“The emperor has no clothes!” is a phrase made famous by Hans Christian Andersen, albeit variations of the story go back hundreds of years, meaning the expression presents an age-old problem.
The story represents the tendency of the masses to go along with a charade for fear of the consequences of pointing out the obvious to the oblivious. Moreover, the people who fell for the charade are now vested in it and they don’t want to admit to themselves or anyone else how foolish they have been, so the ruse lives on.
Here in California, there are so many people walking around wearing nothing at all, when it comes to certain facets of group-think and group-speak, that we might as well admit we are living in an ideological nudist colony. That reminds me of a very, very old song, when “The Bumble Bee Invaded the Nudist Colony”! In this story, I will play the part of the bumble bee, thank you very much.
Let’s talk climate change. All the people drinking the Kool-Aid would have us believe we have about eight years left to save the planet from catastrophic, irreversible damage. Yet, none of these people are living or acting as if we only have eight years left, including the elite’s use of private jets to attend climate conferences and the innumerable new island resorts popping up despite the threat of sea level rise!
Meanwhile, China’s use of coal continues to skyrocket as if there really is going to be a tomorrow, Greta Thunberg.
For example, Santa Barbara County just purchased a new diesel generator to serve as backup for a solar panel array and a storage battery for that array. While the state intends to ban gas-powered cars, lawn equipment and the like, they also intend to keep paving our roads with asphalt.
If we only had eight years to save the planet, where is the desperation and the plan to end any and all reliance on fossil fuels and the 6,000 products made from fossil fuels that we use each and every day? For instance, why not ban polyester clothing at the same time as gas-powered cars?
Moreover, the state wants to ban plastic utensils used in restaurants, but what about the plastic used in hospitals?
Another multi-billion dollar naked-as-a-jaybird effort under way is the feckless attempt to do away with homelessness.
The brilliant idea? If we put them in a shelter, hotel room or hut, they won’t be homeless any longer! Whereas, that might appear to be true to the naked eye, the naked truth is something altogether different. Namely, managing to get the homeless off the streets during the night does not solve the underlying problems of the mentally ill and those addicted to drugs and alcohol when they reappear during daylight hours.
Hence, when the county supervisors rented out a motel in downtown Santa Barbara for these clients of theirs, they also had to hire security 24/7.
Bzz, Bzz, Bzz, how will the county treat the root problems that caused these people to become homeless in the first place? Back in 2011, the department that ostensibly treats the homeless persons’ underlying maladies had an annual budget of $70 million. Ten years later, the budget is $150 million, and the problems associated with the homeless have only gotten worse and their numbers have only increased.
Obviously, what we are doing is not working, because our government never had the requisite moral authority to deal with the matters of lost souls. Instead, they continue to throw enormous amounts of money at the problem that only serves to grow government and innumerable associated cottage industries, while they all strut about virtue signaling in the buff presenting a mighty tempting target to a bumble bee.
Andy Caldwell is the COLAB executive director and host of “The Andy Caldwell Show,” airing 3 to 5 p.m. weekdays on KZSB AM 1290, the News-Press radio station.
