Global Climate Change: The Power of Irony To Awaken Our Collective Consciousness - Dick Rauscher

Sep 2

Irony

The expression of one’s meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect.
A state of affairs or an event that seems deliberately contrary to what one expects and is often amusing as a result: the irony is that I thought he could help me.
A literary technique, originally used in Greek tragedy, by which the full significance of a character’s words or actions are clear to the audience or reader but unknown to the character.

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Power of Irony To Awaken Our Collective Consciousness

You have to be kidding. Our GOP politicians are that unaware? They can’t be so unconscious as to miss the incredible irony and humor embedded in their recent political press releases. Right? I mean nobody smart enough to be elected to Congress could possibly be so lacking in wisdom that they could criticize the Pope for meddling in science…..and do it with a straight face.

Scientifically uneducated GOP politicians are telling the Pope (who, by the way, does have a degree in science) that he should not be meddling in politics and making statements about global climate change. At the same time, they arrogantly discount the warnings of 97% of the world’s leading climate scientists by claiming to “know” with certainty that global climate change is “not” caused by humans.

Either they lack the wisdom to see the irony embedded in what they are saying, or they are making the assumption that the average voter is not smart enough to see the irony.

Both possibilities raise serious questions about our future and our children’s future.

Unfortunately, in this case, the irony is not very humorous. The consequences to our planet are far too dire.

Putting The Shoe On The Other Foot

Our scientifically untrained politicians apparently believe they are smarter than 97% of our world’s highly educated and experienced scientists. If so, then one could assume that the average environmental scientist would obviously have the intelligence, legal ability, and wisdom necessary to present a complex legal argument, or brief, before the Supreme Court. Right?

Let’s go back to irony. Let’s see if I’ve got this right.

These scientifically uneducated politicians have no problem accepting the fact that scientists can:
accurately launch a space probe 3 billion miles to explore Pluto,
9 years before it will intersect Pluto
which is moving at a high rate of speed around its own orbit, and then
have the technology to send a narrow beam of communications back and forth to that infinitely tiny dot that is now heading out of our solar system at a high rate of speed
while the earth is continually turning on its axis,
and rotating around the sun, and those signals are
able to hit that tiny high-speed space probe
exactly where it will be when the signals actually get to it and
the probe can aim its signals back to the tiny dot called Earth and accurately hit the receiving antennas when those weak returning signals eventually reach Earth;

yet their inflexible ideological thinking discounts the ability of those same highly trained scientists to figure out that global climate change here on our planet is caused by humans.

If that isn’t ironic, what is?

The Deeper Issue

Primitive Ego Psychology reminds us that our climate-denying GOP politicians are manifesting the dangers and limitations present whenever one attempts to use ideologically rigid, black and white thinking. Ideological thinking too often blinds the user to reality, logic, and scientific evidence. Stated differently, the ideology always wins; not reality.

We all come out of childhood with the tendency to use rigid right and wrong thinking, but that kind of thinking is far too primitive to use in our adult lives. It shuts down our ability to evolve and mature our adult consciousness. A mature consciousness is flexible. It reflects the ability to change one’s beliefs and opinions when confronted with evidence and logic that shows our ideological beliefs and opinions to be inaccurate.

Isn’t it ironic that so many GOP politicians, the very people responsible for leading our nation, are so ideologically inflexible they are unable to see this obvious truth? As I said above, I have trouble finding the humor in that irony. When our leaders are so blinded by their inflexible ideologies that they are unable to embrace the wisdom necessary to intelligently lead our nations safely into the future, I find it frightening….not ironic.

And yes, I am aware that this article borders on sarcasm. I’m simply tired of listening to politicians that reflect ideological thinking, but lack the growth in consciousness, flexibility, and wisdom necessary to effectively lead our nation.

Summary

Primitive Ego Psychology is clear. Black and white ideological thinking is a primitive level of human consciousness. It lacks the ability and wisdom needed to embrace middlepath thinking; the reality that there is always truth on both sides of every issue. Black and white thinkers make decisions based on ideologies rather than on evidence, facts, and reality. As a result, they almost always lack the intellectual integrity and wisdom needed to hold positions of power and authority. Intellectual integrity requires the ability and wisdom to deal effectively with facts and the flexibility to change course when confronted with facts and evidence that fails to agree with one’s ideologies or preconceptions.

In the words of Franklin D. Roosevelt “ The country demands bold, persistent experimentation. It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something”. This quote is an excellent description of wisdom and intellectual integrity; not ideological thinking.

Ideological inflexibility has no place in national politics. It does not reflect the open-mindedness required to solve the complex problems currently facing our nation, and our planet. Ideological thinking will always interfere with the ability to openly admit one is wrong or intentionally search for other solutions when reality fails to agree with one’s ideological position.

We need to awaken our national consciousness and elect political leadership with the wisdom and flexibility to stop the damage we are doing to our planet and help us cope with the challenging environmental realities that are coming. We are in the jaws of a global environmental crisis. We need mature leaders with the intellectual integrity and wisdom to lead us out of those jaws.

The earth is speaking to us, and we need to listen to her. Nature does not need us, but we do need her.

And she will always win.