Whoever says young people are all mindless slackers hasn't met a College Republican. Not all of them look like H.R. Haldeman's younger brother, you know. And some of them think a bit like Abbie Hoffman's smarter brother. The "Global Warming Beach Party" and "Global Cooling Snow Cone" are two street-theater ideas whose time have come, and the College Republicans bring those ideas--when school is in session, at least--to humorless liberals on campuses across America. Bravo. When reason fails, there's always ridicule. The College Republicans aren't called "the best party on campus" for nothing.
It's great that CRs are making such a big deal about making light of something that could have catastrophic consequences for the world, yet they denounce chapters that use street theatre like affirmative action bake sales, whites only scholarships, or illega alien tag.
I find the urgency of those in the environmental movement to "do something" rather funny. Assuming that we are all done for and everything in Al Gore's movie will come to pass, is there really anything we could do at this point in time to change things? Absolutely not. We can't undo the damage of the past 100 years or so with a few years of intense government planning on a global scale (if government planning could even work, or work on a global scale).
Some environmentalists have already flat out stated we are past the point of no return. Either we already past the point, or are so close to it as to have practically done so. Sit back and relax. Enjoy the show. When or if it ever gets unbearably hot where you live, move to Greenland (which should be more spacious if it melts).
Marcus,
You sound like one of the high on emotion/low on information crew here. Given the lack of information proving the theory of global warming I wonder if this issue isn’t just another excuse for the campus slackers to get together and smoke some B.C. bud (the other issues you mention in your post indicate to me that’s the case).
It sounds like you don’t have much of a sense of humor but like George Carlin once said: “The Earth is fine, it’s the people on it that are f***ed.”
Is there a monetary incentive to pushing the GW "threat"? I don't understand why environmentalists who are concerned about reasonable things like water conservation and urban smog are overshadowed by eschatological freaks.
A similar phenomenon was long the case as regards medical research/disease awreness, with AIDS getting the overwhelming show of attention while deaths by it have always pailed to deaths by cancer and heart disease. But AIDS Awareness had an obvious and vocal interest group involved, what is the corresponding constituency for GW? Are luddites that common?
Brian,
I'm having a tough time making the connection between luddites and the GW constituency. Are you suggesting the GW should make better use of modern communications to get their point of view across?
No A.M.,
They are getting their point across just fine don't you think? I mean it is "accepted common wisdom" now that GW is a real threat to the earth (not that I agree with that view), the advocates are shrill, loud, and prominent.
My question is what explains their passion on this issue? I suggested Ludditism as a possible explanation, meaning that the motivation is at root an anti-technological ideology, like what motivated the Unabomber.
Check this one out...the Marquette University College Republicans hosted an "Animal Rights Bar-b-que" last year on campus...nothing beats that one!
Check this one out...the Marquette University College Republicans hosted an "Animal Rights Bar-b-que" last year on campus...nothing beats that one!
No I'm not saying that that there is a general lack of information about global warming, I'm just saying that I personally do not possesss the knowledge to know what the implications are or aren't. However a lot of people who aren't ideological and have done the research believe there are serious effects. I'd also add that I do know that more and more scientists do believe it.
I find it ridiculous that CR types will consistently refuse to look at the implications of say sociobiology or behavioral genteics on the grounds that they don't know enough about it, yet they suddenly become expert climatologists when it comes to global warming.
All arguments about global warming aside, my main point about CRs embracing this "edgy" guerilla theatre, while they have tried to quash any truly politically incorrect things like affirmative action bake sales, white only scholarships, and illegal immigrant tag.
http://chronicle.com/news/article/288/college-republicans-catch-themselves-on-illegal-alien-game
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig5/mattera1.html
etc.
I also think the whole point of guerilla theatre is stupid and unproductive. It gets the group a lot of attention, but it ends up hurting the cause. Case in point: at william and mary we did an affirmative action bake sale. It got shut down by the administration, denounced by the usual suspects and created a great deal of controversy. We got in the spotlight, a few conservative columnists wrote about it, and some republican state reps complained about it. Great, what ended up happening? The school created a NAACP chapter, uppped the funding for the black groups, the black groups got more organized anyway, and the administration expanded the definition of creating a hostile racial environment. What a success!
Interesting confirmation:
http://www.denverpost.com/harsanyi/ci_3899807
