Aren’t you conflating two different attitudes?
One is techno-optimism. We are self making gods. Our fate is in our own hands.
The other is old fashioned fatalism. We are the playthings of the gods. It is what it is. — apokrisis
So the problem isn’t “media” in the sense of public misinformation. The problem is much deeper. It is in the mind of the global social organism receiving any message. Our collective identity is predicated on the exponential growth that became a thing with the industrial revolution. — apokrisis
If the path of least resistance is to go on pretending to deal with an existential threat then that's the path we'll most likely take right past the point which it's too late to do anything about it. — Baden
The disaster movie and the disastrous headlines psychologically relieve us of the will to act. — Baden
We are not going to go out on the street protesting until our crops are dying and we don't have enough to eat because only then social reproduction is really threatened. — Baden
Hmm. I’m a little unclear as to what you man here. If you’re saying the real problem is the idea of constant economic growth and expansion, I think that’s a big part of our problem — especially in destroying the environment. — Xtrix
My point in the OP is that we have failed to appropriately react to the unprecedented threats we face, and that one explanation is that of simple hubris — we believe we can’t die. I think religion and media contribute to this hubris. — Xtrix
Does anyone really fear death given its inevitability and the fact sleep comes for us every night?
As social animals, if we are hardwired for anything, it is to defend against threat to our tribal identity. We are quick and reckless in our willingness to sacrifice ourselves for that.
The impact of exponential growth seemed a issue that any simpleton could understand when I was doing ecology in the 1970s. By about 2000, I had already concluded that folk weren’t going to react.
Changing the world seems easy compared with being asked to change your self - to challenge the unconscious roots of your standard issue modern world identity. — apokrisis
Still blaming illusions, religion, witchcraft, irrationality, for the problems of science and technology? No, it is not the insane who are destroying the world, but the reasonable, pragmatic, scientific, progressives. — unenlightened
One is techno-optimism. We are self making gods. Our fate is in our own hands.
The other is old fashioned fatalism. We are the playthings of the gods. It is what it is. — apokrisis
There is no definite determination what causes the global warming. — god must be atheist
Based upon that accepted standard, consensus is extremely high (97-100%) that global warming is human-caused. — Pantagruel
But I am not convinced that that alone is the only contributing factor. — god must be atheist
Since preindustrial times, the atmospheric concentration of CO2 has increased by over 40%, methane has increased by more than 150%, and nitrous oxide has increased by roughly 20%. More than half of the increase in CO2 has occurred since 1970.
https://royalsociety.org/topics-policy/projects/climate-change-evidence-causes/basics-of-climate-change/
For the purposes of this thread not being derailed, we accept the scientific consensus that humans cause global warming and the focus is on a more specific question. If anyone wants to argue otherwise, try the general climate change thread. — Baden
Any ideas? — Baden
This is exactly what I mean. It’s all done with a kind of mock realism, a semi-plausible story, to suck you in. But always with a happy ending. Don’t Look Up is the only one that doesn’t do that. I consider it the Dr. Strangelove of climate change. — Xtrix
I’m saying the problem is deep rooted as modern identity has been constructed around the “limitless growth” that fossil fuels promised. Our political and social economy is premised on it. — apokrisis
Thus to fix the problem, it is not just about providing better information. It is about redesigning the very psychology at work in “tackling the threat”. — apokrisis
Does anyone really fear death given its inevitability and the fact sleep comes for us every night? — apokrisis
Still blaming illusions, religion, witchcraft, irrationality, for the problems of science and technology? No, it is not the insane who are destroying the world, but the reasonable, pragmatic, scientific, progressives. — unenlightened
Without this will to survive that comes out as a feeling of invincibility, the species would not face challenges that it otherwise does. — god must be atheist
We don’t expect rationality from religious belief or entertainment, yet neoliberalism and financial engineering have been far more directly responsible for keeping the global self-delusion of limitless growth going. — apokrisis
Thus to fix the problem, it is not just about providing better information. It is about redesigning the very psychology at work in “tackling the threat”. — apokrisis
Just taxing carbon could have done the trick. But politics is too corrupted by industry. We’re fucked I’m afraid. — apokrisis
Again, here I would include this as “religion,” using a fairly broad definition. In the OP I mentioned Christianity especially, but only in response to the problem. — Xtrix
So the Church of Self-Actualisation and Limitless Growth? :smile: — apokrisis
I’m just not sure what calling it religious buys you in terms of rational analysis here. — apokrisis
Fossil fuel had to be entropified if it was technically possible. It was just sitting there waiting for a suitable speck of the right organism to land on it. — apokrisis
What this organism thought it was about - its religious beliefs - were quite irrelevant. An enabling fiction. — apokrisis
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