The "I have seen and heard it all before" is the Ronge Response

SHOOT: When my girlfriend smoked, I'd tell her about my concerns. Invariably her response was, 'Ja, ja, speak to the hand. I've heard all of this before." Other times she would point out some other hazardous activity, such as drinking, or taking drugs. The result? A license, an excuse to do FUCKALLABOUTIT. This is what annoys me when people read articles on Climate Change, on the environment, on Energy Depletion. Each time you hear these messages, these SIGNALS, it's not really a test of how smart you are intellectually, but really a question of wisdom. The signal is in your face, what are you going to do about it? Make excuses and take another swig, or snap out of your reverie and say, you know this is a problem, I'm going to contribute to the solution. Either by agreeing, or doing something. The rest is noise, disruption and the Ronge Response. Clever, witty but ultimately self-defeating.

clipped from www.thetimes.co.za clipped from www.thetimes.co.za Exactly how inconvenient is the truth Al Gore has so patronisingly publicised? When Al Gore collected his Nobel Peace Prize for the documentary An Inconvenient Truth, I had a mixed reaction. We must obviously applaud Gore for tackling an urgent global issue, but on another level, my brain was going “Are you kidding me? Has even the august Nobel committee succumbed to the allure of celebrity and cash?” The slide-show on which the film was based was a commercial venture. People paid money to hear Al Gore present his elegantly packaged vision of the new Apocalypse. On film, it made even more money, especially after his Oscar win, followed by huge DVD and TV sales. It was a nice little earner. An Inconvenient Truth is a palatable, bite-sized view of Armageddon, sugar-coated in politeness for a dumbed-down urban audience. How is it going to promote global or even regional peace?