How Do We Solve a Problem Like Naomi?
I'll be honest: Naomi Klein terrifies me. If no one bought her books or took her seriously or listened to a word she said, that would be fine and dandy. Problem is, that's not the case. For many of the kids of Generations X and Y - the Occupy crowd, especially - Klein is the voice of sanity.
Have you listened to what that voice of sanity has been saying lately? Check out this screed in The Nation. Or rather don't. She's not a particularly elegant or exciting writer, our Naomi. Or, indeed, an intellectually coherent one. So to save you the bother, I've captured the gist in a blog entitled Only A Totalitarian New World Order Can Save Us Now Says Naomi Klein.
No Logo author Naomi Klein has a solution to climate change and it goes like this: punitive taxation; massive wealth re-distribution; the abolition of free trade and free markets; a state-enforced end to to the "cult of shopping"; the whole to be supervised by a New World Order of selfless illuminati (who presumably resemble Naomi Klein).
My question to Ricochet readers is: how do we respond to this stuff? In 2000, when No Logo became a bestseller, this kind of coffee table radical chic was harmless enough. In 2011, however, it threatens to usher precisely the kind of economically suicidal protectionism, assault on wealth and totalitarian bullying which made the Thirties such a great success for Germany, Italy and the Soviet Union. (Not to mention FDR's USA.)
Do we mock?
Do we patiently explain?
What?
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Comments:
Mar '11
Re: How Do We Solve a Problem Like Naomi?
We respond the very same way we respond to radical Islamists: humor.
The best tool of all - humor. Not caustic name-calling, but clever reducto ad absurdum, and humorous highlighting of hypocrisies.
Dec '10
Re: How Do We Solve a Problem Like Naomi?
What a horrible, horrible screed this woman produces. Why do people like this choose to stay here? Why? Why don't they migrate to the benevolent arms of of the dictatorships they so longingly seek to create here? Why? That the Heartland Institute let her within 500 miles of their venue speaks volumes to their fundamental belief in freedom. This places her desire for a much less free world in stark contrast. Vile.
Jun '10
Re: How Do We Solve a Problem Like Naomi?
We have'd place for people who question weezdom of new world order. Eez like summer camp, Meester Delingpole, only colder. Eez place we teach people like you to concentrate. Soviet humor very funny, no?
Mar '11
Re: How Do We Solve a Problem Like Naomi?
James Delingpole:
Do we mock?
Do we patiently explain?
What? ·
I dunno. I have tried patiently explaining - doesn't work. So now I mock. Or just ignoring 'em works pretty well.
We can take comfort in the fact that we are winning the argument, helped by the cold weather forcing 'em from their tents.
Edited on November 13, 2011 at 9:46pmMay '10
Re: How Do We Solve a Problem Like Naomi?
We respond by pointing out that it is no coincidence that totalitarians like Klein have found a very comfortable place indeed within movement promoting climate hysteria.
Re: How Do We Solve a Problem Like Naomi?
Send her a one way ticket to North Korea, where they practice what she preaches.
Dec '10
Re: How Do We Solve a Problem Like Naomi?
I suppose a club is out of the question...
May '10
Re: How Do We Solve a Problem Like Naomi?
I think you do both.
Jun '10
Re: How Do We Solve a Problem Like Naomi?
Ditto. Though if Naomi has some non-totalitarian methods of ending the "cult of shopping" in my family, I'd like to hear them.
I suspect, however, her method will be to force everyone--except the nomenklatura (of which she will be a member)--into long queues [note the British term, James] to buy a few shriveled potatoes from our state-controlled retail outlets. [Didn't they try this is the old USSR?]
For someone as nuts as Klein, it is virtually impossible to engage in rational argument (a process that demands at least a minimal level of rational thought on both sides).
Thus, either ignore her or mock her.
Edited on November 13, 2011 at 9:58pmOct '10
Re: How Do We Solve a Problem Like Naomi?
Patient mocking?
iWc: We respond the very same way we respond to radical Islamists: humor.
The best tool of all - humor. Not caustic name-calling, but clever reducto ad absurdum, and humorous highlighting of hypocrisies. · Nov 13 at 12:08pm
Mocking humor is effective (not my weak attempt above) when practiced by the likes of Steyn, Lileks, Iowahawk, Scott Ott, or Ann Coulter. I wish we had a John Stewart, but in print I think we have them beat. I haven't visited in a while, but excellent mocking used to be found at the website The Peoples Cube.
Greg Gutfeld and his red eye bunch are excellent. He seems to be growing into the Stewart antidote. I'm not the first to suggest this, but he'd be great on a podcast.
Feb '11
Re: How Do We Solve a Problem Like Naomi?
I have a soft spot for people like her…it's a peat bog about twenty miles north of here.
Mar '11
Re: How Do We Solve a Problem Like Naomi?
Naomi presents an interesting problem, and I think ignoring her will be dangerous. Mockery is fine, to a point, but her danger is that her views are increasingly shared by our government, our colleges, our universities, and our press. Mockery only works when the electorate gets the jokes. I don't think they do right now.
She's dangerous because so many people think they'd like to try her wishlist. She's dangerous because her wishlist is a one-way trip to dictatorship. She's dangerous because she would use our system and her free speech rights to enslave us.
We as conservatives might wish to ignore her because we see her inherent contradictions and bilious evil lurking there, but others will listen and take her seriously.
Aug '10
Re: How Do We Solve a Problem Like Naomi?
How about randomly bursting into a rousing chorus of "How do you solve a problem like Naomi?" just as if we were in a musical?
Anyone have time to start modifying the lyrics of "How do you solve a problem like Maria?" to fit?
Sep '10
Re: How Do We Solve a Problem Like Naomi?
Photoshop, my friend. Photoshop. If I wasn't working on my car and listening to the Lions-Bears game, I'd find some old photo of a Nazi confab and insert Naomi's face. Add her quote and voila! Mockery!
Edited on November 13, 2011 at 10:51pmJul '10
Re: How Do We Solve a Problem Like Naomi?
I think Naomi mostly solves the problem herself. Her ideas are not only crazy, they'll be extremely unpopular.
Losing argument #1: Government budget deficits are not nearly as dangerous as the deficits we have created in vital and complex natural systems
So we should spend a bunch more money we don't have?
#2: Every community in the world needs a plan for how it is going to transition away from fossil fuels
So my community should have a volunteer fire department, but an official climate change prevention council?
#3: That means getting in the way of corporations on multiple fronts
So you want it to be harder to conduct business, in this economy?
#4: In an economy organized to respect natural limits, the use of energy-intensive long-haul transport would need to be rationed
We can't move stuff anymore?
Oh, and James, there is one thing you should do.
Start yelling, "See! I told you so!" But first, you should let some "mainstream" climate sciencers approvingly link Naomi's piece. Then you tie all of them to her. It will start in the conservative media, but maybe it won't end there.
Aug '10
Re: How Do We Solve a Problem Like Naomi?
More seriously, kids need to know just how awful things were and are under the world's totalitarian regimes. I don't think enough of them hear the truth about that anymore, except for some cases (like the Nazis) where the totalitarianism is branded right-wing (in the Nazis' case, because they were right-wing socialists).
Another thing... In my experience, many conservatives (and yes, even libertarians, for the so-cons who doubt it) are less influenced by the latest brand-name material possessions (the "cult of shopping") than their more totalitarian-minded peers. I think this is because we expect resistance to the "cult of shopping" to come from within, not from without.
Anyhow, supporting free markets doesn't make you a participant in the "cult of shopping", nor does an anti-free-market ideology give you resistance to -- or absolve you of -- participation in "the cult of shipping". I wish there were some way of getting this message out better...
Nov '10
Re: How Do We Solve a Problem Like Naomi?
Some suggestions:
One attribute conservatives often lack, but to which liberals are susceptible, is urbanity. Conservatives may be cogent and plain-spoken, but they rarely exude cool sophistication. Obama won largely on his urbanity, contrasting with Bush's yokelishness. This is perhaps what makes Romney electable (despite his being the wrong man).
Liberals respond more to the figurative than to the factual. Make conservativism poetic not prosaic. Celebrate shotguns and Jesus in iambic pentameter.
Mockery is good. But it should be ironic as well as caustic. Being caustic makes you easy to dismiss as nasty and extreme. Being ironic makes you one of their elite, knowing circle.
Liberals caricature themselves as nice and conservatives as nasty. Remind them how their practices and ideals entail totalitarian nastiness at every turn. Induce hypocrisy.
Ask liberals whether they are for personal freedom and against manipulative coercion. Then explore the implications for socialism.
Always occupy the moral high-ground. Fight fractious outrage with civil indignation.
Emphasize everything about conservatism that is communal, and express it in idealistic terms. The beauty of the family, the cooperativeness of the local neighbourhood, the harmony of the market.
Edited on November 13, 2011 at 11:00pmDec '10
Re: How Do We Solve a Problem Like Naomi?
I suppose you could try humor, but when your target lacks a sense of humor it's like mocking an alien. No fun if your target doesn't get it. I'm one of those people who wakes up in the morning and smacks his head in amazement that anyone still takes this crazy, lefty stuff seriously anymore.
This "just let us smart, compassionate people run the world" stuff sounds like Naomi Klein is angling for a hook-up with Thomas Friedman. (He does have a big house.)
http://christopherfountain.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/thomas_friedman_house.jpg
Mar '11
Re: How Do We Solve a Problem Like Naomi?
Personally, I'd go with mockery, mainly because when all one has is a hammer, all one's problems look like nails. Or walnuts.
Hey, Naomi! North Korea really is a good option for you!
They are all over this problem. And they will provide you with help on your wardrobe too!
Aug '10
Re: How Do We Solve a Problem Like Naomi?
Funeral Guy:
This "just let us smart, compassionate people run the world" stuff sounds like Naomi Klein is angling for a hook-up with Thomas Friedman.
Maybe we should encourage them to get together and get busy. (Given their attitudes I doubt we have to worry about many babies being made in the process.) Contented people are usually less likely to order other folks around, after all.
(On the other hand, Krugman and his wife apparently have a happy marriage, and that hasn't done the world any noticeable favors...)