In 1791, a tall, good-looking ex-naval officer called Richard Brothers claimed to hear the voice of an angel predicting God’s imminent destruction of London. In the same year, William Bryan – a Bristolian with mellifluous voice and “clear and gentle” eyes – prophesied the overturn of global monarchies, followed a few years later by the “fall” of Bristol, and an earthquake in which London would “burn like an oven”. Their critics accused Brothers and Bryan of “enthusiasm”, of falsely believing they were acting under divine inspiration. Satirists aligned them with the bloodiest of French revolutionaries. They seemed to exhibit the same disrespect for established social hierarchies, the same untamed emotions, the same wild eyes, torn clothes and dangerously unkempt appearance.
Judging by the criticism levelled at Greta Thunberg – the 16-year-old Swedish climate activist who launched a Skolstrejk för klimatet (School strike for the climate) in August 2018 – many fear her as the Brothers or Bryan of our times. She has been accused of alarmism and fearmongering, with a “doomsday” prophecy of climate catastrophe, necessitating changes that will crash the global economy. Jeremy Corbyn’s brother Piers Corbyn has dismissed Thunberg as a “brainwashed child”, an inspired puppet of cynical adults. Spiked magazine’s Ella Whelan sees Thunberg’s school strike as an encapsulation of her entire method: a rejection of rationalism and education for “kneejerk, panicky responses” and wild, self-indulgent emotion. Thunberg is painfully aware that “people tell me that I’m retarded, a bitch and a terrorist, and many other things”.
Continue reading...from Culture | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2VXNmlW
Comments
Post a Comment