The 5th Climate wave

Years ago, a friend of mine wanted to perform a financial transaction for a rather large sum of money. He resided in a country afflicted with rather prohibitive financial restrictions. 

The transaction was not illegal and there was no risk for me so I agreed to help. I had a weird gut feeling though. Something did not feel right.

So I told my friend about my feelings. He assured me that everything was OK and he knew what he did. So we got the transaction done.

Some weeks after he told me that he had been scammed and the transaction was part of that scam. After talking to the police for a while the only thing I could tell him was that the money was most likely gone.

I was rattled. Not for the money loss. 

I knew this guy for years. He was well educated with a college degree and a management job to match his professional pedigree. He was smart, well-informed, well-educated, and well-versed in international circles. And he got ripped off by one of the most stupid email scams imaginable.

The only consolation was that this misadventure did not kill him as it often happens to the victims. He made a mental write-off and recovered quickly. Still, the story gripped me for months. Later, I talked it over with my father. He told me that in his middle years, he knew a man who was known for hawking shoddy financial products and insurance. 

This man had told him that the smartest people are often the easiest to fool. I made a mental note. Academic pedigree and economic success don’t protect anyone from his own bluster. Because if you want to believe something, no facts and no amount of grey matter will protect you. People are credulous – and they are victims of wishful thinking. And the fear of losing out. 

The smarter they are, the easier they are to fool. 

It’s a pattern that seems to run through society. 

When I was a teenager I became aware of the Austrian writer Josef Kirschner. I was on an early trip to find my own personality so I devoured self-help books. Kirschner’s “The art of being an Egoist” was my first such book.

Kirschner had his own idea of being an egoist. For him, an egoist was a person who would stand up for him/herself no matter what the rest of the world thinks about that. Or if they approve or not. For him, an egoist was a positive contribution to society as one can only help others if he/she can help oneself. Makes sense.

According to him, all humans subscribe to one out of three behavior patterns. 

• Fools – 80% of any population are Fools. Those people are easily manipulated because that’s what they want. They eagerly seek someone who tells them what to do, what to think, and how to squat. It’s the bulk of any population. Those people are not necessarily stupid. I know some very, very smart Fools myself. Education does not help anyone out of this.
• Foxes – 18% of any population are Foxes. They are manipulators and they are always on the lookout for enough Fools around them. Those people are not necessarily smart. Some of the best Foxes have very low education but they are often street smart.
• Sages – that’s the paltry 2% rest. Those folks know what they want. They know what they know and what they don’t know and won’t follow conventions except if they choose so. 

I took some liberties with the translation as I wanted to preserve the punch of the German original. 

Here is the good news. You can choose what group you want to be in. And whatever group you have run with so far, you can change it at the flick of a finger. 

The same is true for Anthropomorphic Climate Change or what I would like to call the Green Ponzi. Why do so many believe in it when so much points to the sun as the main driver of our climate? Why do so many scientists fall in line? 

Let’s apply the percentages. The 80% will follow. That’s true for scientists as well. Yes, education won’t save you from the 80%. Only you can save yourself. If you want to be in this group, your academic achievements won’t matter a bit. You will fall in line with whatever is foisted on you by the Foxes. Because you fear nothing more than sticking out. 

In a sense, the 80% is the silent majority. If ACC falls out of favor and something else, something totally different from ACC takes its place, the Fools will be on board. No questions asked.

Now the Foxes are those that profit from the snake oil sales that ACC really is. Politicians who hope to cash in on the platform. Renewable Project Developers. Scientists and activists with a knack for fame and fortune. 

Very few members of this group will be scientists. Scientists tend to flock towards the Sages when they are older. They often congregate with the other Fools when younger.

So, lots of non-scientific Foxes (and a few scientific ones) have new snake oil they can foist on the Fools for their own fame and fortune. They are loud, they are obnoxious if needed. They will do whatever is needed to get their way. And they are cool in their self-assured demeanor. But they are also vampires. As Foxes necessarily are. 

The Foxes are a minority. That’s why they need to create the fiction of majority consensus on their schemes. They use the silent majority for that and voila, 97% consensus. Which in fact is a few voices that coerce a mass of people that wants to be coerced?

When Stalin talked about useful idiots, he did not make any distinction between Fools and Foxes. They were all one easy-to-manipulate mass of people for the biggest fox of all.

Remains, the 2% – or the Sages. As said above, when scientists come of age, they lose the fear that made them Fools in the past. Yes, most Sages were Fools in the past. They just threw off the fear of other people’s judgment. In other words – Sages don’t give a crap about what you think of them. What does that make Trump by the way?

In January 2016, the movie “The 5th Wave” hit the screens. It was an otherwise rather unremarkable film but as I am a fan of dystopian movies I saw it to the end.

The plot: aliens come to Earth and start to rid the planet of humans by successive waves of disaster brought upon them. 

The survivors regroup during the 4th wave when alien-controlled humans arrive, abduct the children, and kill the adults. The children are brought to an army base where they are trained to perform in hit squads to hunt down the last remaining humans.

Those human children did the dirty work to complete the alien takeover. Had they been aware that they are being used, some of them would have rebelled. But groupthink, a desire to fit in and peer pressure, as well as constant manipulation, keeps them in line.

Today’s reign of psychological ACC terror by the Foxes on the Fools is no different. A few outspoken Sages won’t be able to break this. Those things come down when they collapse under their own weight. As they always do. 

And remember – you have to decide which group you want to be in.