September 09, 2008 | Graham

The unacknowledged legislators of mankind



Shelley once claimed that poets were the “unacknowledged legislators of mankind” a proposition with which my fellow English graduate Nathan Rees might agree. As someone who retired from writing poetry after producing a very modest published output, it’s an idea to which I’m not unsympathetic.
Belief in the manifest rightness of your particular profession running the world runs deep. Plato hated poets, but he liked the idea of the philosopher king. We know that lawyers, teachers and union officials are more likely than members of other professions (or should that be occupations) to be elected to parliament and in response various other professionals have veered towards suggesting affirmative action for other professions – like theirs. Indeed, I remember a member of a north-side Brisbane branch of the Queensland Liberal Party who was an engineer and believed that all of our problems arose from the fact that the world wasn’t run by engineers.
The calls in today’s press by three scientists for the government to ignore Ross Garnaut’s latest encyclical and act more urgently on CO2 abatement brought Shelley to mind.
There are a number of conspiracy theories to explain why a large number of scientists have become apostles of global warming hysteria. Here’s another one. Could it be that this is their opportunity to give their profession a chance to run the world? Are scientists now the unacknowledged legislators of mankind?



Posted by Graham at 7:26 am | Comments (4) |
Filed under: Environment

4 Comments

  1. Is our refusal to listen to what scientist have to say about global warming indicative of the fact that it is not scientist who seek to rule the world…but USA …who actively refuses to put into practice any protocols or procedures to reduce the damage they are doing to our environment?

    Comment by Suzi — September 9, 2008 @ 10:37 am

  2. When Al Gore is the St Paul of the movement, and both McCain and Obama are converts, how can you say that Suzi? Plus I suggest you look at the science. The only thing that is settled is that CO2 is a greenhouse gas. Magnitude of temperature increase and what we should do about it are all questions that are not settled at all.

    Comment by Graham Young — September 9, 2008 @ 10:46 am

  3. Scientists, engineers, clearly anything other than bankers.
    I have always been of the opinion that democracy starts with consultation amongst all stakeholders and resultant decisions reflecting that process.
    An old saying goes – “Those who can – do. Those who can’t – teach.”
    And here I humbly suggest that if there are a fair deal of teachers in politics it probably means they cannot teach either – yet alongside a few other select occupations might have the gift of the gab or perhaps just statistically lucky at winning raffles.

    Comment by A NON FARMER — September 18, 2008 @ 6:20 pm

  4. Scientists, engineers, clearly anything other than bankers.
    I have always been of the opinion that democracy starts with consultation amongst all stakeholders and resultant decisions reflecting that process.
    An old saying goes – “Those who can – do. Those who can’t – teach.”
    And here I humbly suggest that if there are a fair deal of teachers in politics it probably means they cannot teach either – yet alongside a few other select occupations might have the gift of the gab or perhaps just statistically lucky at winning raffles.

    Comment by A NON FARMER — September 18, 2008 @ 6:20 pm

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