WASHINGTON -- I assume all readers of this column are aware
of polite society's theory of Global Warming. According to the
theory, anthropogenic (once known as "man-made") gases waft into
the atmosphere, causing worldwide temperatures to soar and our
imminent doom.
Yet, how many of you are familiar with my theory of
Kultursmog? According to it, our culture is
polluted by political ideas, prejudices, and false pieties
advocated by the soi-disant liberals or progressives or People of
Conscience or whatever the hell they are calling themselves
nowadays. They keep changing their designations, and every
designation they opt for becomes an honorific, at least for them.
Liberal, indeed -- they actually favor government coercion and
regimentation. Progressive, indeed -- they are for a political
system that was recognized as archaic late in the last century
when socialism was found to be obsolete even by the Indians and
the Chinese.
At any rate, my theory of Kultursmog
has just been buttressed by some 3,000 emails of cold
probative evidence that Kultursmog is real.
That the emails come from the Global Warmists is most gratifying.
I have always suspected that they are leading contributors to the
smog. That is to say, they are leading
polluters of our culture. The Environmental Protection Agency
should take note.
The way the Kultursmog works, liberal
elites through their undemocratic dominance
of cultural institutions -- the media, the universities,
government bureaucracies -- create beliefs, problems, and
bugaboos, by studiously ignoring disagreement and by ceaselessly
repeating deceits and distortions. Last week hackers -- I think
of them as selfless public-spirited hackers -- broke into the
electronic files of one of the leading Global Warmist research
centers, the Climatic Research Unit of the University of East
Anglia in the UK, and posted some 3,000 of the Warmists'
conspiratorial emails for all the world to see. To my ineffable
gratification, the emails displayed the Global Warmists
sedulously engaging in just what you would expect in the
Kultursmog: deceits,
distortions and the suppression of dissenting points of view.
Here we have a comprehensive view of Kultursmog
in the making.
Our friends in the editorial sanctum sanctorum of the
Wall Street Journal pored over all the
damning emails. They found dissenting scientists (Global Warming
skeptics, as they are called) being blacklisted and suppressed.
For instance, Michael Mann, director of the Earth System Science
Center at Pennsylvania State University, emailed likeminded
Global Warmists advising them to isolate and ignore scientists
and scientific journals that publish the views of the skeptics.
"I think we have to stop considering Climate
Research as a legitimate peer-reviewed
journal," he wrote, going on to urge the encouragement of "our
colleagues in the climate research community to no longer submit
to, or cite papers in, this journal." Now that is how
Kultursmog taints the debate.
Then there was Phil Jones, director of the University of
East Anglia project. He emailed Mr. Mann and others to "delete
any emails you may have had with Keith" regarding indelicate
references to the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change's Fourth Assessment Report. Another email from Jones to a
co-conspirator asked that he "...change the Received date! Don't
give those skeptics something to amuse themselves with." The
Journal also quotes an unnamed
scientist emailing "hide the decline" of temperatures in data
that might cast doubt on Global Warming.
Well, I can understand. The fact is that for almost a
decade there has been no Global Warming, contrary to the Global
Warmists' computer predictions. In fact, since 2005 there has
been Global Cooling.
Well, as I say, thanks to the work of these patriotic
hackers we now have plenty of evidence that the Global Warmists
are dishonest bullies. Moreover, I now have a perfect educational
model to demonstrate how Kultursmog works.
But this discovery is not without its melancholy aspects too.
There once was a day when scientists were empiricists believing
in reason and fair play. Those who have been exposed in the
Global Warming hoax are mere propagandists.
