Some horror films, especially those with half a dozen sequels, are very melodramatic in style, presenting one or more people walking into a situation where the audience knows danger to lurk but the characters have no inkling of that danger, or haven’t admitted it. Scene by excruciating scene, the plot unfolds, the author having arranged matters so that the helpless characters cannot see ordinary safety unraveling all about.
Climate change is like that. It unfolds slowly, patiently, its plot never moving in a straight line, making sure that there’s every reason for most of the characters to to feel comfortable. As with a good melodrama, a few characters are aware of the problem and they struggle to warn the others, but always to no avail as a gruesome ending becomes increasingly inevitable.
The sick plot twist here is that we are the authors and we are the ones arranging for our own complacency, even in the face of the clues our fellow characters have discovered. It feels sometimes like the people who know what’s really going on are locked in a sound-proof plexiglass room, able to see out clearly, watching it unfold, but powerless to stop it or even to just get a message out.
Would that it were just a sci-fi or horror movie, or even a simple nightmare from which one could awaken.
Cancer is a subtle enemy. It presents itself in such small ways, almost imperceptibly. We may see signs, but hope we don’t. It creeps. Worst of all, it accelerates.
We want to control its rate, to force it to be linear, measured, paced. But try as we might, we cannot hold it still. It resists commands.
We seek to impose onto it, by force of will, by clutching at every definition and argument we can lay our fingers upon, that it must move, change, or grow only when we say.
We command of it a cartoon physics that says it will not bite us until we look, and then we steadfastly refuse to look.
As with all things Death, we are skilled at ways of looking away from it, hoping that if we don’t meet its direct gaze, it won’t come for us today. We hope it will simply walk past, taking no notice, our apparent indifference having saved us.
Climate change is like that, too.
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Author’s Note
These are just my subjective impressions.
Please comment accordingly.
(We'll do objectivity another day.)
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RomanticPoetess
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Comments
Yes, the grim end is coming and all we in the audience can do is gasp in expectant horror at the outcome.
Not only was this spot on, but it was about as well written a piece on the subject as I have read anywhere.
Looking at "things Death" we are reminded of the Medusa, for if we look into her eyes, we're turned to stone. We do that when we are paralyzed by grief, and in a much smaller way, when we can't look away from accidents or train wrecks, literally or metaphorically. When we look, we find it hard to look away, and we become bound to the sight. Sometimes, bound to do something about it. Looking is just a tricky thing, because it can consume you or make you miserable. It's rare to look from a healthy spirit.
Yet refusing to look is a form of denial. Don't "look" or else - don't look in the box, Pandora - don't look behind the door Mrs. Bluebeard - don't eat that apple, Evie - don't peek at Eros - don't dare to hope or change or seek a different way of being, OR ELSE!
Whatever you do, don't listen to your instincts when you feel that creepy feeling - it'll go easier for us all if we just plant ourselves in front of the television in our recliners.
STOP THE ADVANCE OF THE 451s
Abby, thanks. Always glad to promote a bit of thought. :)
Designanator, yeah, that's got to change. Maybe it will. Kanuk just pointed me to this article, which is a good sign.
Donna, thanks for the support.
Myriad, I'll take that. I'm glad it echoed powerfully with you.
Travellini, I hadn't thought of the Medusa, but yes, I guess that's an interesting metaphor for another day. Ironically, for all the problem is in her direction, it's staring it straight down in which the hope lies. (As for Pandora, I think some of the technologies we went with in modern society have opened that famous box of badness that it's hard now to close.)
Elijah, I'm not sure I follow your question about how “low”...? Nor do I know what a 451 is in this context. (A reference to the Bradbury story?)
Anna, the basic problem is that science teaches people not to scream, and its opponents do a lot of more empassioned outrage. Just as in the recent election, the side of quiet sanity is easily rolled over by those willing to make stuff up loudly.
Abrawang, just so. I'm a political independent but have to register temporarily in one party or another to vote in the primary of my choice. Last year I guess I forgot to unregister as a Democrat, so I got the DNC mailing asking me about how I wanted to rate their 14 priorities in rank order. Climate Change was not even among them. I'm going to investigate the Green Party for the 2012 election.
Kenny, I agree. It is clearly denial. It also challenges a lot of fundamentally held principles for some, and vindicates them in others (the Rapture).
Julie, melodrama as in a presentation style. Many horror films are melodrama. I mentioned it because it's the style where you watch the screen and you scream “turn around!” or “don't go in there!” or “don't go home with him!” because a lot of the style is built on the notion that the audience is not party to the mystery—they know what is about to happen and they can see it happen but they cannot change it. And while it's all good sport if you're watching, it's not good sport to be in it. Here, though, we're both in it and watching... Well, anyway, that's why I chose the word. I'm sorry if I made it confusing. :) But then, it is confusing. So maybe I didn't cause it but highlight it.
with cancer, win lose or draw, the best outcome possible is a nothing more than postponement and/or a comfortable passing, the fact is nobody, cancer-free or not, gets out of here alive
with climate change, I think the outcome is just about as inevitable, the international political process is the only method we've developed to deal with global questions, and politics is simply inadequate for this problem -- as I've said elsewhere, politics is the art of compromise and the laws of nature don't compromise
the only question is, how much of humanity and our accomplishments will survive the coming global extinction event
Trig, thanks. :)
I'd love to share something positive I heard yesterday. Positive but with a pinch of regret. Your Secretary of State has been here in Australia wrapping up all sorts of deals, mainly to do with arms and bases, but there was this : Australia and the US are committed to doing something about this dang Climate Change thingy.
They've made a joint commitment to come up with a cheaper photovoltaic cell, dammit.
The source of their hopes lie in a factory in Wuxi, China.
They ( Aus & US ) have done a deal.
The factory was built by a young guy who got his doctorate right here in Sydney, an Australian citizen, who had to go to China because no-one here would back his nutty ideas.
His name is Zhengrong Shi. He now sells his technology to half the world and it's brilliant, cheaper-than-chips stuff and evolving faster than you could poke a stick at. His company is Suntech.
Damn shame we lost him back to China.
But while there are Zhengrong's around, I feel hope.
Thanks for your post, and the chance to tell you about someone working hard on the issue for all of us.
Nikki, it's good to hear it's resonating with so many people.
Kim, yes, we have to address the investment problem. See Thomas L. Friedman's book Hot, Flat, and Crowded for a good analysis of the business opportunities. It's an unusually positive look at the things that could be done, though he wrote it a few years back now, and is from his columns quite obviously dismayed that no one is listening. He had predicted the US could pick up that stuff and beat China in the market, but the US ignored him and China did not. Well, these things need to be done, no matter who does them.