Just who does Greta Thunberg think she is? Joan of Arc? The promoter of a children’s crusade to save the planet? A Pied Piper, leading youth astray?
She has gotten under a lot of skins since she barged into the UN last month to tell adults how they’re failing younger generations.
The internet bristles with indignation: Greta is a sick kid who has been brainwashed by her parents and used by eco-activists who are trying to wreck the world’s economy.
How dare she terrify kids into believing the end is as near (as it may very well be)?
How dare she encourage them to skip school and take to the streets? How does she think that mobs making a racket and disrupting traffic are going to save the planet from burning up?
It’s evident she’s not a normal teen engaging in normal activities: ingesting once-proscribed substances, dying her hair purple and going to rock concerts.
To be sure, she has been treated like a world celebrity ever since she quit school in May to begin her Skolstrejk för Klimatet (School-strike for Climate).
Reports of her crossing the Atlantic last month on a well-crewed state-of-the-art racing sailboat made it sound as if she was alone, clinging to a Kon-Tiki-like raft.
But self-aggrandizement is not in her nature: She defers to generations with a future and to a science which shows what that future might be.
Those who know about these things say her simplicity and single-minded focus comes from her form of autism — what Greta calls her “superpower.” Those who don’t know about these things consider her simplicity that of a simpleton, her focus on her one issue, naïve.
A lot of Canadians share a little of Greta’s simple focus. And they are being offered an opportunity in a few days to use in it in a polling place.
They’ve probably had enough of false Trudeaulogy. For them to vote Conservative would be Scheer madness.
They might be prepared to make personal sacrifices to fight global warming as the wages of Singh or the price of come-what-May.
Those who are convinced, with Greta, that the climate window is closing can no longer accept that setting targets is enough, for targets can be missed with a shrug.
They are offended by reliance on gentle incentives of unknown worth instead of firm rules with penalties.
They are insulted by the suggestion that their comforts and conveniences or “jobs” are reasons for a go-slow or wait-and-see agenda by governments with a national interest to protect.
They are enraged by geopolitical comparisons that deny the existence of an individual’s or a nation’s moral purpose.
Elections are meant to produce leaders, but so often they don’t. Instead, they produce panderers guided by an instinct for political survival.
This is the age of focus groups, public opinion polls and voter surveys. Those aspiring to be prime minister know pretty well what most people, especially those with special interests, want.
Their purpose, if they win, is to satisfy, to comply, to pander wherever possible.
Isn’t this warming globe more than a special interest? Aren’t those anxious for its future shouting loud enough? Are they being drowned out by those clamouring for comfort and prosperity?
Our constitution says this is the land of peace, order and good government. Well, we have peace and order, certainly.
Those who bestir themselves here to demonstrate their concern for the planet do so in a peaceful and orderly way when shouting slogans, waving banners or brandishing rude signs.
We call “activists” even those sitting complacently in designated areas under far more alert police surveillance. And they seem to be having too much fun.
When the election results are in, we’ll see how deep our global anxiety is. It may be that the support of a global-sensitive party or parties will be necessary to get the peoples’ business done at a global-sensitive price.
If not, our political leadership will remain false leadership, and the truth will lie elsewhere. It may become clear that trying to curb our contribution to global warming is too important to be left to the niceties of elections.
I think that’s what Greta’s getting at.
