Thank you herr Squeers our new Fuehrer!
The United Nations is only eclipsed in the corruption stakes by the International Olympic Committee.
Your idea is to let these sort of people have more sway? Really are you sure you are "all there"? I think not buddy.
Look you have a big sook and a bigger cry and realise we all have a vote, you are not smarter than everyone else and anyway we will not let you, OK? Dream your dreams Squeers and the rest of us will get on with life.

I often read commentss on OLO and shake my head with wonder at the overbearing arrogance and self inflated worth of the supposed big brains who lurk there.

There is an undertone that appears now to be surfacing, that everyone who disagrees with those that consider themselves superior, and there are many, should not be heard from ever again.

Indeed, no more voting, dismiss this toy device, democracy, it is not serving the intelligensia (as they imagine themselves) well.

Note to all the big brains, dream on, this is a democracy, it will not be taken a way from us. The majority will not stand for it, yes they are generally quiet and tend to vote like sheep, but disturb their lifestyles, the future of their children and you will see a response.

The term eco-fascism or eco-tyranny would apply to many of the ideas expressed here would it not, don't be shy, just 'fess up, you're incognito.

Would you like the really "dumb" folks culled? That would save more fuel and oil, maybe then cull the ones who "deny" whatever is your favorite cause this week/month whatever?

There will always be a new prophet of doom, there are always predictions of the world ending, there always will be - I'm surprised the big brains are now signing up for one in particular in droves, mass hysteria, the end of technology. There are substitutes for pretty well all the oil products, like grassoline to run your car, nuclear power to run cities - just because you don't like them doesn't mean we will ignore them or our children's future.

Get off the doom train, and try looking at what you can do to adapt, as I suspect at the end of the day you are the "dinosaurs" who will be culled.

The snide comments about having our heads in the sand, pretty much normal for OLO when dealing with people you disagree with. If that's the best argument you can raise, please go and stand with the other dinosaurs.

Odo,

Quick working definitions for you.
- opinion...a point of view that is the result of reasoned facts to a conclusion.

- Prejudice/bias ...a conclusion base on none of the above.

- my view of OLO... an exchange of opinions and a preparedness to read without prejudice, perchance to improve one's opinions (that's why it's a discussion site not a confirmation of prejudice site).

- mob rule...national decisions based on prejudice/bias.

- real democracy ..group decisions based on opinions for the good of all. The difference? facts and reasoning!

Guess where your comment on this topic lay?...... hint, not in opinion...

"We are witnessing the greatest failure of governance ever."

I seem to recall such things being muttered before ... when was it? Oh yes, the 1920s, when it was widely argued that democracy had "failed" when it came to tackling things like the Great Depression. "The hard decisions that must be made just cannot be made by democratic governments", it was said. What was needed was a "strong" form of government, able to make the necessary decisions without having to appease the selfish "voting majority".

What was that government? "Fascism," declared Australian politician Wilfred Kent-Hughes, was "the spirit of the age".

90 years later, couple the capital E - Environmentalists' more and more frequently stated desire to suspend democratic government in favour of their own dictatorship, with their also stated desire to reduce the human population by up to 70% (that's around 5 billion people) in the next 50 years, and I get very, very worried.

Those who forget the lessons of the past, it is truly said, are condemned to repeat them. The Green Left's foolish nattering about "the weakness of democracy" and the overriding urgency of "making hard decisions" needs to be stopped in its tracks, or must we wait until the Green Shirts are parading in the streets? Are the green hard hats of the Environmental movement a worrying sign already?

"Ur-Fascism is still around us, sometimes in plainclothes ... Ur-Fascism can come back under the most innocent of disguises. Our duty is to uncover it and to point our finger at any of its new instances — every day, in every part of the world" - Umberto Eco, "14 ways of looking at a Blackshirt".

Wow- the condescending anthropologists here would make Socrates drop his pants.
The (ghoulish) ghost of Plato still haunts this world, alright.

So I'll try to speak using words even YOU will understand.

Which first-world countries are making the BIGGEST effort to change their practices to becoming more environmentally friendly?
Hint- they're all democracies.

How about giving us a bit of a hint.

It isn't the US of A, and it certainly won't be the countries involved in the so called summit. All they are worried about is who is going to be commercially disadvantaged and it certainly isn't going to be us.

Growth, growth, growth is all that they are concerned about.

David