Copenhagen Wrap-up: “I have seen the future and it stinks!”
I am only just back last night from the Copenhagen UN climate change conference, yet am convinced of the accuracy of my headline – an obvious parody of Lincoln Steffens’ famous 1921 declaration about the Soviet Union, “I have seen the future and it works. ” In this case, however, the future concerns (supposedly democratic) “global governance” and not the workers’ state. For make no mistake about it, Kenneth Andersen is correct. COP15 was only peripherally about “climate change” and almost entirely about UN hegemony.
I know. I saw it with my own eyes. And it wasn’t for the first time. This was my second international UN conference in less than one year – the first being the so-called Durban Review Conference in Geneva that purported to review the “World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance in Durban, South Africa” of 2001. The latter was as much about real racism as the former was about real climate change. It was also – as will be recalled – something of a farce, with the appearance Mahmoud Ahmadinejad dominating the event as he spewed vitriolic anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial. Nevertheless, the UN declared the conference a success.
It will say the same of Copenhagen, no doubt. At least the presence of the various despots (Chavez, Mugabe, the re-upped A-jad, etc.) was not as damaging this time. It was more of sideshow, compared to the true objective of COP15 – the cementing of UN bureaucratic power under the guise of CO2 regulation. That was why the Climategate revelations were particularly poorly timed for the United Nations. Yes, they were largely ignored or dismissed at press conferences, but they were an overwhelming presence about which many were aware. ( Flemming Rose – the illustrious cultural editor of Denmark’s Jyllands Posten – told me in an interview that these revelations were covered much more extensively in the European press than in the US.) Furthermore, rejecting Climategate as an assault on “settled science” is, of course, risible because the concept of settled science itself is tenuous at best, verging on an oxymoron. As a commenter noted on this site, Einstein upended the settled science of Newton and now Einstein is in question. Yet we are supposed to believe without question some unknown mediocrity at the IPCC because of “majority rule” [sic].
Yes, it’s comical, but it’s quite worrisome, if you examine the true game afoot. Copenhagen was intended as an important advance toward world governance. On the face of it, it’s a beautiful idea. When I was younger, I was highly attracted to it. But my up-close-and-personal encounters with the UN have turned that attraction to near revulsion. It’s very clear that under global government – because of its size and natural inefficiencies – accountability is nigh on to impossible, transparency nothing but a distant dream, very often not even desired. In short, it’s 1984. And COP15 was just that – legions staring at world leaders on Jumbotrons as they blathered platitudes, while negotiations were conducted behind closed doors. (That’s bad enough in our Congress, but on a global scale…?)
Well, now jet lag is setting in, so I’m going to shut down for the moment. But I will add that, perhaps fortuitously, my long voyage home (9 1/2 hours from Copenhagen to Atlanta, another 4 from Atlanta to LA) finally gave me ample undisturbed time to finish a book I had wanted to read for a long time – F. A. Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom. How apropos it turned out to be. Hayek had a lot of this figured out in 1944. I recommend to all who haven’t taken the time. It’s just a sign of my own indoctrination that I had read Marx, Marcuse, Gramsci, etc., etc. first.
If you are now embracing Hayek, Roger, your apostasy is complete. Welcome to the dark side. It may not have all the answers but it is far more honest.
So that’s what it was all about all along: Power and control.
Just added the piece to today’s ClimateGate roundup:
http://spinstrangenesscharm.wordpress.com/2009/12/20/climategatecopenhagen/
I would also urge you to read Hayek’s collection of essays titled “The Fatal Conceit”. I fortunately read his polemic 40 years ago and realized that I loved liberty more than equality. Hayek said that those that placed a higher value on liberty did better on any measure of equality, other than that of the grave or the gulag, than those who purported to produce a society of equals.
Copenhagen displays the global warming crowd as an unstoppable, charging bull; inexorable progress epitomized. Yet the bull is shot thru the heart, dead; only stumbling a few more paces before it collapses.
Interested observers are invited to speculate as to how many politicians, talking heads and celebrities will be carried with this monstrosity when it crashes and burns.
Yes–if AGW did not exist it would be necessary to create it. And if it had existed, there would have been no need to doctor the data or create intrinsically flawed computer models to indicate that it did.
Its the old shell game–while the huckster “randomizes” the shells there’s no pea under any of them. But then again the “shell game” isn’t a game at all, its just persuading the victim to hand over the loot voluntarily without the necessity of pulling a knife or gun on them.
The truth is out there–probably buried in a shallow unmarked grave.
Yes, AGW has been shown to be a farce. A true scientific fraud just like the Piltdown man was.
However, don’t kid yourself into believing that this kills the bull. No indeed! AGW was just a piece of the “Green” march, the eco-terrorists in drag if you will, but a religious movement none the less. Never forget that the “progressives” are always “working for the common man, the cooperative, the community, the collective good, the ‘universal equality’ of men, etc.” Call them liberals, progressives, liberal fascists, socialists, or what ever. Their goal is one world government. In the guise of equity/equality the whittle away individual liberties. They hate religion since they believe in themselves first and the state second. Religion of any sort interferes with their efforts to achieve power because the people will see that a “higher power” than man exists. The liberal fascist simply cannot tolerate that thought. After all, he KNOWS he belongs to that small, elite cadre which has been educated at the “finest” schools and “deserves” to tell others how to think and live their lives. The individual and his/her rights should always be sacrificed on the altar of the “general good,” as defined, of course, by the liberal elite.
Fox News tonight has a special on climategate at 7 PM Pacific time with Steve McIntyre. He says they were very well prepared. It should be good. It preempts Hannity and will be pretty straight I suspect.
Spin11 – concur. And the vehicle of choice is to attack capitalism. Progressives and earth-savers decry the evil excesses of those profit-makers, whether arguing for socialized medicine or world governments, even as they must turn a blind eye to the surrounding cornucopia of benefits the free market has provided.
COP15 was only peripherally about “climate change” and almost entirely about UN hegemony.
Christopher Monckton gave a talk at Copenhagen (it appeared to be in a small hall with a modest audience) in which he noted that some delegates (not all) of the conference had obtained a Draft Copenhagen Treaty which explicitly laid out the UN scheme to seize control of much world governing power, and explicitly the productive world economies, on behalf of CO2 reduction.
Does anyone know where a copy of that Draft Copenhagen Treaty might be obtained?
Professor Kenneth Anderson also describes CO2 reduction as just one of a never-ending series of ‘crises’ which the UN has used as tactics for grasping political control of all of us.
Thanks, Roger. I believe you’ve nailed it.
I hate to have to contradict Rose, but I’m not seeing much about Climategate in Germany. I didn’t see much about oil for food either. Faith in the UN is still alive here.
You people are terrible! There are hundreds of UN employees and third world politicians who were banking on getting a check in Copenhagen. They bought oceanfront property, additional brides and powerful boats, confident that the wealthy folks would pay them before the end of the year. Now, apparently, they won’t and unpaid bribes and pay offs mean even more misery in the third world. And, you folks seem happy for their difficulties!
“On the face of it, it’s a beautiful idea. When I was younger, I was highly attracted to it.”
The John Birch Society was more right than wrong concerning the United Nations. This group was indeed guilty of exaggeration. The nonsense about black helicopters and other such imaginary threats damaged the Birchers credibility. Still, its leaders legitimately sensed that the UN was likely to be dominated by one worlders and other progressives who desired to shove their vision of Utopia down the throats of the citizens of the Western World.
The UN was inherently damaged from its very inception. Communists and other dictators should not have allowed to join. Only countries with well-established democratic governments should have been allowed membership. We were compelled to indulge in self-deceit and pretend that some of our so-called allies were morally decent. A disaster was inevitable.
A creeping coup, by any other words, will ever be a creeping coup -
Actually a two pronged, anti-American, engulfing creeping coup:
a) one from exterior, attempting to limi America’s sovereignity and ability to act in her own interests, and further bilk her -
b) another one, Obama administration-sponsored, from interior, working high to neutralize and paralyze any form of resistence against the surrender to the UN’s authority -
ALL politicians are control freaks. Control freaks want control. Why does this surprise anybody?
As it stands now, the UN wants to control the planet. It cannot do so structured the way it is now.
“”Nothing contained in the present Charter shall authorize the United Nations to intervene in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state or shall require the Members to submit such matters to settlement under the present Charter; but this principle shall not prejudice the application of enforcement measures under Chapter VII.” (Only the Security Council can institute Chapter VII enforcement measures.)”
So the ONLY way the UN can act as a world government is under Chp. VII, which can be vetoed by any of the permanent members.
Link to the amendment process;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chapter_XVIII_of_the_United_Nations_Charter
“#1 A two-thirds supermajority is required for adoption;
#2 Ratification by a supermajority of the respective states is required;
#3 There are two methods of proposing amendments;
#4 The more common of those methods is for the “first branch” (in the case of the UN, the General Assembly) to submit an amendment to the states;
#5 Another method, not actually used in practice, is to call a convention to propose amendments.
So for Dopenhagen to be binding, it would have had to propose an amendment to the UN Charter. That amendment would have required that the First Clause of the Charter be amended to allow the UN to intervene in the internal affairs of a sovereign state. ALL 5 of the permanent seats in the security council would have vetoed it.
So, yes the politicians (bureaucrats) at the UN want to run the world. So What? Who doesn’t want to run the world. Normal people buy Civilization and do it their spare time.
UN types think they are playing Civilization.
They are not and the real world isn’t a Civ world. In the real world men plan and fate laughs.
I don’t worry about the UN. In order for the UN to be a threat, the UN politicians have to talk the real world politicians into surrendering power to them. Ain’t gonna happen. Tell some slimeball politician like Dirty Harry that the world is gonna end if he doesn’t transfer his power to a UN bureaucrat and Harry will tell them that when the world ends, he will still be in control. Period…..
Of course it was all a fraud. It was a variant of the old “shell game.” I put the pea underneath one of the three shells and then I randomize them, the mark never realizing that while the shells are being shuffled that the pea is in the hucksters hand, ready to be placed.
AGW is the current excuse for a pre-determined agenda. If it really existed there would have been no need to fabricate data or create bogus “shell game” computer models to demonstrate its purported existence. There would have been no need at all. None.
The truth is out there–probably in a shallow unmarked grave.
but why?
what is the root cause of this madness?
why are people so willing to give away their liberty and freedom? are their lives so drab and disgusting that they need somebody to run it for them?
what is next? pol pot being used as an fine example of agrarian reform?
the horror of all this is just beyond belief.
where does it end? what is the end game? is the left insatiable? why? why? why?
Sorry about the semi-double posting–the first one vanished into cyber-space for quite some time. I was just trying to reconstruct it.
My apologies.
Maybe it is time to pull out of the UN. The tea party movement is needed now more than ever.
why why why? It is a very old heresy coming to life again like a Zombie: millenarianism. Ie, humanity just has to adopt the Right Stuff, and we can paradise here on earth.
Thus, if only we can make the Jews and the Slavs and the Gypsies disappear, the Aryans will attain their rightful place at the top of the human pyramid, and thus build a 1000 year reich.
Or, if only the middle class and the capitalist rulers can be destroyed, the proletariat will be able to live unselfishly in an Earthly Paradise forever, with true equality for all.
Or, if only the nation state could be destroyed, its functions taken over by selfless well-educated bureaucrats, then intelligent farsighted policies can be followed, and there will be no war, there will be just enough people and no more, all people will be comfortable, and the lion will lay down with the lamb.
It all makes perfect sense, doesn’t it? Except for the blizzards and the lineups, of course.
And after all the hoooodooo… Copenhagen turned out to be little more than a UN field trip. Big polluting ..business stocks shot up as everyone realized how little had really been accomplished after all. There was no need for all the moaning and whining, what were you folks so afraid of? ..At least now, everyone will relax about it except the coalition of tree huggers and rabbit squeezers of course….so go get a pizza…
RE #20/heathermc:
[...] why why why? It is a very old heresy coming to life again like a Zombie: millenarianism. Ie, humanity just has to adopt the Right Stuff, and we can paradise here on earth. [....]
Why? All UN junkets are Rogoberta Menchu redux(es?) -it’s much easier to travel from Tongo to Copenhagen at blame everyone for your retardness and ask them for compensation for some imaginary faults -
Is there an application of RICO in this affair?
Thus, if only we can make the Jews and the Slavs and the Gypsies disappear, the Aryans will attain their rightful place at the top of the human pyramid, and thus build a 1000 year reich.
Or, if only the middle class and the capitalist rulers can be destroyed, the proletariat will be able to live unselfishly in an Earthly Paradise forever, with true equality for all.
Or, if only the nation state could be destroyed, its functions taken over by selfless well-educated bureaucrats, then intelligent farsighted policies can be followed, and there will be no war, there will be just enough people and no more, all people will be comfortable, and the lion will lay down with the lamb.
It all makes perfect sense, doesn’t it? Except for the blizzards and the lineups, of course.
Here you can find the Copenhagen Draft as mentioned by Lord Monckton:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/files/danish-text-1.pdf
Look Roger, I’m on side about the absurd farce of Copenhagen, and I wouldn’t let the sloths, crooks and carpetbaggers of the UN and its bureaucracy run a chook raffle, let alone our lives, but can we dispense with the conspiracy theories? I am sorry to see the organized world government conspiracy get an airing at this site. Who are the people who are organizing the conspiracy? Where do they meet? It is about as well-founded as the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, frankly.And some of the folks who eagerly sign up to the world government conspiracy theory also sign up to all manner of anti-semitic fantasies too.
Be careful who you attract to this site! Compliments of the season to you.
The followers have been misinformed by corrupted data processed by computer models that are at best inaccurate run by people swimming in lies and deception. I realize that the Medieval Warming Period is the bane of the realclimate/CRU people and the Oil, Gas and Nuclear power companies that fund the realclimate/CRU enterprise, but it did happen and it was global. Someday they will need to come to terms with it, when they do their minds will finally be free to think on their own.
#24, “Conspiracy theories”? Please address that to the commenter to whom you are referring, because I almost never believe in them. I’m sure you will be specific in your accusations.
#26
I’m glad you’re not a proponent of a world government conspiracy, but forgive me, your choice of words was a bit careless:
“Yes, it’s comical, but it’s quite worrisome, if you examine the true game afoot. Copenhagen was intended as an important advance toward world governance”.
“True game afoot” . . . ? “was intended as an important advance towards world governance . .” – intended by whom?
15/JbS,
Yes, but in my opinion that’s irrelevant. It seems to me the process towards world government by the UN is akin to that of EU dictatorship progressively taking over the functions of democratic (elected, accountable to the citizenry)governments in Western Europe. The government leaders get together, agree to “harmonize” the laws and regulations inside their respective states, and then each have national legislation passed that implements those EU laws and regulations inside the individual state. And after a while legislation can be passed that by its nature is valid only within the state’s boundaries, but whose implementation is explicitly controlled by regulations developed by undemocratic (unelected, unaccountable to any citizenry) officials of the EU bureaucracy.
This only works in countries whose legal system is both domineering and indifferent to patriotism and whose political leaders feel bound (perhaps due to effective activist attacks through media and the courts) to honour the “harmonizing”n agreements they made with their counterparts in other countries, despite the damage to their own country. Those are are motivated by self-interest or their country’s interest might sign but will ignore any provision they don’t like.
This approach is far more insidious than the treaty route, because it leaves the traditional nation-state institutions in place, although reduced to mere rubberstamping.
48 Laws of Power:
70 Years ago, Germans believed in the “science” of the Aryan master race.
The lemmings don’t need to fall off the cliff if the ocean rises to meet them.
“Who are the people who are organizing the conspiracy? Where do they meet?”
Conscious conspiracies concocted by secret societies rarely exist. This is especially the case regarding those supposedly handed down from generation to generation. It is instead usually a matter of tacit understandings and a shared utopian vision that justifies their power grabs on behalf of the unwashed masses. They perceive themselves as particularly well educated and altruistic. It is therefore their duty to become our benevolent dictators. How could any decent human being disagree?
They perceive themselves as particularly well educated and altruistic. It is therefore their duty to become our benevolent dictators. How could any decent human being disagree?
And they do not perceive themselves to be dictators, which is why conspiracy is a problematic term for the kind of shenanigans of these UN-lover types. Some of the very folks who support this stuff will be surprised at what they have unleashed. Some believe in the absurdity of what has come to be called unalloyed goods, i.e., freakish but desired change (desired by some) that will come at no cost to anything. There are plenty of people still willing to believe you can get something for nothing, and that there will be no cost to liberty and choice, no cost to Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Assembly, etc.
It’s not a belief in any conspiracy to see what the U.N. is being used for: lining the pockets of despots and giving aid and comfort to any number of bad actors.
I still wonder if I will live to see the day when a major party puts withdrawal from the U.N. in its platform.
Even simpler than that. If the science were truly settled, there’s be no need for the monkey business. The existence of the monkey business proves that the monkeys don’t have faith in their own talking points.
“And they do not perceive themselves to be dictators”
Your point is well taken. They are, as Cass Sunstein might put, merely “nudging” us for our own good.
“I still wonder if I will live to see the day when a major party puts withdrawal from the U.N. in its platform.”
The UN is ‘nice’, it is all about bringing ‘good’ to “the world”; as long as little children bring little UN boxes for the poor to your door at halloween, then we will have a UN. We can “do good’ on the cheap with the UN. And the rulers of the 3rd world sewers can get a good job in the first world paid by first world money.
Truly, it is Being Good on the cheap. We should all of us, be ashamed of ourselves. Think Kofi Annan. Who I SWEAR is a direct descendant of slaver chiefdoms in West Africa. Yet, our society gives him a Nobel Prize for something or other.
The UN is a decadent organization. But we continue to support it. And every first world politician, who knows that the UN is a decadent organization, will continue to sent money and support because most of the first world voters WANT the UN to exist!
Oh, and is sounds like this guy got it pretty close to what you’re describing, Roger.
Welcome back! Obama is an epic failure in COP15 Will their be a repeat in 6 months?
100 Billions aid sounds to me is like US welfare system that has gone global, except the recipients are despots.
‘..as they blathered platitudes.’ – Sounds like the Dean/ Moran Townhall Meeting I attended.
‘New World Order’ is attempting to force its nonsensical brand moreso than ever.
’1984′ indeed.
@17 “what is the root cause of this madness? …. why? why? why?”
Discounting those at the top who’s motives are otherwise… ‘They’ search for redemption, as do all. They just know not where to find it.
And this does not quell the desire, yet make it more feverish. They are told it is ‘good’, and so it is, accompanied with fleeting calm; but only until they realize or are told otherwise. Then, true colors appear with misplaced malcontent and confusion, assuming they are not able to see another way.
There is always a societal need for charity/wellfare/sacrifice and it serves all. But once it becomes a cause, then it is sought as such.
–
I wonder, to the question, if there is any insight into the spirituality of these suits. A sense of genuine kindness in their eyes… surely there must be some.
Roger, Thanks for taking and reporting on this expedition.
BTW, when despot President Mugabe had the floor – did you expect anything less?
Zimbabwe/ Mugabe has created the 100 trillion dollar bill. This and MANY ‘leaders’ like himself run their country into the ground and placate blame to others.
Sadly, Salvation Army, Goodwill and other donation centers are far below their typical donations this holiday season. Yet, the current administration is considering $10-$15 billion a year for ‘global reparations’. Sick…
“near revulsion”?
based on your history and reportage, you should have hit ‘revulsion’ square on the mark
Reacting especially to commenters #5/6/7, here’s an interesting column by David Warren, suggesting the bogeyman that will follow AGW might be acidification of the oceans:
http://www.davidwarrenonline.com/index.php?id=1086
As someone who is old enough to have lived through the Global Cooling scares of about 30-some years ago, I’ve gotta hand it to the scaremongers for being consistent in intent if not in target.
It stinks because it’s really a return to the past of 250 years ago.
“The UN was inherently damaged from its very inception. Communists and other dictators should not have allowed to join. Only countries with well-established democratic governments should have been allowed membership. We were compelled to indulge in self-deceit and pretend that some of our so-called allies were morally decent. A disaster was inevitable.”
Well put. It’s past time to dismantle the UN, kick it off our soil, and replace it with a League of Democracies–no dictators need apply. It’s not that nobody will be allowed to *have* dictatorships, but if they do, they willingly forfeit the right to consider themselves part of the civilized world, along with any humanitarian or military aid that comes along with such membership. There’s simply no reason in these supposedly enlightened times for a nation to vest all its power in one man.
“It seems to me the process towards world government by the UN is akin to that of EU dictatorship progressively taking over the functions of democratic (elected, accountable to the citizenry)governments in Western Europe.”
An interesting thought. I was having a discussion with a European who was skeptical about both the UN and EU. I suggested that the UN should have been restricted to democratic nations only. He disagreed, saying that because the concept is inherently bad, you don’t want the organization to be effective. He maintained if we must have a UN, it’s better that it include the dictators and kleptocrats because they make the true nature of the organization more obvious.
The UN’s warped into a tool
Used by Progressives to fool
They want to renew
Hakko Ichiu
A secular scheme for world rule
….uuuu..’o.o’..nn!n….algie
Illegitimi nOn carborundum
Well put. It’s past time to dismantle the UN, kick it off our soil, and replace it with a League of Democracies–no dictators need apply.
What democracies, Kev? Don’t you follow the news at all? Between the United Soviet States of America, the European Empire Union, the People’s Republic of Tel Aviv and the Russian Federation, there ain’t no democracies to be found (except Tuvalu and the Micronesian Republic, or whatever them islands are called in the middle of nowhere).
Conspiracies?
As a commenter at the Belmont Club said recently, quoting a well-known moonbat, to the effect, “the narrative is right, just the facts are wrong.” What matters is the narrative, not facts (or, as SNL said in the context of the OJ Simpson trial, “all they got is ev-ee-dence.”)
I recently read the excellent “Road to Serfdom” and am rereading it bit-by-bit; from the forward to the American paperback edition, “…the most important change which extensive government control produces is a psychological change, an alteration in the character of the people….even a strong tradition of political liberty is no safeguard if the danger is precisely that new institutions and policies will gradually undermine and destroy that spirit.”
As Leonard Cohen says: “I have seen the future, brother, and it is murder.”
Conspiracies?
As a commenter at the Belmont Club said recently, quoting a well-know moonbat, to the effect, “the narrative is right, just the facts are wrong.” ….or, as SNL said in the context of the OJ Simpson trial (for murder) “all they got is ev-ee-dence”
I recently read the excellent “Road to Serfdom” and am rereading it again, bit-by-bit; from the forward to the American paperback edition, “…the most important change which extensive government control produces is a psychological change, an alteration in the character of the people….even a strong tradition of political liberty is no safeguard if the danger is precisely that new institutions and policies will gradually undermine and destroy that spirit.”
As Leonard Cohen has said, “I have seen the future, brother, and it is murder.”
David Thompson, in Commment 13, said that The John Birch Society was “more right than wrong about the United Nations.” However, he said that the JBS lost credibility over the issue of “black helicopters and other imiginary threats.” To set the record straignt, The JBS’s bi-weekly magazine “The New American” did an article debunking the black helicopter rumors back in 1994 or so.
The JBS, since its inception, has warned the American people about the United Nations. John Sanford, in his reply, rightly quotes from the U.N. Charter concerning the U.N. getting involved in domestic issues. But it routinely ignores its charter. Congress passed the U.N. Participation Act in 1945. Since then, the U.S. sends U.S. troops to wherever the U.N. Security Council pleases.
I once attended a U.N Day celebration in Boston. The keynote speaker ended his talk by saying “The U.S. must get weaker and the U.N. stronger.”
The JBS has published some excellent books on the subject. Let me recommend “Global Tyranny: Step by Step” by William Jasper-a former U.N. supporter, “The Fearful Master” by Ed Griffin and “Inside the U.N.” by Steve Bonta.
Hal Shurtleff
Boston, MA
shurtleffhal@aol.com
In reply to #13 (David Thomson), the Birch Society never made claims about “black helicopters” and in fact posted articles on its website disparaging such claims.
The Birch Society should be rejected because its fundamental underlying premises are poisonous to a free society. That is why even J. Edgar Hoover and senior FBI officials concluded that the JBS was “extremist”, “irrational”, “irresponsible”, “fanatics” and “lunatic fringe”. See following report for details:
FBI FILES ON JOHN BIRCH SOCIETY
http://ernie1241.googlepages.com/jbs-1
“As someone who is old enough to have lived through the Global Cooling scares of about 30-some years ago, I’ve gotta hand it to the scaremongers for being consistent in intent if not in target.”
It is rather amazing how all ecological dangers are caused by liberty and cured by enslavement, isn’t it?
I can never understand why America never kicked the UN out of New York years ago. Its insufferable uselessness, privileges and corruption have been evident for years. This was palpable if you lived and worked in New York and met the sort of people who worked and operated there.
Sorry for the double post…please delete one.
The way defining political narratives are created and consumed, who needs back rooms and group meetings? It all has the same smell as conspiracy (and it all oddly seems so narcissistic).
@23 Werner:
I downloaded and read that LA Times version of the Draft 271109 Decision 1/CP.15 (Adoption of the Copenhagen Agreement).
It is vague and wafty and full of lofty goals and hopeful ‘commitments’, and empty of hard numbers and definitions. It didn’t match the description given by Lord Monckton as far as I could tell, unless I’m too naive to comprehend the intent behind the diplobabble. Perhaps after back-room wrangling it was supposed to emerge for signature with real teeth and claws?
Or might the LA Times have pointed to this one, in order to deflect attention from a more definitive version restricted to possession by true believers only?
The Road to Serfdom is an excellent read and very relevant to the current political scene. Hayek maintains that you cannot have Socialism without authoritarianism. They are mutually dependent. The long march from free-markets and free individuals making free choices to Socialism is paved with the heavy hand of the authority of the state. Thus, you see all sorts of authoritarian clauses in the recent AGW debate (mandating certain actions, demanding specific outcomes, requiring reparations etc.) that are emblematic of a Socialist world order. (The same can be said domestically for the recent Health Care bill).
This is the real risk we face because as Socialism requires authoritarianism it begets totalitarianism. In his chapter on The Socialist Roots of Nazism, Hayek outlined the progression of the good intentions of Otto von Bismarck’s Social Democratic revolution to the tyranny of Nazism. We as a still free people either stand up to this encroachment or suffer the consequences.
Only “near” revulsion, Roger? I went all the way to total revulsion long ago.
@ Insufficienly Sensitive
The Global Green New Deal may be what you’re looking for: http://www.un.org/esa/dsd/resources/res_pdfs/publications/sdt_cc/cc_global_green_new_deal.pdf
“Today the danger lies, however, not so much in obvious outside interference as in the increased control which the growing financial needs of research give to those who hold the purse strings. It constitutes a real threat to the interests of scientific advance because the ideal of a unified and centralized direction of all scientific efforts which it might be made to serve is shared by some of the scientists themselves. Although the first great attack which, in the name of planning of science under strong Marxist influence, was launched in the 1930’s has been successfully repelled, and the discussions to which it gave rise have created a greater awareness of the importance of freedom in this field, it seems probable that the attempts to “organize” scientific effort and to direct it to particular goals will reappear in new forms.”
F. A. Hayek, The Constitution of Liberty
Playing Devils Advocate here Roger, I want to ask the people who pulled the strings at Copenhagen do they realise after all their grand words and windbaggery about science, it is science and science alone that is responsible for any human contribution to climate change.
So if they can face up to that and decide the only way to be “fair” to everbody is by taking us back to a peasant economy I don’t think they will have much popular support.
They can’t put us all in prison.