30 Mar King Charles: Living (in) the Dream (World)
We suppose that there are some of you who get tired of us writing about the same ol’ concepts all the time but think about it from our perspective for a minute. Dontcha think we get tired of writing about those same ol’ concepts all the time? Dontcha figure we get tired of our “leaders” – such as they are – making it necessary for us to write about those concepts all the time? Well, we do. It’s exhausting.
Nevertheless, we return once again today to The New Science of Politics and its author, Eric Voegelin’s description of contemporary Gnosticism and its pitiable dream world:
In the Gnostic dream world . . . nonrecognition of reality is the first principle. As a consequence, types of action which in the real world would be considered as morally insane because of the real effects which they have will be considered moral in the dream world because they intended an entirely different effect. The gap between intended and real effect will be imputed not to the Gnostic immorality of ignoring the structure of reality but to the immorality of some other person or society that does not behave as it should behave according to the dream conception of cause and effect. The interpretation of moral insanity as morality, and of the virtues of sophia and prudentia as immorality, is a confusion difficult to unravel.
Our umpteen billionth reflection on Gnosticism today comes courtesy of our perusal of the news this morning and three stories in particular that stood out. The first of these is about King Charles III’s visit to Germany and his speech earlier today to the Bundestag, stressing the risks he sees to Europe’s security:
Britain’s King Charles III has emphasised that the security of Europe and democratic values have been threatened by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Quote: “The scourge of war is back in Europe, the war of aggression against Ukraine has brought unimaginable suffering on so many innocent people,” he said. “The security of Europe as well as our democratic values are under threat. But the world did not stand idly by… we can draw courage from our unity.”
Charles is concerned about Europe’s security. That’s good. He should be. The EU and Great Britain need to get serious about the threats extant in the world – from Putin’s Russia to Xi’s China and a host of other people and places in between. Good on the new king for recognizing this.
The second story is also about King Charles and his visit to Germany, only with a slightly different focus:
In his first overseas visit as U.K. monarch, King Charles III is doing little to dispel the notion he’s a political animal at heart.
In twin addresses Wednesday and Thursday he talked up politicians’ “vital” efforts to cut carbon emissions, praised Germany’s “extraordinary generosity” in hosting Ukrainian refugees, took a swipe at Vladimir Putin’s Russia, and attempted a patch-up job on U.K.-German relations frayed by Brexit….
speaking Wednesday night at a state banquet at Schloss Bellevue, the official residence of the German president, Charles noted that both the U.K. and Germany were united by their focus on “promoting global health, net-zero and protecting our shared democratic values.”
Addressing German lawmakers in the Bundestag Thursday, Charles hailed Germany’s “courageous” move to give military support to Ukraine, and said the shift to alternative energy sources was “vital in combating the existential challenge of climate change and global warming which confronts us all.”
Oh. Right. We forgot for a moment whom we were dealing with.
Finally, we come to the third story – not about Charles specifically but still about his beloved homeland – courtesy of The Telegraph:
It was the moment that the entire car industry – and the large majority of drivers – had been dreading: confirmation that a proposed ban on new petrol and diesel vehicles from 2030 would go ahead as planned.
Last October’s announcement, from the then transport secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan, is a central plank of the Government’s ambitions of hitting net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050….
[T]he simple truth is that the UK is not even close to being ready to switch over in the desperately short time it has been given because not enough has been done to prepare.
It is pure fantasy to think that in just seven years, Britain will have phased out new petrol and diesel models and be in a position to support a largely electrified fleet.
As senior car figures have pointed out, seven years is nothing in carmaking terms – it takes roughly that long to bring a new model to market.
Ministers have completely under-estimated the scale of the challenge facing society and the car industry, imposing a strict target without any thought to whether it can realistically be met.
As a consequence, on every single key measure – whether it is charging points, battery factories or the energy grid itself – we are way behind.
On chargers, the Government’s favourite retort is that a driver on a UK A-road or motorway is never more than 25 miles from a rapid charging point.
But what use is that if there’s a queue of cars snaking out of the car park when you get there, or worse, it is broken?
The ratio of chargers to cars has worsened from one per 16 cars in 2020 to one per 30 cars in 2022, while faster chargers account for just a fifth of the network and are being rolled out more slowly.
Meanwhile, in some major cities, a third of all chargers are broken. The network simply hasn’t kept pace with sales growth.
The same can be said for batteries.
Last month the boss of Vauxhall parent Stellantis, which has major manufacturing sites in Ellesmere Port and Luton, warned that unless the UK urgently builds the battery factories required to feed the major car plants, “the market will be in trouble”.
His comments echoed that of a top Nissan executive, who said: “The UK is becoming more challenging as a manufacturing footprint.” While Britain has just one operational gigafactory, China has built more than 100.
Besides, the energy grid is so decrepit that it isn’t even capable of handling more electricity.
There are parts of London where it is impossible to build new homes because there simply isn’t the capacity to support them.
We were tempted, for a brief moment, to write that “it goes without saying that obsessing about net-zero and organic farming, in a country that is bound and determined to turn itself into a dysfunctional third-world hellhole, while also prattling on about the grave security challenges that face that country is completely bat-sh*t crazy, utterly blind to reality.” But, apparently, it doesn’t go without saying. This king, his friends, family, all the ministers in the government and in the previous governments (all of which were allegedly “conservative”), plus everyone in his audience at the Bundestag, plus all of the media covering him, plus half the people reading the stories, etc. etc. ad nauseam, need it said to them – over and over and over (and over). But even if it were said to them (over and over), they still wouldn’t get it. These are not people with whom one can reason. They just aren’t.
And we gotta say, we love the inclusion of the bit about how China has built 100 battery factories. Gotta hand it to the Chinese and their “green” revolution!
By the way, do you know what else China built last year? About six times as many coal power plants as the rest of the world combined. And do you know why China built so many new coal plants as well as so many battery factories? Because the CCP is many things, almost all of them ugly and vile, but one thing that it is not is delusional about what it takes to produce economic and military security, namely energy security, which means LOTS of energy.
Nevertheless, while King Ding Dong roams the world sticking his prodigious nose into places where kingly noses haven’t belonged in at least 335 years, those who hold actual political power in the West are no better, relying just as heavily on fantasies and dream-world thinking to build their agendas.
Moral insanity, indeed.
