“Yes I am aware. I am aware of a lot
of things, actually. Even things happening outside my country. Even
things happening on different continents. Even things happening to
people I have no natural cultural or ethnic connection to.
"But what I am most painfully aware of
is that your awareness group is not meant to solve a problem. It is
designed to use manipulative advertising techniques to create a false
promise that your group will deliver anything other than just more
awareness.”
Now it's true that awareness is
dangerous, in the wrong hands. The cancer fraudster Ashley Kirilow began like a Lou Reed character come to life: She plucked her
eyebrows on the way; shaved her head; and then she was a cancer
survivor. Till she took a walk with the fraud squad. And all the
locals became aware that cancer charity donations were vulnerable to
fraud.
In the same vein, it is bloody obvious
to all that Earth Hour is a vacuous gesture. But who is Earth Hour
for? It's for children. Children. “Let's turn out the lights and
play a game in the dark and help save the planet.” Yes it's
magical thinking, but that's what children do and we love that in
them.
So why does Earth Hour arouse such
strong emotion? Yes it's a vulgar and indulgent exercise in
greenwashing that property managers have grabbed onto with both
hands. Oh, the humanity! But I believe the danger of Earth Hour is that it's social hygiene. By observing Earth Hour, we are indoctrinating our
children with positive messages about caring about the health of
animals and the natural world.
And when we conspire to make children
care, then the National Post's Peter Foster derides "ecofascist
nonsense such as Earth Hour". He may be right, but he's also
right wing. Not that's there anything wrong with that! So Peter
Foster is angry that Earth Hour has no positive benefit, other than
to inculcate our children with a caring attitude attitude toward
animals and the environment.
But everyone I know cares about animals
and the environment. I live in that environment. I eat those animals.
And really, what does the World Wildlife Fund do? One day will they
flashmob in my laneway and vaccinate all the raccoons? I doubt it.
Based on their website, they are all about “partner programs”.
Standard weasel words for “sit on our butts in boardrooms and hold
conference calls with green groups. And try to make the governments
pay for it all.” Well, good luck with that.
For me Earth Hour will be about going
to the park near my house with the classic “million dollar view”
of our City's downtown. And when I go there at 8:30 tonight it will
be cool to see those buildings all dark.
