While my title is flippant, the subject is not. To keep my head straight and not dive into complete sarcasm with running jokes, I am listening to Gorecki Symphony Number 3. Not only hauntingly beautiful, it keeps me somber to the task at hand including the unforgettable second movement’s use of a prayer sketched on the wall by a prisoner in a gestapo cell. (https://www.ncregister.com/blog/gorecki-symphony-no-3-and-the-mother-of-sorrows) It has come to me why this piece is the appropriate music for this essay. Nothing is more formidable, viral and movie star handsome then images of Third Reich officers goose stepping in parades. Even Hitler projected star charisma. How else could such a man convince others that his plans of destruction would lead to Utopia?
Today we are inundated daily with plans to create a Utopia - who and how many will be included in the Utopia is unclear. In one of those ‘good news’ emails was a story from Norway. They are on a mission to return to building with timber to combat climate change. Concrete is presented as the new gas-guzzling turbine. Never mind that it is cheap and lasts forever so a seemingly excellent solution to build housing for large swaths of people. It is now on the no no list because C02 is created to formulate concrete and its use of natural resources. Norway officials are so keen on this idea they are whipping it up to export to other countries - deforestation be damned. If it is good for Norway, it must be good for other countries. Never mind that the country has a population that is around half the size the County of Los Angeles and a population density of about 1/4 of Nigeria. Ironically, while the media was showing Norway’s good side for their PR blitz, they forgot to photoshop that nasty pimple on its chin. Norway is the third largest exporter of gas and with the Nord stream pipeline from Russia mysteriously sabotaged, they are wrapping up production. So while countries are now to feel bad that they are using concrete to build - a concept that surely helps withstand earthquakes, hurricanes and other nasty rebukes by Mother Nature, Norway continues to rely on natural gas to fuel their economy and presumably in their construction of wooden buildings.
This would make for an awkward cocktail party with politicians in California. The state is set to ban natural gas in homes by 2030 all in an attempt to combat climate change. They are seemingly quiet how they will replace the electricity created by natural gas - a reported 37% in 2017. That spin will come later. However, the natural gas ban takes a back seat to the more glamorous virtue signal - the banning of gas powered vehicles by 2035. What this photo shopped virtue leaves out is that the making of an electric vehicle - at this point in time -is not short of extreme exploitative labor and natural resources. Smithsonian Magazine had a brief article on artist Eddy Kamuanga Ilunga from the Republic of Conga. They note how he is obsessed “by the contrast between the rare metallic ore’s vital role as a vital component in the infrastructure of our digital age and the legions of underpaid workers who dig it out of the earth by hand.” Underpaid? Even in Upton Sinclair’s the ‘Jungle”, five year olds weren’t sent to the factories to work but apparently they are to mine for precious metals. Palki Sharma Upadhyay’s piece on Gravitas does a great dive into this.
So what we really have with the great reset are photoshopped virtues that do away with all the bumps and unsightly patches. But what is even worse than the glamorized virtues stripped away of imperfections is the demonization of those in the industries they are attacking. Up until a few years ago those in the concrete construction business surely believed they were providing a service to humanity. New formulations such as Gancrete were heralded as a solution to provide housing on a global scale. Up until recently public buses in California proudly proclaimed they were being fueled by ‘clean’ natural gas.
And what about the history of those gas guzzling vehicles? They transformed the world empowering people to drive their own destiny. During the South’s Jim Crow era, Black Americans could literally avoid being in the back of the bus by driving their own vehicle. Today in California we witness on a daily basis the leveling of the playing field where a $100,000 Tesla shares the road with a 30 year old gas propelled pick up truck with gardening equipment. Both stuck in traffic gridlock that seems by intent.
While the Norwegian and Californian officials may have some awkward conversations on natural gas or clear cutting of forest - a no no in California despite massive fires that have killed people*, they can both be happy about their participation on the high speed propulsion technology being conducted in China Lake, California.
“The Tactical High-speed Offensive Ramjet for Extended Range, or THOR-ER, involves research by the U.S. Navy's Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division, China Lake, California, and the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment and Norwegian industry partner Nammo Group to develop supporting technologies that in the future could be incorporated into a high-speed weapons program.” (US Department of Defense announcement.)
I am no scientist but I don’t think this project incorporates green technology. Well maybe green technology but in the form of dollar currency and not solar panels. And Covid 19 proved to be a great team building event! 'The ability to deliver during a crisis provides valuable reassurance to prospective industrial partners and their future customers.” (emphasis added.)
Future customers? Who are those customers? I don’t think it is me and I don’t think it is you. While I don’t think this technology will help me get to the grocery store in the event of a crisis, I do fear it will prevent me from getting to the grocery store in the event of a crisis.
It is unfortunate that we have leaders - who are not leaders but narcissists - who feed off belittling others to make themselves feel superior. You need to keep a scorecard to keep up with the latest virtues lest you make a faux pax in your outward convictions. Just a few years ago we were to leave trees untouched so they could absorb C02. Now we are to cut them for timber and to clear cut for solar panel installations.
While I look forward to the day that I drive a car powered by alternative energy, I want to do so when I know slave labor is not involved. I also do not want a well paid factory worker to lose their job so I can drive a vehicle that is clean only as an end product.
Like the sausage in Upton Sinclair’s ‘The Jungle” electric car sourcing is not for the squeamish. It is bad enough that my iphone may have been made by an imprisoned Uighur. And why do we need to do away with old technology instead of reformulating it to be cleaner? As the Norwegians have discovered with their timber, applying new technology to old can create a less wasteful way of doing things and linking history to the future creating a sustainable culture. In the same vein, surely if Silicon Valley put their minds to it, our gas-guzzling vehicles would be getting ten times the gas mileage they do now and the extraction of oil - like the harvesting of Norwegian timber - could be done in a much more sustainable way.
We should celebrate the gas-fueled engines and what an amazing impact they have had. But no. The current faddish virtue trumps every benefit yielded by the past. It is time to resist this nonsensical Grim tale, and I do mean Grim not “Grimm” for even they couldn’t have foreseen the nightmares we are enduring. In California they ban single use plastic bags while forcing restaurant food handlers to wear gloves. Try asking them to not put those wasteful things on as they prepare your burrito and they will tell you they “must.” I cringe as I see the piles of used gloves. While I am not privy to what goes on in restaurant kitchens, I don’t think they are wear and disposing of plastic gloves. So this virtue of public health is only for the visible.
The photo shopped virtues listed in this essay are only a few as I intend it to be short. To really list them out would require a bottle of bourbon and a long playlist. But you don’t need me to list them. You have your own list. But it is time to break free. When need to come together like the little ‘Whos of Whoville’ and have our voices heard. We need to come together to say no the non consensual act of “Califorcating” where the latest virtues are glammed up to make officials and celebs look good while we live miserably
** The Paradise fire, and other fires, were caused by aging power lines located in areas with dense dry or dead trees “a fact I can personally attest to from a road trip.” Some argue that the utility company that was responsible for the lines spent the money on ‘renewable sources’ instead of the lines. Regardless of the truth, the utility company received a sweetheart bankruptcy deal over massive lawsuits stemming from the fires. Victims are still awaiting compensation.
Thank God for writers and researchers like you who keep us peasants aware of the mass stupidity in this crazy world. I had no idea about the Norway fiasco. Apparently, there are no borders when it comes to moronic behavior. I will be sharing your article, but sadly so many are "too busy" or "too lazy" to take the time to become informed. I am, however, very appreciative.