We all want a cleaner, more sustainable environment, but effective changes won’t come from loony Greens or ranting adolescents. They will come from sensible decision making based on scientific data, not emotional rage.
We should remember this when we are assaulted by strident demands from a generation which rejects eating meat to save the planet from greenhouse gases, which urges us to follow its lead because glaciers are melting, sea levels are dramatically rising and polar bears are starving to death because of man-made climate change.
Of course, very little of this is true, much less their fault and previous generations are to blame for the “disaster” because they invented the technology that, incidentally, provides this ungrateful generation with warm, dry, housing, efficient transport, life-saving hospital equipment and procedures, affordable clothing and good food on their tables.
Greta Thunberg rejected air travel because of the environmental cost, choosing instead to sail to her UN platform to berate us about killing the planet and ourselves. But will she reject medical technology, when she needs it, to stand by her principles? Thought not.
Until this generation throws away its computers and mobile phones, ditches fossil-fueled transport and refuses all medical treatment except via herbs and naturopaths, it is simply a generation of hypocrites.
They are typical social justice warriors who refuse to research the facts, instead protesting, shouting and hysterically screaming at the sky – all at someone else’s behest – and always blaming someone else for the impending prophetic doom. Venting doesn’t change anything, but perhaps it makes them feel better.
“How dare you?” thunders the venomous Greta Thunberg, saying “we” have stolen her childhood. Then she contradicts herself by saying “I feel like I’m dying inside if I don’t protest.” So who is to blame for what is happening inside her head? She also says “I am doing this because you adults are shitting on my future”. But the media lap up every word, holding up St Greta as the saviour of the planet, and children everywhere follow her lead.
They scream, protest and do little else. They certainly do not listen to the quiet voice of reason.
Against loud media voices saying Trump didn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell, the quiet American voice of reason was strong enough to buck the liberal lefty trend and elect a sensible president. Australia quickly followed suit with their own sensible prime minister.
These two talk about reducing unemployment, bolstering national defence, making trade surpluses and better decisions. They are the voice of the quiet majority. This unites them along with their “shared objectives” and “looking through the world through similar lenses”. As ScoMo said, “Australia and America are warmed by the same inner fires.”
Both leaders measure their success by numbers rather than feelings.
Australia’s defence spending will be 2% of GDP, second only to the USA. Australia is in its 29th year of economic growth, including a strategic four billion-dollar free trade agreement with China (Trump is still working on theirs). I can only imagine Trump or Morrison’s privately held, un-PC responses to our “Wellness Budget”.
Mike Pence welcomed the Australian prime minister and his wife to the White House describing Trump’s 2016 election by the American “forgotten men and women”. Similarly, he said Australia’s “quiet majority” elected Scott Morrison. It gives me hope.
Pence also said the greatest tie between these two great nations is forged on the lives of those who died protecting freedom.
“This evening, we honor every Aussie and American hero who has paid the supreme sacrifice so that we might live in safety and in peace.”
Remembering that our heritage is also built on the lives of New Zealanders, we must counter the temptation to treat our freedom with the casual disdain of youth and we must protect it from abuse. For instance, we achieved the freedom to express our sexuality but then went a step too far when people are free to switch from Arthur to Martha, demand non-sexist language and insist babies are born genderless, their gender to be chosen by the infant within its first few years. This is not freedom.
Within The BDF, and elsewhere, we find kindred spirits who remember the real cost of the freedom that we refuse to take for granted, and it gives me hope that a quiet revolution will happen here.