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Saturday, November 1, 2014

Global warming's fictional psychosis

Oh where the hell is Thorstein Veblen when we really need him? In his The Theory of the Leisure Class, which I've always thought was written with tongue in cheek, Veblen posits the theory that the social strata and the division of labor have not changed since feudal times. Lords of the manor were replaced by wealthy entrepreneurs such as, in his time, the Vanderbilt's, the Carnegie's and the Astor's. In Veblen's view the the rich could only feel rich if they consumed conspicuously and when personal consumption, as grand as it may have been, was not enough to establish one's bona fides as super, conspicuous, consumer one's friends were invited to help him consume more with parties and galas, with stipends for artists, with employment for yacht captains, with polo ponies etc. He termed this vicarious consumption and the ability to withstand horrendous pecuniary damage attested to one's astounding wealth.
Veblen never imagined a vanity psychosis  which would employ hundreds if not thousands searching for a cure for their afflicted patron but I would love to read his reflections on today's leisure class, who do not populate corporate boardrooms but rather non profit corporations and academia. Pre-traumatic stress disorder is quickly replacing the tried and true stigmata as the affliction of choice in the global warming community possibly because it's harder to disprove. Mark Steyn has already identified Democratic Tourette's Syndrome wherein victims spontaneously shout "Koch brothers" for no apparent reason but this Pre-TSD is presently confined to climate scientists who labor daily in the trenches, prowling for the most apocalyptic denouement that will do in mankind and the polar bears. It's the price they pay for not being taken seriously.
Savor this expository.
"Two years ago, Camille Parmesan, a professor at Plymouth University and the University of Texas at Austin, became so “professionally depressed” that she questioned abandoning her research in climate change entirely.
Parmesan has a pretty serious stake in the field. In 2007, she shared a Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore for her work as a lead author of the Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). In 2009, The Atlantic named her one of 27 “Brave Thinkers” for her work on the impacts of climate change on species around the globe. Barack Obama and Mark Zuckerberg were also on the list.
Despite the accolades, she was fed up. “I felt like here was this huge signal I was finding and no one was paying attention to it,” Parmesan says. “I was really thinking, ‘Why am I doing this?’” She ultimately packed up her life here in the States and moved to her husband’s native United Kingdom."
Sad! Here she was on the top 27 list with Obama and Zuckerburg and the next thing you know she patient zero for Pre-TSD and it's your fault for not paying attention to her. This country really needs a Pre-TSD czar!This person could marshal all the resources of the various federal agencies and departments and private NGO's to help these losers feel good. It's not their duty to worry; it's ours. They shouldn't be feeling bad. We should.

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