The G8 fiddles while petro-civilization burns
In het artikel worden verschillende auteurs besproken die boeken hebben geschreven over de wereldproblemen die zich thans aandoen. De meeste auteurs ken ik wel, behalve ene Barbara W. Tuchman:
Is het fenomeen dat Tuchman beschrijft iets waar we 'anno 2008' vrij van zijn, of kunnen we er nog steeds van uitgaan dat wereldleiders doorgaans 'tegen het algemeen- en eigen belang handelen'?The Pulitzer Prize-winning Tuchman made a career of tracking human idiocy across the millennia. Her thesis in The March of Folly is that even when political leaders have the information they need to make an intelligent decision, and know what decision ought to be made, they consistently fail to make it. They act against both common sense and self-interest.
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[...] Tuchman painstakingly catalogues the information the political leaders were aware of and could have used to make better decisions, but didn't.
"A phenomenon noticeable throughout history regardless of place or period is the pursuit by governments of policies contrary to their own interests. Mankind, it seems, makes a poorer performance of government than of almost any other human activity. ... Why do holders of high office so often act contrary to the way reason points and enlightened self-interest suggests? Why does intelligent mental process seem so often not to function?"
Verderop in het artikel wordt Michael T. Klare genoemd, de bekende onheilsprofeet:
In dit draadje wil ik het hebben over een stelling geinspireerd opTuchman's werk, namelijk:Instead of looking at the world and its crisis as a scientist, sociologist, politician, activist or journalist, he [Klare]analyses it geopolitically.
In other words, how are world political leaders reacting to the death of what Klare calls the "petro-civilization?" By scrambling to clinch the planet's remaining, dwindling fossil fuel reserves, that's how. As he finds, this involves risky, expensive, behind-the-scenes manoeuvring between energy-rich and energy-poor states.
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The cynicism sets in at the glimpse of how hard and how covertly all these political leaders are running to secure what's left.
"Wereldleiders en regeringen zullen falen in het uitzetten van rationeel beleid ten bestrijding van de verschillende crises in de wereld, omdat ze de wetenschap negeren en doorgaans tegen het algemeen belang *en* hun eigen belang in handelen."
