Seeing the Light
Who knows how many of these toxic, mercury-filled ampoules have already shattered in the homes and offices of this progressive cohort? The standard measure of five milligrams of mercury per CFL may not seem like much, but each gram will obliterate numberless brain cells and devastate whole dendritic forests. Axons curl up and die in the dusky corners of the brain. Is it farfetched to suggest, then, that the cerebral dimming we are now witnessing everywhere around us may be a direct consequence of this latest innovation in domestic and administrative lighting, whether from the nebulous properties of the light itself, which militate against reading and reflection, or the scattered contents of the bulb infecting the nodal pathways?
As the eyes grow weary with such precarious illumination and mercury vapors gradually but inexorably seep into the brain, it must become ever more difficult to see clearly and think lambently. And the symbol for an idea that kindles in the mind will also have been replaced by a much-reduced surrogate, devoid of the tungsten of revelation. Illustrators will now have to represent the igniting of an idea by drawing a device that resembles a whorl of soft ice cream, which is not very convincing. The deeper problem, however, is that this weird little emblem leaking its chilly drizzle into the cartoon bubble is an indication of precisely what has happened in reality. Is there any doubt that thought has become ever more gaseous, fugitive, and penumbral throughout the entire developed world? Further, are not the swirls and ripples of CFL design a reptilian corollary of those noxious fumes coiling into the medulla oblongata of the increasingly exposed, rendering its victims doltish and insensate? Whether as a mound of soft ice cream or a venomous serpent twining itself into the synapses, the actual configuration of the CFL should have long ago alerted us to the real dilemma which afflicts us.
But one way or another, either through mercury poisoning or ambient contamination or both, the crisis will persist. Once, the promise of thought, to quote Psalms 119, was experienced as “a lamp unto my feet and a light upon my path”; now it has become, to quote Exodus 10, “a darkness which may be felt.” All thanks to the compact fluorescent lamp screwed into the mental sockets and serving the heraldic purposes of our faux glitterati — our media celebrities, intellectual gentility, and political elite — who know what is best for the people.
Alas, they shall soon have us groping in the shadows of rumination, as they themselves lurch and stagger in the cognitive brownout their CFL advocacy will bring upon us all. Shortly, we will all be observing the world through a swarm of floaters. For the laws are already on the books and a new dispensation awaits us of myopic incompetents, blinking in the conceptual fog, reading with difficulty, unable to see or think straight, and stumbling vaguely to the left. The only advantage one can discern is that an equality of performative outcome will have been assured as everyone will share in the same sensuous and intellectual debility that convulses our social champions. We will all be casualties of peripheral consciousness and mercurial dissipations. “Oh brave new world,” as Shakespeare presciently wrote, “that has such people in’t.”
Naturally, philosophers will debate whether the CFL is a cause or an effect. Some will argue that it is manifestly responsible for producing the darkening of the intellect since it works by a kind of retinal contagion that must ultimately affect the faculty of introspection, not to mention the creeping disintegration of grey matter. Others will contend that it is merely the product of fading mental capacity for only a people already partly or wholly stupefied could conceive of so sepulchral a technology. Or might it not be a question of both, a bad situation made worse by a cataract-inducing mutation shuttering the inner eye?
Whatever position we adopt, there is just no getting around it. The compact fluorescent lamp seems here to stay and the results are already evident. Outwardly or inwardly, vision will be obstructed and the triumph of the CFL-toting left is pretty well guaranteed. But what is surely most devastating is that the world we once took for granted is undergoing an eclipse of the mind, toggling from the glint of perception to the grime of occultation. We can find ourselves already slumping about in Alexander Pope’s The Dunciad, offspring of the goddess Dulness, “Daughter of Chaos and eternal Night,” and we the “fruits of dull Heat” emitting our little “sooterkins of wit.” This is especially so in today’s advanced societies where ideas simply, to coin a portmanteau, efflouresce into the environing bleakness as the light of thought progressively diminishes from one day to the next.
Also read: ‘Let there be (incandescent) light!’ at the Tatler.
Just a reminder: you can drag this screen to the left half of your monitor, and put an online dictionary on the other half.
Okay, I’ll bite. Dang. Didn’t work for me…
Nah – they were dim before the dim-bulbs. My take is that since they got rid of God they needed a religion the fill the vacuum and they chose marxism. They are as fanatical and illogical as islamists. Which makes them natural allies with the same enemy – Judeo-Christians.
Here on this very site the christian fanatics like you like to tout polls etc showing that 90% of the population believes in god. Meanwhile Obama got elected as do all presidents with a majority vote.
Either the polls or wrong or you’re a vapid, innumerate fanatic.
Dear vapid, innumerate troll:
I have never read anyone’s claim here that 90% believe in god – even though I suspect that this number is probably close to reality. But whatever .. belief in god or lack of it has nothing to do with this site or its clear thinking and discussions about the major social issues of our time. However, playing the “extreme religious right” card does provide an easy way for those stuck on stupid to pout and spit and virtually storm out of the room when unable to intelligently rebut the articles or comments.
And as for your glee in the fact that Obama got elected by a majority vote: We have to keep reminding Democrats and your incompetent, narcissistic president that he was elected to lead the executive branch – not to be king and not to ruin life for the rest of us whose lives are not sufficiently fulfilled simply by his presence in office.
Once in a while a burst of literacy illuminates the blogosphere. Huzzah!!
Alas, the leftist mental condition is usually congenital, but it is no doubt exacerbated by ambient factors as described in this most enjoyable essay.
Block that metaphor! David Solway quoted The Tempest, but left out Prospero’s response to Miranda: “’tis new to thee.” (I quote from memory.) Al Gore and his green flotilla did not dim the lights. The entire progressive movement of conservative reform did that task long ago. I summed it all up here: http://clarespark.com/2009/12/12/switching-the-enlightenment-corporatist-liberalism-and-the-revision-of-american-history/.
Follow the money. Who sells mercury? Sylvania is now Chinese . . . etc.
I blame the American Tollybon.
You could be on to something. The CLF-lightbulbs are annoying things that not only mess with the mind but can also ruin lamps that don’t have sockets rated to handle the awful things. Aside from that, the things mentioned in the article are annoying, the flickering, bad light, etc. It has the effect of being a constant irritant keeping people constantly agitated.
Since liberals are already mentally diseased, this constant irritation only makes them more petulant and dangerous, just like a whining fan can drive one to turn it off if you have a headache. Only in the liberal’s case they lash out at people who disagree with them, which is something they can not stand at all since questioning their beliefs equates to questioning their value as a person.
Now, by mentally disease I don’t mean mental illness like depression, anxiety or even Autism, because those are typically benign conditions that don’t active seek to harm others. I mean Mental disease like extreme narcissism, sociopathic disorders, etc., where one frequently does seek to take advantage of others or outright harm them. This would explain the liberal penchant for, as George Orwell put it, “stamping on human faces.” You see this more and more in their writing, comments on news stories and out in the streets.
Perhaps it is only their elite writing their articles and blogs by the mind-killing light of a CFL who are spreading their madness down the ranks through their words?
The essence of leftist thinking is to never look back at your mistakes and reflect on how you got here but always push forward. The next time you see a leftist dueling with a conservative on Fox note not so much their denial of facts but the speed with which they run away from them by trying to change the subject.
But, now, these people have a logical reason for running away from their record, what with the survival of the Democrat Party on the line. In this regard at least they are no longer jamming the square peg into the round hole. They must feel exhilarated to be right about something for a change.
It wasn’t too long ago pundits (left right & center) were discussing the imminent decline and fall of the Republican Party. Lets not congratulate ourselves on the demise and fall of the Democrat Party too soon.
The best friend of Democrats are the RINOs. You know – kissin cousin to the Progressives.
Actually the pundits are and were and will continue to be right. The only thing keeping the gop alive at this point is that the Obama wing of the democrats have magically found a way to be even more useless than the far right god squad conservatives, and that’s saying something.
If the Obama wing pulls their heads out and embraces domestic energy production the gop is cooked. Energy = wealth, and if Obama et al figure this out they’re still two steps ahead of the god squad infesting pjm. The far right offers NOTHING at this point other than “we ain’t Obama.”
You may thank your lucky stars that the Obama wing is stupidly pushing CFLs via idiotic ham handed attempts at enforcement. They sorta vaguely have a dim idea that the answer to national woes is based on energy, but they’re too wedded to the green wing. If they wake up and shed the greens, they will enjoy a number of years running the show.
But, their bright light bulbs will eventually snap on and they will see a truth that is already clear to many of us; they can’t win with the Kenyan! The dim bulb lefties will see that much of what they’ve stolen and faked will be flushed away next year. The crooked media will worship and back him to the bitter end but the unions, the anti-American lefties, the trial lawyers, the environ-whackos, college faculty & students and other 2008 Obama backers will realize that much of what they had gained will be lost when Obama and the dems are washed away in the 2012 election tsunami. Very soon, the bright bulb will click on and they’ll see that their odds are very much better in 2012 with a presidential candidate other than Obama.
I suppose they will take away our matches, too.
Havent they already?
I dont smoke, but it just occurred to me I havent SEEN a book of matches anywhere in God knows how long….
And a perfect example is on display at the Rolling Stone. Al Gore gives your article specific credibility that cannot be found elsewhere. Although, there are numerous examples scurrying to succeed.
History shall depict these tribes as indigenous people that caused their own demise by legislating themselves to extinction. And they shall usher in an era of ignorance never equaled by the most primitive homo sapiens.
The Uber-Dark Era?
Indeed a pleasure to read such poetic perspicacity.
A silly question I’m sure, but still, under what incandescent bulb did you write this effulgent prose, 120W or 150W?
The bright bulb may never click on about the libs’ heads because it’s never been about reason and logic, it’s always been about emotion. How many people voted for Obama (and will again) just because he’s black and black people used to be slaves?
How many leftists demand that Rush Limbaugh et al be taken off the air? That’s the leftists solution because they have NO argument regarding the right’s reasoning and logic.
The left’s defense of the indefensible is . . . indefensible.
I guess I am the only one that did not have this piece tickle their funnybone.
Alas poor Yorick, I too suffered from no mirth.
I have a neighbor who is a real red book thumping Maoist – lefty/progressive. We talk (and argue) over the fence on occasion. Mostly I let him talk – listening to his reasoning for believing what he espouses. When I challenge his ‘facts’ he gets testy. He knows I’m going to bring him real facts & figures from my computer searches – he don’t like that!
Global warming came up the other day – his take was there had to be something to AGW (man caused) weather changes.
Well – where can I find actual proof of AGW I asked him?
The seas are rising he says!
Where I ask?
In the South Pacific says he!
Why isn’t the Atlantic rising I ask?
I don’t know says he!
Well says I – do you know they are connected? How the hell can one ocean rise and the other does not?
Blank stare for 3-4 seconds…
Are they? I don’t know — they didn’t say – he says.
Who said that?
It was on the nightly news a couple weeks ago he says. Katie Couric I think.
How can the Pacific Ocean rise and the Atlantic doesn’t I ask again. You didn’t know they are connected?
Stop says he – you’re making my head hurt!
True story – now he won’t engage me on any subject of a political nature. A tacit answer on his part that AGW is a political football – and he can only lose the argument but is unwilling to hear out any explanation that goes against the grain of his thinking/indoctrination from Katie C. and company.
Reminds me of my older sister and her friends. Lately when I ask them now how that Obama vote is working for them I get icy stares. I’m really coming to the realization that these people would vote us conservatives off the island if only they could.
These idiots are everywhere – they walk among us – and worse – they vote! And always Democrat.
But it isn’t just “recently”, Solway. It is an eternal condition.And its root cause is their refusal to live in obedience to Jesus Christ, which is somewhat more blatant and poignant than is the case with rightwingers of the lower moral class. They love Evil, because doing it feels so good. They hate Good, because
Good promises reward for well-doing and justice; ie, punishment for wrongdoing.
Leftists may pay lip service to to some ambiguous religiosity; but in their black little hearts they laugh at New Testament Christianity.They always misperceive the facts, because they are blind to Truth. In my ideal State, they will not be allowed to vote, operate motor vehicles or speak on the telephone. Ultimately we will deport them all to Tasmania, along with the possessors of boomboxes and and those who use cellphones while going about other business.
Unless, of course, they choose to repent.
Gee David … may you just ain’r reading the *real* manifestos of liberalism?
A good start is Jonathan Israel’s Radical Enlightenment (2001), Enlightenment Contested (2006) and Democratic Enlightenment (to be published August 2011) . These are summarized in Israel’s (much shorter) A Revolution of the Mind (2009), and boil down to the following liberal manifesto:
As for green politics, AGW, ecology destruction (etc.) everything is laid out in Jared Diamond’s Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed , in E.O. Wilson’s autobiography Naturalist and Wilson’s futurist Anthill: a Novel:
Thus, there is no need to wonder about modern liberalism’s objectives (just read Israel) or about modern liberalism’s strategy (just read Diamond) or about modern liberalism’s tactics (just read Wilson).
Military-minded folks here on PajamasMedia will find that the above objectives, strategy, and tactics seem strangely familiar … America’s COIN strategy, first in Kosovo, then in Iraq (except for the failed neocon strategy) and now in Afghanistan and Libya, has evolved in the furnace of a decade of war into a practical military synthesis of the above liberal objectives, liberal strategy, and liberal tactics.
The only 2 of those progressives actually believe in are 2 and 6. The rest they abhor or ignore as it suits them.
Let’s see:
1) They’ll apply the same rigorous historical and mathematical standards to history that they did to climate data that produced the the Hockey Stick. In other words, they’ll tinker with it to get whatever political results they want.
2) I’ll agree with that. Liberals can’t accept the idea of a Divine Being because they can’t accept the possibility that something greater than their own ego exists.
3)Equality of all mankind, unless you are white, male, straight, conservative, Christian or a combination of those, and the more of those that apply, the less equal you are.
4) All of those things as defined by the liberals themselves and you must agree with all points, or else. Also see point 3 for those people who will be beneath justice and singled out for punishment for wrong thinking or being.
5) See above. Thinking correctly or else. The Party will think for you relieving you of the terrible burden of learning and thinking for yourself. Just repeat what we say and believe it. Or else.
6) As long as it is an approved lifestyle by the liberals. If you are straight, monogamous, don’t have any kinks, etc., you will be mocked and treated with contempt.
7) See 3, 4, 5, and 6. Only if your type of expression is approved by the party. Attempts at free speech by conservatives, global warming skeptics and small government types will be shouted down or physically driven off the public stage.
8) Democratic Repulicanism? That’s a funny description of single party totalitarianism.
Modern liberalism isn’t COIN. It is a far older tradition of a group of people thinking they know best how to run everything, in spite of all historical evidence of those same ideas failing time and time again. They will use any means necessary to grab the power they lust after and force others to live by their all-wise dictates, in terror and poverty, while they live in the greatest of luxury their dwindling economies can provide.
William, if you are saying that the worst of the left … and the worst of the right … are amazingly similar in their shared willful ignorance, shared love of power, and shared selfish greed … then I agree with you 100%.
Twisted thinking with washed-out morality gave us hazardous curlicue-bulbs with bleak, pale, sputtering light. What could be more symbolic?
Loved the writing. It was good to see words I have not encountered in awhile. Going out of your way to use rarefied words to produce an over-the-top satire was just delightful. Efflouresce? Laugh-out-loud funny!
Agreed! Skewering the Left’s lack of haecceity and foresight with rapier wit and lissome prose is a delight to read.
David’s piece made me think of how ancient Rome unwittingly poisoned itself by using lead water pipes. They had the excuse of not knowing lead was poisonous. The geniuses who rule us dont have that excuse about the mercury in cfl ‘s: everybody knows it’s a poison, yet we are forced to use these things despite this knowledge. So it appears that if the Romans were ignorant, our elites are stupid. Two thousand years of progress!
Uhhhh … Les … the mercury emission from the extra coal required to light those inefficient old-fashioned bulbs is much bigger than the mercury content of the new-fangled bulbs … so yer argument is kinda self-defeating.
But I think the point was that with the newfangled light bulbs you get to have mercury that can potentially contaminate your household (to the point that you have to clean up any breakage in some special, fancy wait-I-have-to-read-what-the-elite-genius-wrote-on-the-package kind of way)–whereas using coal to fire up the electricity we use doesn’t directly dump mercury inside our houses; or does it?
Do mercury emissions enter your house? Only if you eat food or drink water.
Mercury compounds are especially toxic to the developing nervous systems of infants and children especially.
We share a moral responsibility to our children … and respecting this moral responsibility is a bedrock principle of conservatism.
Pretending that we have no responsibility to protect children from mercury poisoning is a grave form of willful ignorance, selfishness, and moral cowardice.
The pretense that unregulated markets will protect our children from these toxins amounts to moral cowardice. Skyrocketing autism rates should make us all think twice and thrice about our responsibilities.
—————
Assessing and managing methylmercury risks associated with power plant mercury emissions in the United States.
URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16915194
The numbers don’t account for switched life.
Fluorescent lights have already replaced incandescent lights in situations where they are not switched frequently. The remaining applications are incidental lights, which are frequently turned on and off. In those applications fluorescents tend to burn out at similar or even faster rates than incandescent lights, which rather dramatically increases the mercury released by CFLs.
Additionally, you are also assuming that all electricity is and will be generated by mercury heavy coal, and that coal based mercury emission are not captureable. Coal mercury contents vary significantly depending on the composition of the coal forests it was formed from, and with the increase in useable gas deposits, coal is not the sole source of electric power, and I’ve yet to see a solar cell release mercury.
While mercury capture is not yet a perfect art, it is generally more straight forward to capture at a central location, and generally easier to deploy capture equipment if you only have to deploy it at a small number of sites.
By mandating expensive CFLs be put in applications in which they are short lived and unreliable, you divert funding away from developing mercury capture and low mercury energy sources. That does not sound particularly eco-friendly to me.
Plus, don’t forget that the new light bulbs are just plain old crappy. Just like hybrid cars, ethanol fuel additives, and worst of all, those huge government subsidized windmills that pock mark the landscape of the western half of our country and cost enormous amounts of energy to build. Government committees do not invent anything for us, only the efforts of creative individual minds.
just one more humungous hypocrisy of the Eco-warrior class – these same organic fed cry-babies are theones who make a huge stink about tiny amounts of mercury in dental fillings and deny their kids vaccines claiming they cause autism (another not proven factoid)
I ask all of them who promote these poorly conceived light bulbs how many of them will drive their used bulbs to the toxic waste dump? at what cost in gasoline? and when they break, and they do, how will they clean up the mercury? My health-foodie natural remedy friend broke one and had no idea they were poison inside.
Knowing in advance most people will not ever actually bring used bulbs to any toxic waste dump, how many will go into the trash dumps and seep into the ground water, thereby guaranteeing a generation of brain damaged children?
is it worth saving a few cents of energy only to create a huge environmnetal waste dump that no one knows what to do with?
HUBRIS- they always think they can outsmart Mother Nature and G-d with their petty human schemes
To protect your family from mercury poisoning:
From fluorescent lights: If you break one, put the pieces in a sealed plastic bag, and air-out the room for several hours. Recyle burned out bulbs (stores like Bartel Drugs do this for free).
From coal-fired power plants: There is nothing you can do to protect your family … you must eat, drink, and breathe the toxins they emit. You must either bear this knowledge … or pretend to your self that it doesn’t exist.
It’s a pretty striking difference in individual responsibility, isn’t it?
Liberals were wrong long before those curly bulbs came out.
Ahead of the light bulb ban starting January 2012,
you will increasingly be told that “this is not really a ban”, that
“lookalike incandescents will still be allowed”.
Not allowing a bulb that does not meet a certain standard is of course
the same as banning it.
All known replacement incandescents (Halogen or otherwise) will be
banned by 2020.
Regulation information and updates, including local state repeal
bills: http://ceolas.net/#li01inx
Besides, such incandescent replacements have already existed for some
time, and actually have several differences with simpler
incandescents, including a much greater expense for marginal savings,
which is why neither consumers, or ban proposing politicans like them
very much:
If people really took up this “offer” by the politicians to keep
buying incandescents, it makes a ban even more pointless from the
savings justification for it.
Neither politicians or manufacturers are therefore keen on providing
such replacements at low cost:
Post-ban EU and Australia indeed see a lack of replacement variety and
availability of the (temporarily) surviving Halogen or other
incandescents.
The savings from the regulations, assuming a switch to CFL/LED lighting,
still only amount to 1% of society energy usage
(US Dept of Energy etc stats http://ceolas.net/#li171x ).
This can be compared with the described alternative electricity
generation and distribution savings, and alternative consumption
policies based on market competition or even taxation.
Consumers will hardly save money anyway,
as electricity companies are being subsidised or allowed to raise
rates to compensate for any reduced electricity use, as already seen
both federally and in California, Ohio etc, see the above linked
website for further references
More about how you are being deceived by the regulations:
http://freedomlightbulb.blogspot.com/2011/06/big-deception.html
.
“…if even one of these opaque, tapering spirals happens to break, it will release a hazardous substance into the air which, according to reports, can cause brain damage in children.”
Swell.
Just what we needed, a light bulb that will turn innocent children into lefties.
Solway reminds me of the young but earnest magician who tries to pull a rabbit out of its hat, but instead pulls a turd. And his humor is Weiner-esque. But what do you expect from a guy who’s never worked a day in his life, relying on the public dole (government grants) to sharpen his rapier wit.