Posted on 11/10/2017 10:23:37 AM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
In the medieval legend made famous by the brothers Grimm, the German town of Hamelin is besieged by a plague of rats, until the mysterious pied piper appears and agrees, for a fee, to rid them of the infestation. The mayor then reneges on payment and the piper exacts a savage revenge on the town’s ingrates by luring away their children, who are never seen again.
The tale could also be an allegory for today’s grim intergenerational smash-and-grab – the global economy.
Like the hapless mayor of Hamelin, elected officials all over the world are today blindly pursuing growth-as-usual, while the gathering climate catastrophe rumbles ever closer. We adults may, if we’re lucky, get to die peacefully in our beds, but it’s our children who will be left to pay the ecological piper.
With politicians failing to step up to the climate challenge, what are the alternatives? One intriguing experiment in direct democracy has just concluded in Ireland, where a government-appointed Citizens’ Assembly composed of a nationally representative group of people selected at random heard detailed expert testimony on climate change from a range of experts. No lobbyists or politicians were allowed in the room.
The result: 13 recommendations for sharply enhanced climate action were overwhelmingly endorsed early this month, including citizens being personally prepared to pay more tax on high-carbon activities. The recommendations will now be discussed in parliament. Democracy may be dysfunctional, but rumours of its death have, perhaps, been exaggerated.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
These people need a shrink!
What climate challenge? Political change?
No wonder they hate voter ID.
“Direct democracy” is dictatorship of the vote-counters.
“Direct democracy” is two wolves and a sheep deciding what’s for lunch.
Suckers
Giving themselves a burning self-righteousness and their lives meaning with a fable, a fantasy, and a fraud.
As bad as the situation is today, any trend toward direct democracy represents a threat to our welfare and prosperity.
Direct Democracy: a polite term for Mob Rule.
This is an idiotic source unworthy of being posted.
How come we never hear of these people voluntarily paying more taxes?
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