Thatcher using the scam to promote nuclear power ( she later regretted) to beat coal unions senseless. No doubt some on the right viewed the issues as green splitting.
The broad point Dr. Ball makes is correct, AGW is a leftist design to empower central planning.
cwon14:
First, you admit that right-wing Margaret Thatcher generated the AGW scare. (Incidentally, she did it for personal reasons and not “to promote nuclear power” nor to “beat the coal unions” although her political party was willing to support – at least, to not oppose – her promotion of AGW for those reasons.)
Second, you then say
Your two points are classic fascist ‘double think’ as described by George Orwell in his distopian novel ‘1984’.
The reality is as related in my above post and the link it provides.
Richard
It must be a disappointment to you RC, you’re not a deep thinker at all. Thatcher regretted her enhancement of AGW activism in the end. No, she was never going to state her real motives as she was a politician and in fact overall a good one especially when you considered what followed.
She never “generated” the AGW movement, as if she could. That’s just the sort of stupid comment I associate you with. AGW morfed over decades from other largely leftist academics and greens as a rational to “regulate” industry and energy. “Regulate” in modern governmental speak means “rape, pillage, plunder” private interests for “the common good”. It’s now reached political main stream mass and is linked to the broader totalitarian efforts found at the UN and of course new age left of the west.
You’re mind and limitations of scope are obvious, you take one singular event such as a conservative pandering on AGW as validation of your erroneous broader view. I would suggest you do some research but I’ve never seen a learning curve on any board or any political topic.
“Doublethink” a fascist tool?
The actual definition is in the book itself:
Orwell defines doublethink as, ”To know and to not know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them, to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it, to believe that democracy is impossible and that the Party was the guardian of democracy.”
So as is often the case your reference is erroneous. Pointing out that some conservative leaders have politiced AGW over generation or were in fact duped by academic claims doesn’t invalidate Dr. Ball’s point in the slightest way. It’s a large issue involving tens of thousands subset participants and millions of public opinions. Are they all syncrinized along party lines? Of course not, and what the AGW agenda is today is constantly dynamic. Little is left for example of the Pro-nuclear advocates and anti-co2 sector rationalization. Smothered by Greenshirt mainstream in fact.
You’ve called three people on this board or implied they are “fascist” which I can only say is pretty clueless. I’ve read the whole screed about how the core debate not being largely left or right and that annoying British are more reasoned condescension and twaddle at least a half dozen on other threads over years by now. Your a bully and a thug to boot.
As for your constant sniping about the common use of alias handles, that’s bs as well. The quality of your thoughts are poor regardless if your anonymous or publishing your name. Since the blog is about ideas and impersonal you should judge the actual words and thoughts conveyed. I couldn’t care less about you at all but you are painful quibbler on this and other climate related boards. I’m certainly not alone in your pompous snarky commentary.
So at this point you can kiss off, I hope others would join in on seconding that but of course I don’t care much about needing a “consensus” on the point.
“Fascist”?
I lol but it’s really sad at the same time.
cwon14:
Thankyou for your clear demonstration of obfuscation.
I pointed out your ‘doublethink’. Your response did not and does not remove, alter or excuse your ‘doublethink’.
1.
You admit the AGW-scare was generated by the right-wing Margaret Thatcher (whose every action and every purpose was right wing).
2.
You claim the AGW-scare “AGW is a leftist design to empower central planning”.
Those two points are mutually exclusive and you say you simultaneously believe both.
And whether or not I am a “deep thinker” does not change the fact that your simultaneous embrace of those two thoughts is ‘doublethink’.
I would agree if you were to argue that some left-wing people use the AGW-scare to promote central planning. And I would also agree if you were to argue that some right-wing people use the AGW-scare to promote ‘croney capitalism’. But discussion of those issues would require you to think.
Richard
AGW is a scientific hypothesis, not a leftist design.
The hypothesis has much evidence it is wrong.
The leftist design is creating an imaginary climate “crisis” out of a bad hypothesis.
They know how to use a crisis, real or imagined, to obtain political goals.
The main goal is increasing the power of central governments over corporations.
Another goal is collecting new corporate taxes on energy use, or CO2 emissions, to fund their beloved Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, ObamaCare subsidies programs for the large wave of retiring baby boomers … who failed to have enough children to keep these (legal) Ponzi schemes going.
I am not saying I oppose all the programs — I’m just saying the spending on them accounts for most of the federal budget deficit TODAY … and unfunded spending on the programs is going up as a % of GDP for several more decades as baby boomers retire.
Climate alarmists are not left, right, conservative, liberal, capitalist or socialist. They are dishonest.
They are self important elitists who will use any means too increase their control over sovereign governments and their wealth. Many are just dupes. Your view of socialism is likely colored by the likes of Stalin and Castro but they were totalitarian, not socialist. I will admit similarities to methods employed by climate alarmists and Stalin/Castro, but those similarities are totalitarian, not socialist.
BTW, I am a capitalist.
Global warmunists are mainly leftists.
If you don’t believe that, then you are wrong.
They are mainly dishonest people, and some are just fools believing they are really saving the Earth.
Most skeptics are right wing, or conservative.
I am a skeptical denier (believing the climate is better now than it has been in over 500 years, and is getting better every decade).
I am a libertarian.
I prefer the term “statism” — defining governments by how much power they have over the people — and how much liberty the citizens have.
The founders of the US wanted: Economic Freedom, Political Freedom, Freedom of Speech, and Freedom of Religion
Measurements of statism include how much governments spend as a % of GDP, how much government regulations control people, and how much govt. regulations affect the prices of goods and services.
RG,
What’s the term for someone who believes in the original Constitution and Bill of Rights above all else? Because that’s me.
Iichard Green,
Sounds a lot like the USA right now. Are you saying I live in a socialist country?
Sorry, S/B Richard Green
Yes.
Socialism is typically measured by government spending as a % of GDP.
For the US that’s about 35% of GDP including state and local governments.
35% is far too much goobermint spending to call the US a free market.
45% of GDP would be European-style democratic socialism.
Of course there is more to socialism than just % of GDP, but the effects of government regulations are harder to measure.
If people can’t buy 100-watt incandescent light bulbs that they want, because they are illegal now, that’s socialism too.
I’m not saying a free market is always good, just more efficient than socialism.
A free market that allowed manufacturers to pollute too much (I don’t consider CO2 to be pollution) was not good in the US in the 1970s (or in China now.)
The problem with attempts at pejorative labeling is we all have a different understanding of the labels. Alarmists are wrong on the facts; the IPCC models are falsified based on actual observations, the hypothesized water vapor feedback response from increased CO2 has not happened, the expected “hot spot” in the troposphere has not occurred. Whether or not alarmists are socialist, fascist, or capitalist is irrelevant. They are wrong based on the facts, not because you may think they are liberals. So what if they are?
“Most people think Adolf Hitler was a right wing fascist, but he was a socialist who also promoted a form of environmentalism. The word “Nazi” stands for National Socialism.”
It is arguable whether Hitler could be described as a ‘socialist’, if one first accepts that socialism is supposed to be about social acceptance. (Any idea can be taken and exploited for other ends than its’ original intent or meaning, which is arguably what the Nazis were doing with the term ‘socialism’).
More accurately, Hitler was an avowed ‘Social Darwinist’, where survival is a struggle through annihilation. Most ‘socialists’ would not ascribe to that particular form of ideology, which has obvious military connotations.
Central to Social Darwinism was that life was an incessant struggle to overcome and survive, and that to be victorious one has to use all, and whatever, means necessary, (which understandably has its roots in the trenches in WW1); in his later career he simply used and exploited whatever traditional ‘socialist’, or other ideas, he could, including democracy itself, as a means to accomplish political, and later military, objectives. He didn’t care tuppence about ‘socialist ideals’, or democracy, they were simply means to an end. The corporal of the trenches applying his wonderful wisdom to world affairs.
Throughout his career he never waivered from a pretty standard Social Darwinist model, applied within a military, social and political context. Concentrations camps, for example, were a necessary method of annihilation of any unwanted and ‘infecting’ organisms of the host race. If he didn’t annihilate, he believed he would be annihilated (note again, echos of a trench-style mentality of WW1). He believed that without war, a nation becomes weaker. This was the kind of person who determined early to mid 20th century world affairs.
‘Social Darwinism’ was a movement that had undercurrents in the late 19th to early 20th century, particularly on the European continent, and particularly within the military and within academia, and some also argue was the root, and dominant, cause of WW1, and by extension, WW2 also. (Note, to take one lesser known example, that Hitler followed in the tradition of WW1 generals when he dressed up soldiers in stolen Polish uniforms to stage a fake attack in order to justify invading Poland in 1939, repeating the very same thing German generals did in Belgium in 1914, who also deliberately started WW1 because it was core to their ‘Social Darwinist’ model of the world. They actually believed, like Hitler later did also, that war was both a necessary and a good thing. Alot of historians incidentally, echoing Chamberlain, don’t see this and don’t actually understand ‘Social Darwinism’ very well (possibly because it is so psychopathic), and so don’t give it much credence, and so also miss the central reason for so much suffering in the first half of the 20th century).
“In 1987, the Cold War was starting to warm up, but so was the Earth. The Berlin Wall was starting to come down, but nascent political and ideological threats were emerging. Traditional academic disciplines were searching for new language, tools, and answers to interdisciplinary problems. The concept of sustainability was just being introduced, but there was a growing appreciation that problems of the environment, economy, and society were intricately linked.
This idea drove us to create the Pacific Institute. We believed that global problems and effective solutions in the 21st century would require innovative ways of thinking, seeing, and doing.”
http://web.archive.org/web/20130408215829/http://www.pacinst.org/publications/20th_anniversary/page2.html
When your leftist ideology is in tatters you sure will require innovative ways of thinking, seeing and doing so they all morphed into watermelons very successfully.
[dupe? .mod]
“In 1987, the Cold War was starting to warm up, but so was the Earth. The Berlin Wall was starting to come down, but nascent political and ideological threats were emerging. Traditional academic disciplines were searching for new language, tools, and answers to interdisciplinary problems. The concept of sustainability was just being introduced, but there was a growing appreciation that problems of the environment, economy, and society were intricately linked.
This idea drove us to create the Pacific Institute. We believed that global problems and effective solutions in the 21st century would require innovative ways of thinking, seeing, and doing.
For two decades the Institute has been providing unbiased, thoughtful, and innovative analysis and solutions.
Through our efforts and commitment, the Pacific Institute has become a place where we work effectively with the residents of West Oakland one day and the Secretary General of the United Nations the next.
What will the next 20 years bring? New threats to our limited and vital freshwater resources, growing pressures on the environmental health of our most vulnerable communities, accelerating influence of multinational corporations for both good and ill, combating and adapting to climate change, and other threats to sustainability that we have not yet conceived.”
http://web.archive.org/web/20130408215829/http://www.pacinst.org/publications/20th_anniversary/page2.html
Preface to my comment: Tim Ball, you stimulated an important discussion; keep it up!
Let’s first look at the key terms used in his question then consider the answer to his question.
Consider “Religious Socialism”. One way “Religious Socialism” has evolved is that socialism’s intellects have sometimes intentionally developed the strategy to establish itself (the socialist State) as the supreme entity to be worshiped which is then intended to compete with the traditional religions worshiping omnipotent omnipresent supernatural being(s) {aka God(s)}. Another way “Religious Socialism” has evolved is that its intellectuals strategically have embraced the socialistically useful parts of traditional religions (Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Shintoism, Islam, etc) which support such concepts as egalitarianism/ self-sacrifice/ commanded duty/ altruism/ original sin, etc. In both ways, historically it is seen that both the religions worshiping the State & the religions worshiping omnipotent omnipresent supernatural being(s) {aka God(s)} are often being used to justify, validate and implement socialism.
Consider “Environmentalism”. When intellectuals fundamentally link “environmentalism’’ with placing the highest value on a view of nature that claim nature, per se, is a pristine single living entity while at the same time the same intellectuals focus on de-valuing human implementation of applied reason to change/divert that state of nature then the intellectuals have a pre-science position. The nature of ‘pre-science’ is that it is not scientifically sustained and thus it is ‘belief/faith’ sustained. Belief/faith sustained world views include religions of the State and religions of omnipotent omnipresent supernatural being(s) .
Consider “Global Warming”. I think the GW hypothesis, which consists of a subset of climate focused papers, is based on a sub-community of scientists intentionally using a subjective science methodology; where its subjectivity comes from being pre-determined by (subjected to) myopia on the ‘pre-science’ premise that anthropocentrically produced CO2 must harm. GW fits the mode of pseudo-science. It is not objective science; GW is not science independent of ‘pre-science’.
Consider “Effectively”. That is yet to be determined. Right now it is looking like the intellectual proponents are completely dead-ended both by reality and by objectively focused humans who pay close attention to reality.
My simple answer to Tim Ball’s question, given the above considerations, is as follows. I answer yes, and there is a single common underlying concept to socialism, environmentalism, religion and subjective science that explains why it is so.. Viva!
John
richardscourtney on February 25, 2016 at 1:29 am
– – – – – – – –
richardscourtney,
I think a concept of socialism used by Tim Ball is the start of a broad critical discussion. He reasonably sets a context for the idea that there appears to be a common nature shared by: socialism (including its ‘fascism form’); environmentalism {pre-science sourced}; religion (secular {the state}, pagan{Earth worship} and tradition theological); and pseudo-science of the GW hypothesis. I think there is a link but not necessarily the same link Tim Ball offers.
NOTE: you may recall I directly asked Tim Ball about GW links to socialism in the comment section of a September 2015 Tim Ball WUWT post :
.
I appreciate that in Tim Ball’s current WUWT post above, it looks to me that he has given some reasonable treatment in starting on the topic I wondered about.
John
John Whitman:
You start your bloviation saying
Ball’s essay is constructed from falsehoods (see refutation here).
Refutation of the falsehoods is the only discussion of importance when confronted with falsehoods.
Richard
Funny things my charismatic leader told me…stop me if you heard this one before…
Thought Reform and The Psychology of Totalism:
8 traits of the psychological totalist (Robert Lifton)
1. Milieu Control: This involves the control of information and communication both within the environment and, ultimately, within the individual, resulting in a significant degree of isolation from society at large.
2. Mystical Manipulation: There is manipulation of experiences that appear spontaneous but in fact were planned and orchestrated by the group or its leaders in order to demonstrate divine authority or spiritual advancement or some special gift or talent that will then allow the leader to reinterpret events, scripture, and experiences as he or she wishes.
3. Demand for Purity: The world is viewed as black and white and the members are constantly exhorted to conform to the ideology of the group and strive for perfection. The induction of guilt and/or shame is a powerful control device used here.
4. Confession: Sins, as defined by the group, are to be confessed either to a personal monitor or publicly to the group. There is no confidentiality; members’ “sins,” “attitudes,” and “faults” are discussed and exploited by the leaders.
5. Sacred Science: The group’s doctrine or ideology is considered to be the ultimate Truth, beyond all questioning or dispute. Truth is not to be found outside the group. The leader, as the spokesperson for God or for all humanity, is likewise above criticism.
6. Loaded Language: The group interprets or uses words and phrases in new ways so that often the outside world does not understand. The jargon of the totalist environment is characterized by the thought-terminating cliché, which serve to alter members’ thought processes to conform to the group’s way of thinking. The most far-reaching and complex of human problems are compressed into brief, highly reductive, definitive-sounding phrases, easily memorized and easily expressed. These become the start and finish of any ideological analysis.
7. Doctrine over person: Member’s personal experiences are subordinated to the sacred science and any contrary experiences must be denied or reinterpreted to fit the ideology of the group.
8. Dispensing of Existence: The group has the prerogative to decide who has the right to exist and who does not. This is usually not literal but means that those in the outside world are not saved, unenlightened, unconscious and they must be converted to the group’s ideology. If they do not join the group or are critical of the group, then they must be rejected by the members. Thus, the outside world loses all credibility. In conjunction, should any member leave the group, he or she must be rejected also.
http://psychology.wikia.com/wiki/Thought_Reform_and_the_Psychology_of_Totalism
“Free speech…do you want us to commit suicide?” – Vladimir Lenin
Prominent Russians: Vladimir Lenin
http://russiapedia.rt.com/prominent-russians/leaders/vladimir-lenin/
Democratic Workers Party
The Democratic Workers Party was a United States Marxist-Leninist party based in California headed by former Professor Marlene Dixon, lasting from 1974-1986. It has been seen as an example of a political cult with Dixon serving as its charismatic leader.
http://www.thefullwiki.org/Democratic_Workers_Party
“We enter parliament in order to supply ourselves, in the arsenal of democracy, with its own weapons…. If democracy is so stupid as to give us free tickets and salaries for this work, that is its affair.” -Joseph Goebbels
http://politicalquotes.org/node/33555
“We have created our myth. The myth is a faith, it is passion. It is not necessary that it shall be a reality. It is a reality by the fact that it is a good, a hope, a faith, that it is courage. Our myth is the Nation, our myth is the greatness of the Nation! And to this myth, to this grandeur, that we wish to translate into a complete reality, we subordinate all the rest.” Benito Mussolini On Myth
Mussolini, Doctrine of Fascism (1932)
http://www.historyguide.org/europe/duce.html
Sawdust Caesar: The Untold History of Mussolini and Fascism
George Seldes was sent to Italy in 1919 as a correspondent for the Chicago Tribune. He was to report on the “Red Revolution” where he would meet the then Socialist Journalist, Benito Mussolini. Seldes would return to Italy occasionally until he was permanently assigned to Rome in 1924. During his transfer from Berlin to Rome, he stopped at Paris where he met his colleague, William Bolitho. He informed Seldes that the Fascist regime was working to suppress the early history of Fascism and Mussolini.
https://archive.org/details/SawdustCaesarTheUntoldStoryOfMussoliniAndFascism
Karl Marx as Religious Eschatologist
“In short, Hegel’s philosophy constitutes solipsistic megalomania on a grand and cosmic scale.”
The State was critical for Hegel. Again foreshadowing Marx, it is now particularly important for man — the collective organism — to surmount unconscious, blind fate, and “consciously” take control of it by means of the State.
[..]
But there was also a catch. Among the Free Spirit cultists, only a minority of leading adepts were “living gods.” For the rank-and-file cultists, striving to become gods, there was one sin and one alone which they must not commit: disobedience to their master.
https://mises.org/library/karl-marx-religious-eschatologist
“The Hegelian dialectic, two sides of the same coin, creating the illusion of “opposition”…an impenetrable dialectical bubble where the outcome is always the same…dispensing with the existence of individual Liberty for collective Totalism.” – Anonymous