{"id":661,"date":"2017-11-14T06:29:27","date_gmt":"2017-11-14T06:29:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/honr392a\/?p=661"},"modified":"2017-11-14T06:29:27","modified_gmt":"2017-11-14T06:29:27","slug":"the-us-has-an-identity-problem-and-its-surfacing-at-cop23","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/honr392a\/2017\/11\/14\/the-us-has-an-identity-problem-and-its-surfacing-at-cop23\/","title":{"rendered":"The US has an identity problem, and it’s surfacing at COP23"},"content":{"rendered":"

While reading the assigned parts of Jeremy Rifkin\u2019s Emphatic Civilization<\/em>, I was struck by how his idea of humanity\u2019s use of a \u201ctheatrical self\u201d is applicable to the divide within America\u2019s stance on climate change. Rifkin describes the theatrical self as a set of skills each person uses to adapt to a social situation. Each of us also possess a “mutable self”, another theatrical component to our personalities that allows us to suppress our true selves in order to achieve a personal motive. It is when we continually suppress our intentions, Rifkin warns, that we move from using creative imagination to actively deceiving in an effort to reach self-gratification.<\/p>\n

The United States\u2019 presence at the ongoing COP23 conference in Bonn is duplicitous. Each of the world\u2019s nations are represented at this conference, and many\u00a0are represented by a single grouping with a coherent stance. Due to the President\u2019s divisive views on climate change, this year the United States is being represented by two groups with opposing views on the issue.\u00a0If we extend the concept of the theatrical self to the national level, the US has a split personality problem. Each party is using a different version of their personalities to present what each group claims to be the collective perspective of this country. In the last twelve hours at this conference, the US delegates sent to contest action on climate change advocated for the use of \u201cclean coal\u201d while the independent \u201cWe\u2019re Still In\u201d coalition of US governors made a speech they called \u201cAmerica\u2019s Pledge on Climate Change\u201d. Over the course of the last fifty years, climate change deniers, often heavy investors in fossil fuels, have moved from using playful imagination to active deceit to achieve monetary gain. The surmounting evidence supporting the evidence of human-driven climate change makes playful imagination an irresponsibly deployed tactic.<\/p>\n

Many of the discussions we\u2019ve had in this class have suggested the possibility of an abstract breaking point which will force humanity to reduce its green-house gas emissions. While realistic, this suggestion always infuriates me. I find myself wondering how many species will go extinct, ecosystems will be destroyed, and lives will be lost before we reach this breaking point, where we will stand up and say \u201cnow THIS is where we draw the line\u201d. The abuse of our mutable self will have to stop before we can achieve unity regarding this issue.<\/p>\n

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Gov. Mike Brown adresses COP23 as part of the “We’re Still In” group. Photo taken from https:\/\/cleantechnica.com\/2017\/11\/13\/sans-trump-america-reaffirms-commitment-paris-agreement-cop23\/<\/p><\/div>\n

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Singing protestors at the US delegate’s presentation on clean coal. Lukas Schulze\/Getty Images.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While reading the assigned parts of Jeremy Rifkin\u2019s Emphatic Civilization, I was struck by how his idea of humanity\u2019s use of a \u201ctheatrical self\u201d is applicable to the divide within America\u2019s stance on climate change. Rifkin describes the theatrical self as a set of skills each person uses to adapt to a social situation. Each of us also possess a… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[8,39,20,22],"class_list":["post-661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-week-7","tag-climate-change","tag-community","tag-power","tag-systemstheory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/honr392a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/honr392a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/honr392a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/honr392a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/honr392a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=661"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/honr392a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":666,"href":"http:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/honr392a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661\/revisions\/666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/honr392a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/honr392a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/honr392a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}