Where the Future Is (II)

Global Divestment Day: South Africa 

Who among us in the US (apart from more than 80% of scientists and more than 95% of climate scientists) recognizes the reality of the climate crisis?

82% of African Americans say the world is getting hotter, and 56% correctly identify fossil fuel pollution as the chief cause.  That's the reality that 54% of Latinos recognize as well.    Compared with 37% of white Americans surveyed.

So the question arises: are white people inherently inferior?

A glance at American politics would suggest that conclusion.  Especially when one of the two major political parties is officially stupid on the subject.  And most white people are Republicans, as most Republicans are white people.  So if a Republican politician is not actually a moron, he or she still has to pretend to be one.

 Willed ignorance and strategic stupidity, while  probably more dangerous than sincere if psychologically twisted ignorance and stupidity, in the end amount to the same thing, for their clueless selfishness risks the well-being of the planet and the future.  Which makes white people seem inferior in more than intelligence.

Norway

But the world is actually bigger than America.  As counter-evidence to the white inferiority theory there's Scandinavia, where there's been a meaningful safety net for all citizens for generations, and where the question of whether the climate crisis exists or not probably comes up as often as fierce debates on whether gravity is real.

Those of us Americans who don't get out much anymore may be surprised as how the world views our willed ignorance and sociopathic stupidity, so a reminder such as Ann Jones' bracing piece in TomDispatch ("Is This Country Crazy? Inquiring Minds Elsewhere Want to Know") is a much needed splash of perspective.

Australia

While it's true that the few pockets of climate crisis denial in other countries (Australia, Canada, etc.) tend to be mostly white people, on the whole the reality of the climate crisis is accepted by the rest of the world, including whites, and they would just like to get on with dealing with its causes and effects.

Which is why political activities such as Global Divestment Day (today and tomorrow, according to datelines)  organized by 350 and related organizations are in fact international, even when their chief aim is to affect policy in the US.

Philippines

Racial prejudice is not necessary in evaluating white American behavior.  But the increasing isolation of older white Americans (which may in part be a defensive response to our minority status) should motivate some conscious reflection.

 Especially since, as Jones' piece points out, white dominated America is seen not only as shockingly brutal, it is recognized as falling behind the rest of the world, both internally (collapsing physical and social infrastructure) and internationally (collapsing education, health etc. compared to many other countries, including some that Americans have long considered inferior.)  It's not that America is the worst.  It's the contrast with America at its best, as well as this comparative fall.

That's far from the whole story--America still has vast resources of intelligence and compassion, knowledge and resilience. (It actually takes a lot of energy to keep up the pretense that there is credible evidence the climate crisis isn't happening, or that frigid winter weather in the Eastern US is an argument that there is no global heating.)  But it also seems that America is becoming too much like the last days of Rome, decaying at a very bad moment for the world.  That possibility also should motivate people to step up their efforts to meet these challenges.  Old assumptions no longer accurately reflect the whole reality, for the whole world.

Boston