The Illusion/Delusion Factor

There is a slight difference between an illusion and a delusion.

An illusion is simply a false concept or idea where your mind sees something but notes it as simply 'unreal'.

A delusion is where impression of an event or situation, where there is some action going on, where someone or some group is trying to convince you of the wrong thing....in essence fooling you or deceiving you.

Over the past couple of months, there's been this environmentalist type fight going on against wind-mill construction here in Hessen.

The big part of this issue is that wind-mill investors got smart over the past twenty years and know there's only three places where you want to put up wind-mill farms....coastal waters, plateau areas and hill-tops.  This is the only way that you get maximum power for the majority of days throughout a year.

So, the companies have taken up the option of finding forested areas....especially in Hessen....acquiring usage of the property.....which usually state-owned property, and building their wind-mill farms there.  This typically means a fifteen-acre section gets trimmed down drastically of trees and six to ten wind-mills get put up.  Adding to the solution.....you have to find somewhat remote areas now because putting such an operation up....near a village or town...draws negativity and complaints.  It just makes sense to find forested areas.

Well, all of this attracted the negative attention of certain environmentalists.  The pro-tree and pro-green crowd are taking political stands against the pro-wind-mill crowd.

This past week, in Fulda (east Hessen)....roughly six hundred folks came to a local protest against wind-mill episodes.  Last week, using a court injunction.....they stopped the placement of the wind-mills in the Fulda region.  The trees were already knocked down but the enthusiasts were able to stop any further development of the small acreage.  The current political gimmick being suggested is a voter initiative....removing this topic from politics.

How a local vote might come out?  No one can be sure.  Added to the problem.....just how far do you allow the vote?  If this was a local forest.....there might be five or six local villages or towns involved.  If it's a state forest.....I don't see how you allow the voter initiative to occur without the entire state of Hessen voting on it.  Perception by locals?  I suspect if you asked a hundred folks over twenty-one....most would say it's not much of a topic for them to worry about and there's dozens of more pressing issues (immigration, jobs, pension reform, refugees, robberies and assaults, etc).

So, I come to the topic of wind-mills and environmentalism....then stir up illusions and delusions.  For years, everyone felt that something good would come of this magnificent crusade that environmentalists were engaged upon.  Clean power, anti-nukes, cleaning up lakes and river, etc.  Was this crusade an illusion....just something that we felt was going to come and be pure and wonderful?  Or was it a delusion, where some people manipulated the system and deceived us on purpose?

Putting wind-mills on a largely underpopulated and flat area....out of sight....might sound wonderful, but there's no high capacity gain on the wind being there for three-hundred days out of the year.  They need to be on hill-tops and plateaus.   Strangely enough....these are the areas that the German states staked out decades ago....as state-owned forests, and sought to protect.  As much as the environmentalists are trying to achieve one result.....they are screwing up the priorities that were originally part of the system.

And mixing a voter initiative into this?  I hate to say this, but it's purely delusional, with some odd manipulation standing in the midst of the whole topic now.