Friday, July 1, 2022

Chicken Little - Politics of Fear


Chicken Little

All the talk about the threat of "climate change" is, I believe, a "Chicken Little" phenomenon. It is designed to scare people into giving more power to politicians. Recall our series on Machiavelli. 

In "Machiavelli and the Politics of Fear" Seth Woodley writes (here): 

"The most famous passage from The Prince is in an answer to the question “Is it better to be loved than feared?” Machiavelli’s answer to this question is quite familiar to modern day readers. He writes, “The answer is that one would like to be both one and the other; but because it is difficult to combine them, it is far better to be feared than loved if you cannot be both.”

Politicians love to scare the citizens they represent. It is their way of maintaining or increasing control. 

Are there legitimate things for us to fear today? Yes, but climate change is not one of them. One of them is the rise of totalitarianism and tyranny in our country and in others. 

We should rather be fearful of the change in the "social climate." (See my posting on that here)

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