As IF Times

Earth Hour | Twitter takes Earth Hour viral.

You have to give credit to the clever people who originally orchestrated this “World Event” some years ago.  This is the ultimate expression of that social networking phenomenon called a flash mob.  Flash mobs can be benign and amusing such as when strangers start spontaneously singing at a mall, or when people decide to go out without pants on New York’s subways.  They can have genuine influence such as the credit given to social networking for the uprisings in Egypt and the middle east.   It’s always important to catch the attention of a younger group of people, since only youth will do anything for the sole crazy reason of, it seemed like a good idea at the time.  If you’re going to try to get a mob going, start it among youth, they love the group experience.  Ever notice the green zealots?  They all have that same unkempt hair, bearded chops look.  Anyone who wants to be taken seriously in that movement, has to have the group green look.  We’re not sure why.

At the root of the flash mob phenomenon is the fun, whimsical nature of the happening.  The novelty and symbolism of  the  Earth Day event however has long passed it’s amusement factor and is instead merely kept alive by zealots who still cling to their misguided notions of how things work.  Although the hardcore nuts have managed to cajole some ‘mainstream’ groups to sponsor observance of the day, as if not observing it makes you a social pariah, the declining participation year over year shows that like all things that amuse kids, the novelty has worn off.  Earth Day is the modern Tickle Me Elmo.  The obvious exaggeration and fraud of global warming hasn’t helped the cause either.

Imagine if somebody were able to float the notion that humans were creating too much sewage.  On this version of earth day, everyone would be cajoled into not going to the bathroom for an entire day.  And to really encourage participation, all public washrooms would have locks placed on them.  It could be a finable offense to sell someone a bran muffin.  Something tells  me this day of observance won’t make it to be annual event, at least not by those over 40 years of age.    And therein lies the secret of all crazy movements.  Get the kids involved first.  Most older people know better and have a firmer grip on reality, or should.  It’s no coincidence that the big push for hysterical  issues such as global warming occurs in the schools where impressionable kids have no means of assessing validity.   “Daddy, don’t you want to save the earth?” is the plea from innocent 6 year olds.  So the parents play along the same way they place a plate of cookies and milk in the living room on Christmas eve.

Eventually, the kids grow up and the realization of misguided idealism hits them.  They figure out that walking around in the dark with kerosene lamps, a candle, or just glow bugs in a jar really isn’t practical.  They’ll figure out that the invention of electricity, flush toilets and central heating  are not just capitalist frivolities but real advances in civilization.  They’ll figure out that the charm of bicycling to work in a rainstorm loses its charm in only one session.  Most significantly, they’ll find that as larger chunks of their paycheques are confiscated for ill conceived and quixotic environmental causes, their support for zealous dictates will wane.  Maybe thankfully, they’ll shave off those goofy beards.

link Canada government defeated in non-confidence vote – Yahoo! News.

There’s an ancient anecdote about a movie that was made about the lives of an husband and wife team of brilliant scientists.  As they were watching the movie depiction, during a particularly steamy love scene, the real life wife leaned over to her husband and whispered, ” I don’t remember it being like this”.  The husband responded, “that my dear is because they are professionals and we are only amateurs”.  This stupid story reminds me of what has just happened in Canada.

The opposition parties have ganged up on the minority Conservative party to force the 4th federal election in 7 years.  Apparently, the opposition Liberal and NDP parties are expressing the mandate of  “the people” in pushing for a vote.  There is no anecdotal evidence that anyone wants another election, but hey, they are the professionals, so they must have some special insight.

If anyone has noticed, Canada at the moment is a bastion of calm both politically and economically in a world where everywhere else there is chaos and uncertainty.  There are no religious or cultural protests in the streets.  There are no burnings of effigies.  We are not at war with anyone.  There are no massive bank failures.  There is no imploding real estate sinkhole.  The currency is at an all time high versus the U.S. counterpart, our main trade partner.  The economy overall is strong with worldwide demand for our commodity products.  Thank goodness we have the Liberals and NDP willing to come to the rescue and save Canadians from all of this disaster.

The professional politicians are at it again.  The leaders of the opposition parties, Ignatieff and Layton,  both lack experience in any executive capacity; they are either academics or of some other crazed ideological bent that want to foist some tired notions of socialism upon the nation.  We know how that worked out just across the border to the south.  A handful of entitled people, otherwise unemployable, pushing their  mandate upon 35 million others who are living lives of relative tranquility.  For the benefit of these idiots, the way the  nation is running now is the way it’s supposed to be when things work.  The only thing they don’t like is that they’re not in charge.  These are people whose only role in life has been to suck on the nation’s political teat.  Let’s hope the amateurs rise up and make these ‘professionals’ pursue new professions in the next election.   I hear Cuba is looking for new leadership.