I noticed a piece on Focus (the German news magazine) today, where they interviewed political strategist Ulrike Ackermann. She's studied a good bit on politics and sociology. She's one of the few folks around who has done independent work with various news groups (Tageszeitung, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Die Welt) and even with the public TV crowd over at NDR and SWR.
So the question was posed.....with all this diesel car business, CO2 tax discussions, and kids on this Fridays for the Future obsession.....are we now coming close to this being a 'cult-like' atmosphere.
Her answer? Alarmism is now routine, and that's not healthy for the discussion necessary.
She stresses in this interview....scientific fact has to drive these conversation, and this alarm-type chatter isn't helping the situation.
Her suggestion? A dose of alternate solutions and innovation....rather than trying to prohibit everyone from something. She even brings up the plastic bag chatter, which is now reaching the point where all bags will be forbidden to sell or hand to consumers or customers in the next couple of years. As she says....it's more of a symbolic demand on people rather than having a realistic solution approach.
I've come to agree with this alarmism business hurting the whole conversation over climate change. Generally, with every single problem that mankind has faced over the past 2,000 years....innovation has always been the key factor in fixing or resolving problems. Yet in this area....innovation is always outranked by prohibition or attaching guilt upon things.
Attaching taxes or fees to guilt-trips over climate change? You notice after a while that politicans always love the tax suggestions. Proof that increasing airline fees or gas taxes to get resolution over climate change....never has any proof attached to it that the more money shifted around.....matters?
The facts that kids are now drawn into this discussion? I would suggest that any day now....some Hartz IV (the German welfare program) kids will stand up and put their problems on the board, and demand the climate kids respect their need for change, and taking Mondays at noon off from school to drive the point to the general public.
A 'cult-like' theme in progress? There is no doubt. But trying to pull the curtain back and reveal how cults generally work....would require some folks to question the direction of this particular cult, and how they fell into the alarmism. I just don't see Germans wanting to admit they made a mistake.
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