The late lamented Pete Postlethwaite as the archivist in The Age of Stupid
Save the planet. What? Save the planet, we don’t even know how to take care of ourselves yet. We haven’t learned how to care for one another, we’re gonna save the fucking planet? – George Carlin
My daughter found this quote on the Internet, oblivious to the fact that I was watching The Age of Stupid at the time. Synchronicity, or what?
Both Carlin’s cynical rant and Franny Armstrong’s campaigning film are depressing because the connection between the two is quite strong.
Carlin is right to question the presumption that human beings are motivated by altruistic motives while the faint hope offered by Armstrong is that we can all learn to act in less selfish ways.
Her film argues that the only way the effects of climate change can be halted, let alone reversed, is if the twin pillars of the capitalist dream – growth and consumerism – are rejected. I can see no reason to hope that this is likely.
This is not to say Armstrong’s film has no value; she presents an important doomsday scenario without being preachy or patronising. In an ideal world it would be a wake up call not just for individual citizens but also for global corporations. The problem is, we are not in an ideal world.
Related article
10:10 Climate change campaign (Guardian.co.uk)
