Coup de Culture: Media—One-Sided Panic Mongers

The coup de culture, as I have defined it, is the process by which the reigning cultural value system of human exceptionalism—which is itself founded in the moral philosophy of Judeo-Christianity/humanism— is being subverted and replaced by a new paradigm steeped in utilitarianism/hedonism/radical environmentalism. The consequence has been an all out attack on the unique importance of human life, pounded constantly into the consciousness of the general population by outlets of popular culture and a biased media.

The coup relies on hyper alarmist rhetoric so that its value presumptions and assertions won’t be challenged. Here’s a case in point on the radical environmental front. The global warming ideologue James Hansen is once again warning that we are all doomed if we don’t immediately destroy (what is left of our) economies so as to stop carbon emissions. We only have four years! From the story:

Soaring carbon emissions are already causing ice-cap melting and threaten to trigger global flooding, widespread species loss and major disruptions of weather patterns in the near future. “We cannot afford to put off change any longer,” said Hansen. “We have to get on a new path within this new administration. We have only four years left for Obama to set an example to the rest of the world. America must take the lead.”

Hansen said current carbon levels in the atmosphere were already too high to prevent runaway greenhouse warming. Yet the levels are still rising despite all the efforts of politicians and scientists.

Only the US now had the political muscle to lead the world and halt the rise, Hansen said. Having refused to recognise that global warming posed any risk at all over the past eight years, the US now had to take a lead as the world’s greatest carbon emitter and the planet’s largest economy. Cap-and-trade schemes, in which emission permits are bought and sold, have failed, he said, and must now be replaced by a carbon tax that will imposed on all producers of fossil fuels. At the same time, there must be a moratorium on new power plants that burn coal—the world’s worst carbon emitter.

That could lead to brownouts and blackouts. It might well also turn a recession into a depression and cause inflation, to boot. Is such a draconian policy really necessary? What do those who might disagree have to say, and on what do they base their contrary opinions? We don’t know. The reporter never bothered to find out.

This kind of media bias is an important issue to which I am going return often because once it is seen clearly, it loses its power to persuade. In subject after subject, whether the culture of death issues, radical environmentalism, or other areas that promote the new cultural order, the media act as conduits for one side. When they report in this way, they cease to be journalists, and play the roll of shill or propagandist.

It seems to me that in a story like the one at hand that seeks to panic us into precipitous action, readers should have been told that China, not the USA, is now the world’s largest carbon emitting country. And how could the fact that this is turning out to be one of the coldest winters in a long time be ignored? Or that the computer models upon which so much of this panic is based have not proved reliable? Or that some of the biggest names in climatology don’t subscribe to the climate change panic? Or, the fact that sea ice grew at a record rate in the last quarter of 2008? Or, for that matter, that the earth is actually a tad cooler today than when President Bush took office? Such contrary evidence might keep us from acting! The new earth religion demands that we sacrifice our prosperity and flourishing to save the planet, no time for questions or dissent! Otherwise, it will be as the alien says about us in the deep ecology propaganda movie, The Day the Earth Stood Still!

And the funny part is that all of this apocalyptic scare-mongering comes from the side claiming the exclusive mantle of rationalism.