Another long-festering crisis in the Netherlands has recently came to head. It concerns compensation for the impact of extracting natural gas in the northern province of Groningen.
The PMCs live in a delusional bubble. And they've gone to cult-like extremes to make sure nothing can penetrate the bubble's narrative maintenance—especially those icky things. I'd love to figure to provide them with effective exit-counselling.
I'm convinced environmentalism -- like so much else in the decadent West -- has become a kind of pseudo-religion. It's not that environmental concerns aren't real, of course they are, but that in our modern secular societies middle-class liberals embrace these causes with a religious zeal which is essentially fundamentalist in nature. I guess that's what happens when you remove organized religion from the picture. Not that the latter wasn't abused in the past by unscrupulous elites to suppress people, but at least it counseled a measure of humility and a humanistic outlook, both sadly missing in the current environment.
Small earthquakes and minor housing damage do not make a crisis. If you visit Groningen and talk to the people there they will tell you so.
The gas crisis is PMC propaganda to shut down domestic gas production. (Production for international customers continues.) It implements the desire to increase energy prices and to switch consumers from gas to electricity. There may be good reasons to do so, it's hard to tell with motivation.
Thank you for pointing this out. I see that in the most recent issue of Gezond Verstand that Pieter Stuurman makes a similar point, though he frames it slightly differently. (I only saw his piece after posting the above.) I do appreciate that bureaucratic dysfunction can be weaponized by unscrupulous actors pursuing creepy agendas, and it wouldn't surprise me at all if it was happening here as well. Next time I am in Groningen I will definitely ask around.
The PMCs live in a delusional bubble. And they've gone to cult-like extremes to make sure nothing can penetrate the bubble's narrative maintenance—especially those icky things. I'd love to figure to provide them with effective exit-counselling.
I'm convinced environmentalism -- like so much else in the decadent West -- has become a kind of pseudo-religion. It's not that environmental concerns aren't real, of course they are, but that in our modern secular societies middle-class liberals embrace these causes with a religious zeal which is essentially fundamentalist in nature. I guess that's what happens when you remove organized religion from the picture. Not that the latter wasn't abused in the past by unscrupulous elites to suppress people, but at least it counseled a measure of humility and a humanistic outlook, both sadly missing in the current environment.
Small earthquakes and minor housing damage do not make a crisis. If you visit Groningen and talk to the people there they will tell you so.
The gas crisis is PMC propaganda to shut down domestic gas production. (Production for international customers continues.) It implements the desire to increase energy prices and to switch consumers from gas to electricity. There may be good reasons to do so, it's hard to tell with motivation.
Thank you for pointing this out. I see that in the most recent issue of Gezond Verstand that Pieter Stuurman makes a similar point, though he frames it slightly differently. (I only saw his piece after posting the above.) I do appreciate that bureaucratic dysfunction can be weaponized by unscrupulous actors pursuing creepy agendas, and it wouldn't surprise me at all if it was happening here as well. Next time I am in Groningen I will definitely ask around.