They know this. They simply don’t care.
Here’s a Tweet that sums up the recent COP26 Conference:
“COP26 is a kind of neo-feudal performance. It’s full of self-celebration, narcissism and histrionics. By flying to Glasgow on private jets our elites are telling us that they intend to play by different rules.”
Michael Schellenberger, Time Magazine “Hero of the Environment”
"COP26 is a kind of neo-feudal performance. It’s full of self-celebration, narcissism and histrionics. By flying to Glasgow on private jets our elites are telling us that they intend to play by different rules.”
Michael Schellenberger, Time Magazine “Hero of the Environment”
— MikesMoneyTalks.ca (@moneytalkstweet) November 9, 2021
Neo-Feudalism is a great way to describe what we are seeing from politicians like Justin Trudeau, Chrystia Freeland, and Steven Guilbeault.
They feel completely entitled to fly around the world, meet with celebrities and other elites, eat luxury dinners, and run up a big carbon footprint, all while holding themselves up as somehow being in a position to lecture the rest of us on why we need to cut back.
This is profoundly anti-democratic, and is a return to an era when feudal Lords lived in (relative) luxury and security, while all those around them were impoverished and desperate. Yet, to question this disparity was seen as crazy, as most people just accepted that those at the top had the right to live far better than everyone else.
Of course, today our leaders are even more insulated.
In what is certainly a distortion of the way things are supposed to be, most politicians now have far more in common with their counterparts in other countries than they do with their own fellow Citizens.
They are all generally insulated from the impact of their own policies.
We saw this starkly during the past year-and-a-half, when politicians repeatedly said “we’re all in this together,” as they shuttered businesses and destroyed people’s livelihoods, all while refusing to take any pay cuts themselves.
That was done under the narrative of a crisis, and now politicians want to use the crisis mindset as a way to further entrench their power and craft a heroic image for themselves, regardless of the consequences for the rest of us.
Easy escape
Related to that point is the fact that many politicians realize their careers in their own countries won’t last long, thus they look to the future.
For statist, big-government politicians, to work for international institutions like the UN and stay in the good graces of the international media is a key goal.
Thus, they care less about their own Citizens, and more about how they will ‘explain themselves’ when their national political careers are over.
Once they are done flying all over the world to meetings and galas, nobody will ask them how they did in terms of the prosperity of those they once served, but they will be asked ‘how did you take climate action?’, and they will want to have a response that lines up with the politically correct ideology of the moment.
Politicians like Justin Trudeau, Chrystia Freeland, and Steven Guilbeault will spend a lot of time outside of Canada surrounded by other politicians/former politicians and international elites.
And when they are in Canada, they’ll spend their time in upscale neighbourhoods that are also largely insulated from the direct pain of things like inflation, carbon taxes, and restrictions on the energy sector.
It’s all a game
Because those in power are so detached from the consequences of their policies, much of this seems like a grand game to them.
Who can make the biggest promises?
Who can inflict the most economic pain on their populace?
Who can show up with the best ‘numbers’ at the next conference?
Who can claim to be doing the most to ‘save the planet?’
Who can invoke the most fear, thus leading people to accept a level of hypocrisy they wouldn’t go along with otherwise?
The combination of a massive potential ego boost, and near total insulation from consequences is quite dangerous.
The gap between what people say, and what they really feel
Of course, politicians can only get away with this if a large portion of the population goes along with it.
And, since many Canadians – despite rising concern over the surging cost-of-living – want to feel ‘nice’ and ‘virtuous,’ there is often reflexive support for any measure that is sold as being about ‘taking climate action.’
For example, “Sixty-nine per cent of respondents to an online survey by Leger and the Association for Canadian Studies say they support Canada’s announcement at the summit that it will cap and reduce pollution from the oil and gas sector toward net zero by 2050.”
Additionally, “Some 65 per cent of respondents also say they support the government’s new policy to stop exporting coal by 2030, a move which would end the trade abroad of about 36 million tonnes of the resource, currently 60 per cent of what the country produces.”
55% of Canadians in the survey also supported a global carbon tax.
When virtue-signalling becomes real-life economic pain
As the cost-of-living rises, with our earning power being eroded by massive money printing, many Canadians still think of ‘climate action’ in theoretical terms.
Many felt that ‘someone else’ will pay the price. ‘Big companies,’ ‘big polluters,’ etc…
But, as more and more people realize that the cost is going to fall on them, and that life will get even more expensive, we should start to see a backlash against ‘climate action,’ particularly as countries like China continue to expand coal production.
Asking Canadians to give up their standard of living – when leaders have ZERO plans to do the same in their own lives – will not be politically sustainable forever, especially if Conservatives find their courage and begin to push back against the doom and gloom end of the world crisis narrative.
After all, that narrative is wrong for two big reasons.
First, because private sector innovation is already bringing new opportunities to mitigate and manage climate change, far more than any government action has.
And second, because to tell people the world is ‘screwed’ only fosters fear and mental rigidity, locking people into a mindset that discourages innovation. Instead, we need to emphasize that humans have a near endless capacity for creativity and adaptation, as well as maintain a recognition that ‘doomsday’ predictions are almost always overblown and exploited by unscrupulous politicians.
Instead of giving in to neo-feudalism, we must reinvigorate our belief in freedom and human innovation, believing that the future can be greater than anything we imagine, so long as we resist the temptation to surrender to fear.
Spencer Fernando
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