Crossroads Crises in Perspective (Part 3) – Truth and Energy at the Crossroads
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The view from the Global South: Looking from the outside in. This series of essays is based on readings of reports, articles, and presentations that are in the public domain, with provided references. The content contains futurology based on cycle science and the mystical sciences. Readers are encouraged to approach the text with critical, yet open minds.
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Western culture is at the crossroads. It must either cling to its outmoded unilateral conception of truth, or else correct its onesidedness by reintroducing other systems. (Pitirim A. Sorokin, The Crisis of Our Age). 1
Introduction
This chapter delves deeper into contradictions and generalisations surrounding crises perceived as global in nature. At the core of the discussion is the theme of truth and its relevance to our lives.
Rising Out of Groupthink
The ease with which certain opinions obtain general acceptance results more especially from the impossibility experienced by the majority of men of forming an opinion peculiar to themselves and based on reasoning of their own (Gustave Le Bon, The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind). 2
Knowledge is a fundamental aspect of consciousness, and individuals can elevate their consciousness above that of the general populace by accumulating information that diverges from the mainstream. However, it is essential to recognise that simply possessing a vast amount of alternative knowledge does not automatically equate to wisdom.
While acquiring knowledge is valuable, assimilating irrelevant or false information can indeed result in blind spots and paradoxical beliefs. Verification of facts and critical reasoning are indispensable in this regard. An open-minded approach is necessary to avoid dismissing potentially valuable information, but it must be coupled with an investigative mindset to discern truth from misinformation.
Identifying information that fills in blind spots and illuminates shadows is crucial for distinguishing the wheat from the chaff. With diligent adherence to this process, a more nuanced, comprehensive, and holistic understanding can emerge. Falling back into groupthink and mainstream assumptions should always be guarded against.
Contradictory Remedies
It was illustrated in the previous chapter that certain subjects, such as climate, the environment, and population, must be carefully considered individually to differentiate whether they are in crisis or not, and whether any crises are of a local or global nature.
The discussion below highlights, in no particular order, some of the general contradictions within proposed remedies for the ostensible environmental and climate crises, with attention placed on the transition from fossil fuels to alternative energies.
The rest of this chapter is available as an ARCHIVE PAGE and as a PDF DOWNLOAD
Chapter Segments:
- Introduction [excerpt above]
- Rising Out of Groupthink [excerpt above]
- Contradictory Remedies [excerpt above]
- Blind Spots in the Spotlight
- The Urgency to Save the Planet
- Paradox, Oxymoron and Dual-Meaning
- Sustainability Through Emerging Technologies
- Green Industrialisation
- Mantras Are Not Always Truisms
- Religious Techno-Utopianism
- Intermittent Energy Solutions
- Select Your Circular Economy
- Out with the Old and In with the New
- Constant Progress as an Imperative
- Social Equity as an Afterthought
- Choose Your Just Transition
- Objectives versus Outcomes
- A Missing Case Study
- Environmentalism in the Spotlight
- Placing Recycling at the Centre
- Fast Fashion and Planned Obsolescence
- Ambiguous Solutions for Confusing Problems
- Decentralised Crisis Management Revisited
- Departing from Ambiguity
- The Path to Illumination
By J.J. Montagnier
26 May 2024
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About the author: J.J. Montagnier is an independent researcher and writer based in the Global South, at a midpoint between West and East. The views and opinions expressed are those of the writer. (This content is made available for free as a public service and is not intended for commercial use).
Copyright © All Rights Reserved. GypsyCafe.org
3 Comments
JJ, This is very long, so I’m making a couple of comments before having read all of it.
First, I am a very open-minded person. My mind is like a sieve. But the simple fact that all life is carbon-based, throws the whole pardigm of carbon-emission-reductions into question. I see it as a politically motivated sales pitch by a coterie of know-nothings to demonize the most basic building block of life itself.
While I am a fan of alternative energy technology, like you I recognize the limitations of attempts to produce solar panels, wind turbines or solar or wind farms on any massive scale. Totally impractical, for the reasons you mention and more.
Although I live in the US, I have traveled some and have noticed practical small-scale adaptations to variations in seasons, climate, altitude, and cultural preferences, like roof-top cisterns in South America. As you know, places like Machu Picchu in Peru are marvels of technological application built long before stock-market churners in London or Wall Street started pitching their versions of innovation.
Katharine, thank you for taking the time to reply and for reading. This is actually a chapter that will be incorporated into book, hence its length, but I’m making it publicly available so long for interested readers. As with the previous chapter it will shortly only be available as a PDF download.
Very well expressed in your first paragraph. For a time I was also convinced by the idea shared by so many people especially in the modern environmental movement that carbon emissions are harmful, specifically due to claims that they are responsible for global temperatures rising higher and faster than ever before.
I think anyone can be forgiven for feeling concerned if they are not presented with all the facts, because many of us genuinely care about the planet and environment. I think as long as we are prepared to correct ourselves and to admit when we are wrong, then everything’s fine since we are all human after all and can make mistakes, especially if true facts are really hard to come by. However, many people simply aren’t open minded enough to consider the possibility of being wrong, because that would set them apart from the mainstream and no-one wants to be ‘unpopular’ in this day and age.
It was around 2018/2019 that I started to feel that things just didn’t add up as there were many actual scientists coming out against the climate change narrative. It just didn’t make sense, but at first it was also difficult to determine which side was correct. I came across some online videos by Tony Heller where he presented actual newspaper clippings from news reports in the 1800’s and early 1900’s which showed extreme weather events with temperatures much higher and much colder during certain years than we have today. That then caused me to become skeptical of the entire narrative related to climate change and started to investigate and delve deeper into the issues.
It took quite some time to really form a clear picture as I had to actually search, find and read quite a number of scientific papers, old and new. Also, there was quite a lot of push-back and denial in the energy and environmental forums where I used to participate as most strongly believed that fossil fuels were causing global warming. I eventually exited virtually all such forums and decided to go my own way, which is usually the only real method of arriving at a semblance of comprehensive truth. Otherwise one is just held back by other people’s opinions and ideologies.
Considering that I had written about climate change in a couple of my early articles, it concerned me that I might have based my assumptions on wrong beliefs, so I subsequently edited two of my earlier pieces to remove any possible incorrect information. Since then I try to do my best to be as accurate as possible based on weighing up as many scientific and other facts as I can. It slows down the writing process though. This essay above took me almost a year to put together, which also explains why it’s so long. Nevertheless I think people need to take their own journey individually to discover the truth for themselves (as I said in my previous chapter), so my writings are only to point them in the right direction.
As for alternative energies, after experiencing 3 years of electricity cuts while based mostly in South Africa (on and off) recently, I have experienced, seen and heard about all the issues related to solar panels and inverters. They are at best good backup systems to keep the lights on and the refrigerator going during blackouts, but that’s about it … (except if you are a ‘millionaire’ and can afford a ‘mini solar farm’). And they come at enormous costs, which simply excludes a lot of working class and even lower middle-class people from obtaining these backup solutions. That in turn causes resentment and crime escalating, among other issues. I will write some more about the S.A. case study in my next chapter which should be published before the end of the year.
I liked what you said about South America and ancient and indigenous solutions to handling climatic extremes in simplified, yet advanced ways. I wish we could do the same, although I’ve also come to realize that going back in time for modern people is not really a feasible solution. I think we just need to work better with what we’ve got (meaning fossil fuels) rather than creating a host of new problems with technological solutions that fail to deliver. (To be continued in the next chapter …).
It’s always a pleasure to hear from you Katharine.
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