I read an interesting article by Roderick Aldridge in the Green Party's newsletter Te Awa (issue 30 May 2011), "Let's accentuate the positive"
He refers to this report about the science of why we don't believe science:
http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/03/denial-science-chris-mooney
The argument might include something like this:
The message about climate change is fundamentally bad news. Folks tend to react with an emotional response far more quickly & powerfully than a logical analysis. We tend to push threatening information away from us because of this emotional reaction. It's a fight or flight reflex to data, a survival instinct.
On the basis of Mooney's report the Green dude Aldridge reckons the Greens should carefully use language that prioritises a positive aspect of a message rather than hitting off with the gloomy facts. This might counter the tendency to switch off the Green message because it's seen as threatening.
eg. "we are the ones who know how to build a sustainable future with a better quality of life"
cf. Climate change is 'gonna be a bummer & the deadshit National government aren't doing jack about it.
'Gotta vote Green I reckon.
Gotta vote green! agreed!
ReplyDeleteIn the mean time, I just want to pose a point of view.
I was once ranted at about how we have escaped the confines of religion, where we were told once a week how bad we were and how evil mankind was and that we could repent (a way of life that have seriously reduced in many Western societies), a gap has been exposed - So to fill that perceived gap some evangelical people have come along with their new name of "sustainability" and with a goal of making life a guilt trip for everybody else.
I have experienced those evangelical people and sometimes I can understand why climate change deniers are climate change deniers - because understanding the implications of climate change, of sea level rise, of dependancy on fossil fuels and the threat of peak oil, of food scarcity, of river/sea/air/land pollution, and the millions of other problems occurring everyday is TERRIFYING when we don't know what the answers are - so isn't it easier to deny than to face the "inconvenient truth' (to quote a rather famous individual). So why would National government ever face up to these complex issues?
Take for example the slight problem of oil spilling onto our clean green beaches as I write this - what is the government doing - not a right lot, but then again they are pretty busy organising a rugby world cup you know....
So yeah, gotta vote green!