A very good friend of mine is a Scientologist. He is a nice guy, I respect his decisions, but I find Scientology a load of whacked-out nonsense. It is his choice and none of my business. The reason for mentioning it is that my dismissive view of Scientology is probably how many people view this post-carbon life.
Let me explain. Scientologist (and probably many cults and religions) hold their members captivated through a special understanding. They are special. Only they understand what is going on. Only they can fix it. They have the key to life. They have their own language and life-patterns. It is an inclusive club, wary of outsiders but willing to prey on those members of society most likely to be open to these ideas that they too are somehow special. Only they can save the planet. There is enormous urgency therefore NOTHING else is important. Family, friends, life, all these become secondary in your urgent mission to save mankind.
It is all very self-obsessed. I have heard it said that when Scientologists recruit that they give a free ‘personality test’. This is offered to passers-by in the street. So it would take a certain kind of personality even to want to accept such a “test” from a complete stranger. Once hooked they tell you that your test reveals worrying things about you – you may even be considering suicide. But don’t worry, the Church can help you. Now most people would find this laughable. However it is not most people that the Church is interested in. It only needs a minority who fit a certain profile. It is intriguing how many
What does this interesting diversion tell us about Post Carbonites? Well, we certainly are neither Church nor Cult. I don’t think we’ll see many of our like standing on street corners holding a copy of “How to live a Low-Carbon Life” shouting at passers-by that Chris Goodall is the "risen Lord". We should recruit but we are all too nice and treat it all as a personal hobby more than anything else. However, it is people’s view of cults that probably explains why there are so few Post-Carbon people in the World. Look at the similarities:
- The End of the World is nigh!
- We know how to save the planet
- Why aren’t other people as concerned as us?
When we start banging on about our solar panels and permaculture gardens you can see the look on people’s faces as they back towards the door. It says “NUTTER!”. Our passion for what we know is right is treated with suspicion. People immediately assume that we all a bunch of primitive sandal wearers who reject the 21st Century in favour of living in a cave. We hate the human race! Of course this is probably no more true than my views of Scientology. We quite like the human race and want it to be around for another few thousand years. That is probably the difference between us and the ultra-deep-green. But the public perception is that we are all the same.
So what do we learn? Two things are important. Firstly we need be conscious that we are not going to build a mass movement or change the paradigm by being perceived as weirdos. So we need to lead by example and thorough reasoning. Secondly, we have something to learn from Cults – they have some mass appeal, are organised and some of them are quite powerful. We have Al Gore and Leonardo di Caprio. They have John Travolta and that chick from Cheers. All we need is a good hook – some personality test – some deep-seated unhappiness with a large section of the population. Then we can get under everyone’s skin. Then people will listen. We need a vision. We need leadership.
That is probably why I believe something else has to happen here. The Carbon-Poverty problem has to effect the “people who matter” and they can’t just buy their way out of it. Hence Carbon needs to be priced out of the market. Carrot and stick. We have been offering a carrot for years but people want a burger. We need to reconstitute the Carrot as a veggie-burger and get a bigger stick. It is within our power to transform the Carrot but it is in nature’s hand to grow the stick. No one wants that stick to get any bigger. We all hope the carrot will stave off the stick. But if it requires a stick, so be it. But it is out of our hands. Unless some visionary leadership comes along and can really SELL that image of a BIG STICK to Joe public. And it will need to be bigger than “An Inconvenient Truth”.
