“Incovenient Truth” Field Trip Report
DC Drinking Liberally went to see the Al Gore movie last night at the Loews-AMC in Georgetown.
This is pretty much as reality-based as you’re going to get for big screen infotainment (of course, I also believe that Fahrenheit 9.11 was reality-based, if at times hyperbolic).
After the movie I heard a number of comments as I waited, a la Godot, for the waiter to show up with my cassoulet at Au Pied Bistro.
A number of people mentioned the fuel efficiency graph. I searched around a bit, and found what appears to be the same graph on r-squared. The original source, so I learn, is: AN AND SAUER, 2004, FOR THE PEW CENTER ON GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE. I’m passing this on without comment (but seriously, WTFIGOH?):
The second comment I heard was about Al Gore. How stiff and pompous he appeared during the 2000 campaign. How lifelike he seems now.
Here’s the problem. Gore did often come off like he thought he was the smartest guy in the room. Thing is, 90% of the time he probably was. Why is it, what is it about the American psyche that prefers someone who is incurious and proud of it, over someone who is bright and studious, and proud of it?
By coincidence I ran across this from Gordon Wood, comparing 18th century political leaders to modern one’s:
Of course, they knew they were superior to other individuals. They were unabashed elitists, and they weren’t embarrassed about it.
The third thing I want to mention was some anecdotal discussion I heard about the pressure of political appointees on scientific investigation. This is a problem.
June 11th, 2006 at 6:41 pm
“Inconvenient Truth” Night
Thanks to all who came out last night to make our dinner-and-a-movie outing to see Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” a success. There were about 25 of us, and everyone seems to have been impressed by Gore’s delivery of his mess…
June 12th, 2006 at 9:28 am
Quotes from the famous Francis Parkman’s Montcalm & Wolfe, re: Colonial America. I bring it up because I believe it touches on the topic of elites, and it might even be informative about where America comes from. Cut from this short bit is the part where it turns out Massachusetts supplied most of the trained soldiers. It gets completely ironic and topical at the end.
On Colonial Massachusetts:
“Its government, originally theocratic, now tended to democracy, ballasted as yet by the strong traditions of respect for established worth and ability, as well as by the influence of certain families prominent in affairs for generations. Yet there were no distinct class-lines, and popular power, like popular education, was widely diffused.”
On Colonial Virginia:
“The Great Colony of Virigina stood in strong contrast to New England. In both the population was English; but one was Puritan with Roundhead traditions, and the other, so far as concerned its governing class, Anglican with Cavalier traditions. In the one, every man, woman, and child, could read and write; in the other, Sir William Berkeley once thanked God that there were no free schools, and no prospect of any for a century. The hope had found fruition. The lower classes of Virginia were as untaught as the warmest friend of popular ignorance could wish. New England had a native literature more than respectable under the circumstances, while Virginia had none; numerous industries, while Virginia was all agriculture, with but a single crop; a homogenous society and a democratic spirit, while her rival was an aristocracy.”
…
“[Virginia Aristocrats] were few in number; they raced, gambled, drank and swore; they did everything in Puritan eyes was most reprehensible; and in the day of need they gave the United Colonies a body of statesmen and orators which had no equal on the continent.”
June 12th, 2006 at 9:29 am
Oh, and if you like graphs, I made this one, Oil Usage By Sector (1949-2003).
If Amtrak wasn’t run by Republicans trying to destroy it, they’d be running a major ad campaign each time gas spiked.
June 12th, 2006 at 10:30 am
Americans don’t prefer an idiot to someone who is smart and capable. They voted against BushCo in 2000. I want Americans to get credit for that because they deserve it.