Policy By Scolding

We humans have a tendency to want to think ourselves better than our fellows. The dehumanizing isolation of social media has amplified that tendency in multiple ways, and sure as the sun rises such behavior has found its way to our political sandbox.

Among the more blatant "I'm better than you" bits I've seen bouncing around is the scolding coming out of Europe and aimed at Americans' use of air conditioning.

Now, I'm used to Euros telling me/us that Americans are stupid, arrogant, entitled, and what have you. They're not always wrong in some of that, especially when it comes to... foreign policy.

You thought I was going to say tourists, right?

Not that the Euros are apt to turn away either our tourist dollars or our Pax Americana protections, of course.

And pay no mind to the lower overall standards of living that those who live on that side of the pond "enjoy." Welfare states will do that, ya know.

Even as a kid, I got to "enjoy" (yes, scare-quoted twice) European scolding - whether it be about my excessive use of ice cubes (they are expensive!) or America's bully-boy foreign policy (read this to roll your eyes a bit), so Old World attitudes are nothing new.

The point of such behavior is to, via shame or intimidation or faux-moralizing, induce a change of behavior more to the scolders' liking. So it goes with the latest iteration of sky-is-falling warmism histrionics.

We have grown too accustomed to comfort and ease, the narrative goes. Whether it be heat in the winter, air conditioning in the summer, comfortable cars that take us precisely where we want to go (vs trains that take us where they want us to go), big houses, year-round fruits and vegetables, or a daily venti CRF cali style no caramel on the bottom no whip with a dome lid double cup and caramel on top (ok, maybe they have a point there). The enviro-scolds, the ones who want Wind and Solar and Battery Idiocy miracled into existence, have latched onto their latest buzzword and save-the-planet concept.

They call it "degrowth." It's new enough that the spell checkers haven't learned to bless it yet, but established enough to have a big-ass Wikipedia entry.

It's an extension of the scolding that people who had more than two kids were subjected to in the recent past. More than two is hurting the planet, dontchaknow, and the world would be better off if there was a 90% decline in population, dontchaknow. Of course, those Malthusians never volunteer to lead by example and off themselves - they're much more comfortable with millions of brown people who live far away suffering and dying, whether it be natural disaster or standing in the way of such lifesaving innovations as Golden Rice.

It's why nuclear power hasn't been pushed as the remedy to global warming problems, even though it's the easiest and most obvious. Strike that. It's because it's the easiest. The scolds see global warming as a means to bully or shame, or if need be force, us to live less comfortable lives, and an easy fix is therefore a problem.

Take good note of this: There are people out there who don't want global warming addressed in the best fashion possible, because if it becomes a non-problem, they won't have an excuse to tell us we are bad people. Or to put boots to our necks.

So, the same folks seek to shame, scold, and ultimately stop research that could mitigate warming via geoengineering. They don't put forth "fear of the unknown" or other sorts of Luddite reasons, or if they do, they're masks over the real reason.

This goes beyond global warming, of course. Anyone who opposes the latest Big Government tax-borrow-spend initiative is selfish. Anyone who opposes more restrictions on gun rights clearly has a small pee-pee and is overcompensating for his... shortcomings. Anyone who thinks that the War on Poverty has been a disaster, and that, after tens of trillions in spending, it's time to rein in the handouts, is heartless and uncaring.

Once again, we see the the real division in our society is between those who want to control others and those who don't want to be controlled. The controller wannabes have no shame, of course, when it comes to controlling tactics. Scolding works, because most people want to be liked and fear being shunned. That's all evolutionary. Humans are social creatures, and fear of being deemed "not of the tribe" hits our lizard brains.

But, we can override our lizard brains.

If someone calls you names or tells you you're a bad person for liking air conditioning or other basic creature comforts, feel free to ignore the slings and arrows.

As for nuclear power? People are starting to come around.

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A footnote. After I penned this piece, word came out that the people running the upcoming Olympics games in Paris are not providing air conditioners for the athletes’ dormitories. Because global warming.

America is sending our Olympic contingent with their own air conditioners. Take that, euro-snobs!