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 Bundle up as temperature drops below zero in Metro Vancouver.

It doesn’t really matter how much factual information is available to the public.  Ironically, though we live in a time when freedom and access to information has never been greater, so has the exposure to misinformation. As a result, we have not only more enlightenment, we also have more opportunity to spread stupidity and banality disguised as useful  information.  It’s as if we opened the door to let the dog in and all the rats and insects flooded in as well.

With the explosion of information platforms such as IPads, Smartphones and Social Networking apps, we can all know that Jennifer Aniston has a new hairstyle.  We know that Charlie Sheen goes on the occasional bender.   We can also learn what’s happening on the other side of the world in real time.  For instance, we know that Mohamar Gaddaffi may be at risk of losing his seat on the United Nations human rights council and may drop out of the running for the Nobel Peace prize.  But at least these are all observable events.  They really don’t need anyone to explain what happened.

Sadly, many people don’t consume news and information critically, they swallow it whole without any thought as if it were Flintstones multivitamins.  It’s easy to find these people because when you ask them to elaborate on why they believe what they believe, they parrot the standard talking points lines they’ve been conditioned with from the popular media.  What they are often unable to distinguish however are facts from opinions.  In this day and age, there are those who still think the moon landing was a hoax.  There are those that think that the terrorist acts of 9-11 were inside jobs perpetrated by the U.S. government.  There are those that still think rap music has any redeeming value and is a legitimate art form.

And of course, there are those that still believe two of the biggest fibs ever foisted on the public.  One is old and classic, the other one a relatively new whopper.  Both are related and both are nicely summed up by a comment on a recent snowfall in Victoria, B.C. by an unknown writer in response to the news story in the above link: