I’m taking the week off from new content to contemplate life and the direction of this particular effort. Nevertheless, I thought I’d plant a few seeds.
While composing these installments, the problem of “climate change” (or, more appropriately, “climate control”) has come into sharp focus. Notably, the picture I’m seeing differs significantly from the one formed from the copious wisdom dispensed by experts. This is both disturbing and compelling: ‘Disturbing’ because experts arriving at false conclusions are the most insidious witnesses1, and ‘compelling’ because, at least for me, passive acceptance isn’t an option. If I’m right, then it does no one any good to be quiet. And, since bias is unavoidable2, my bias is that I’m right!
I remain hopeful of a productive path forward, but I’m impatient. International panels and innovative technology proposals create false hope—the only path forward is to act decisively. We cannot wait. Consider the persistent Arab-Israeli conflict:
Commenting that the passage of time offered the best hope of an end to the problems of Israel and her neighbors, [Eban] said: “Men and nations behave wisely when they have exhausted all other resources.” {Highlights mine} New York Times, Japan Welcomes Eban Warmly; Her Industry Impresses Israeli, by Robert Trumbull, March 19, 1967.
It’s the source of a quotation (or at least a sentiment) often misattributed to Churchill, “Americans will always do the right thing — after exhausting all the alternatives.” We cannot continue to choose the less painful (but delusional) course of action.
Notably, three months after this article appeared, Israel launched what is now known as The Six-Day War and captured the buffer territories of Gaza, the West Bank, the Sinai Peninsula, and the Golan Heights. Apparently, Mr. Eban was not as charismatically persuasive on the home front as he was internationally3.
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Jerusalem Post Opinion piece by Mark Regev, Did Israel's famed diplomat Abba Eban lack clout back home? Dateline November 17, 2022.