Note to 10:10 – Monty Python was SUR-realism…
Our buddy over at Pirates Cove wrote a great article (as always) about a very poorly executed video by an ecoterrorist, I mean, eco-CONCIOUS group “The 10:10 Movement”. UPDATED – I missed Cassy’s post on the same subject. Suggest you just read their descriptions of the video instead of watching (at least, that’s what I did)
The description of it reminded me of a couple Monty Python sketches – one from “The Meaning of Life” – famous quote “Just a wafer thin mint“. The other was from “And now, for something completely different” – tag line “How not to be seen.” (note: the “vernacular” in a couple places is …colorful…)
The problem with the 10:10 Movement attempting this kind of humor is that – well, underneath their civilized veneer there is an occasional flash of seething hatred for anyone not like them…it’s difficult to disguise 100% of the time, so the sense of discomfort people have in watching the video is there’s a question about “how much are they joking, how much would they execute if they thought they could?”
In the 1920’s the corner preachers were wearing sandwich boards that said “The end is near! Repent and prepare for God’s judgement” and handed out bibles.
Today, the corner preachers do a poorly executed propaganda film that says “The end is near! Repent or we’ll do the judging and kill you ourselves!”
The difference with Monty Python is that Monty Python’s humor was the absurd and surreal. You never saw John Cleese or Eric Idle trying to give large fat men Andes candies…and they weren’t using their films to promote an idea (um, they were doing COMEDY, not PROPAGANDA).
So, forgive me for dusting off a few questions from my earlier post on “green-topia”
- Random question #11: Are Deep Greens really nostalgic for the 11th century – the ‘good old days’ when we were hunter-gatherers who didn’t “pillage” the earth with agriculture & only took what we needed to (barely) survive? Ah, the good old days of bubonic plague, diptheria, and illiteracy. Monty Python: “Bring out your dead!”
- Random question #15: Assume that “Guns, Germs and Steel” is correct that cereal crops and agriculture led to the ability for a warrior and ruling class to be funded, the result of which was civilization. In Deep Greentopia, civilization ideally doesn’t exist or rise again. If we don’t want civilization we can’t have cereal crops. If the Deep Greens have their way, what will vegetarians eat?
- Random question #14: If Deep Greentopia occurs, what will the status symbol be for the stars who can’t inspire us all with their examples of drinking less bottled water and shopping at Whole Foods? Full set of teeth? Mosquito nets?
Here is a different blog author’s commentary that I found thoughtful on the subject if curious on more analysis of the curiosities of the “deep green” movement, and an UPDATE link from Hot Air where Optimistic Conservative goes further on the theme “we didn’t find it funny because we’re pretty sure you meant it”
Finding Ponies... 
Oregon Guy – agree with you. It’s just a different sort of “faith” and piety they’re promoting. I nearly wrote “I find it odd that the same people who tend to complain about 2000 years of Christian “crimes” and pogroms so quickly fall into the temptation to do the same themselves. Of course, in their minds their cause justifies it because somehow it’s more noble” (tongue firmly in cheek).
I quit the fascination with sci-fi during puberty. But there are still movies that are pretty enjoyable. I remember watching The Arrival</em) (1996) years ago, so when it became available for digital recording over the weekend, I recorded it. Watched it.
"If you can't tend to your own planet, none of you deserve to live here."
Okay, so today the movie is more of a laugh-fest. Here's an alien race, unable to run their home planet, coming to ours in order to run ours. Oh, and there's another buzz-word, "terraforming."
If you want to increase the temperature of earth, just pump out some CO deuce.
But what if these extra-T's wanted to cool down the earth's temperature? Wouldn't we just dump some volcanic dust into the atmosphere? Terraforming. Oh, and then there's time travel and Star Trek's transporter. The transporter was funny in Willie Wonka. But we knew it was fiction.
And, to a great extent, this is Oregon's problem; an inability to discern between what works and fiction.
"If you can't tend to your own planet, none of you deserve to live here."
I think this type of thinking has a great deal of resonance among those who view themselves as either well-educated, or as a member of a socially responsible group. That it's total twiddle is unimportant.
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