In my youth I read the first few books of the Horrible History series on different periods through British history; one piece of history that always amused me was the Witch trials during the middle ages, particularly the dumb ways they used to determine if you were in league with Lucifer.
My favourite was the one in which a person was bound and tossed into a deep river/lake the result was determined thus:
1. If you floated, Satan as your master wanted you alive and was keeping you afloat to save you for all the nefarious deeds you could acomplish shortly before they dragged you to a stake and burnt you as a witch.
Or/
2. You didn't float and drowned, safe in the knowledge that you weren't a witch (doubly important, as I later found out, because your few posessions would be taken from your family and split between the accuser/crown/witchfinder general).
It occurs to me that this has many parallels with the current hysteria surrounding Anthropogenic Global Warming; what remains of the relatively free market has now been accussed of the modern day equivalent of "magic", and in a fit of fear, encouraged by the feckless and useless looters that occupy positions of power for their own gain, is being tossed into a sea of regulations, laws and curbs on behaviour, whose sole intent is to kill it; proving it's righteous credentials once it is damaged beyond repair.
If it survives, adapting to the rules, the regulashoons and curbs on behaviour to remain the most effective means of raising the quality of life in ways it's detractors could never achieve, the outcry from the righteous (TM Leg-Iron) would be so great, their power so amassed through fear and ignorance they would drag what remains to the fire.
What is a certainty with the latest travesty of justice and reason revealed with the ClimateGate scandal is that this "devilish magic" that our capitalist, consumerist society is being accused of is to the best anyone can credibly claim, a minor, almost insignificant, inconvenience; attempts to make them fess up has led to the above witch trials, now revealed for the nonsense rent seeking it truly is.
This is why ClimateGate is so important and I shudder to think what will happen if the witchfinder generals win.
Witchcraft!!!
ReplyDeleteYou're just pretending to be a Christian, but everyone knows that if you really were, you'd care more about the almost extinct polar bear cubs toddling helplessly to their deaths from the melted ice floes, than having the right to fly to the corner shop in your private jet.
And I hope you don't jolly well think that I was being sarcastic just then, you evildoer!
Rob Farrington