Is the Pope an old hippy at heart?
It’s beginning to look like that. For Pope Francis , it is not enough to put up a few wind -turbines and some solar panels on the roof of the Vatican to reduce his own personal carbon footprint . He is preparing in the coming months to write a letter to the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics.He will also address the UN General Assembly and call for a summit of the world’s main religions. He is to issue an unprecedented encyclical in March on climate change and human ecology. This is all part of a revolutionary attempt by one quite powerful and charismatic individual to harness his following and influence the UN climate change meeting in Paris in 2015 to achieve a universal commitment to reduce carbon emissions.
That strikes me as the kind of thing world religious leaders should be doing instead of indulging in the semantics of angels balancing on the head of a pin or waffling on about heavens and hells and other -worldly affairs of the bicameral mind.
Apparently this kind of thing divides opinion within the Catholic church but also other creationist churches who find the whole thing “unbiblical”. I suppose that a lot of these churches , especially in America , believe it is in some way anti-capitalistic to stymie business in any way. Others think that if we continue to gorge on the earth’s limited resources and pollute it with our industriousness and waste, it will cease to support us little organisms living on its surface .We’ll all die like ticks falling off a dead beast.
The fundamentalist idea appears to be that there is literally a god and if he made the world for mankinds’s use and pleasure , he’ll look out for it in his own way and that every human action …good or bad is…is actually all part and parcel of his own cosmic design ….His Big Plan ..so we should just get on with our plundering …and let god deal with the mess. The idea is that it is the deity’s mess and we humans shouldn’t bother with things that don’t concern us.
Pope Francis’ view is that only the very rich are benefitting at the expense of the very poor. While a handful of individuals plunder the land and all before them , too many live in the poverty of this minority’s looming , dark shadow.That sounds a reasonable stance to me , but then again, I don’t believe in gods and so don’t have to wrestle with my conscience and my little hypocrisies , as to whether or not it is a good thing or not to be materialistically greedy. We all know that our materialistic culture is built on the backs of the world’s poor…should it only be the cheap Primark socks or somesuch ,made for a pittance by indentured children in an Indian or Chinese sweatshop. We are all part of that and for the most part , mostly ignore it in our search for a “wee bargain”.I’m sure those scrambling and fighting for their bargains in the New Year sales never give it a moment’s thought.
In the Bible’s Old Testament it is recorded how God commanded man to have dominion over the entire earth. I suppose the self-belief starts right there for its readers. It is why the likes of our own politicians in the Judeo- Christian tradition such as Sammy Wilson , have no problem poo- pooing and disparaging talk of melting ice -caps or global warming .In that fatalistic view , that’s the way it’s supposed to be anyway. After all some people in the the far right of Christianity are still awaiting with some glee “the Rapture”…where the “good” believers will soar heavenwards while the the rest are consumed in some underworld hell.
I think Pope Francis has got it right this time. On this one we’re both on the same page as pioneers such as Greenpeace.It’s those old hippies again….
News of the PF intervention is very welcome. Climate change presents such a profound moral, ethical and existential challenge that I have been puzzled by what has appeared to be the Catholic Church’s general indifference. If this is the Good God’s creation then she/he is the only legitimate owner. Humanity’s task therefore is not to lord over it but steward it; and in that we have been failures. Climate change is real, is happening now and humankind is the primary culprit through the burning of fossil fuels to drive our economies and lifestyles. The current business as usual approach is unsustainable. One way or another there will have to be an evolution to a low-carbon economy. Or maybe we can look forward to Earth’s largest and most destructive species just being kicked off the island.
Well said, Greer. Make sure you tell Sammy Wilson – I think he needs convincing.Or something.
Yes Greer..the intervention came as a surprise to me ,which stimulated me to write it. Given the conservative cut on many other matters ,I wasn’t really expecting the church to finally do what the hippies have been asking for for some forty years…
If Francis tells me to build a windmill in my garden then I will build a windmill.
Get building A Jude…!
And may i also add that Greer posted a very astute and well-put comment. Exactly true (and equally a very astute and (big) bang-on blog (see how i slipped that in there!) re: the Pope, Mother Earth – and the mostly American Creationist loo-lah’s.
As you’ll no doubt know by now, i’m a few – but not that many years behind you both (my mind can’t – or won’t comprehend the fact i’ll hit the half-century this year. Remember those days in your youth, when such a concept made you go “Pfff” – and carry on about your business – ie: flipping side ‘A’ of an album over to side ‘B’ for example?) – So i missed the hippy era – and landed right in the Punk / Post-Punk one – and despite the media and suchlike’s claims – it wasn’t an A to Z where every band believed in nihilism. For example, a band of musicians (noisy one’s) / artists being Crass – that both drew me in politically – and artistically – using a form of ‘cut + pasting that i still occasionally use to this day, (their albums were often folded within a ‘sleeve’ – that folded out to an A1 poster, packed with information on all matters of topics – including the fact that there was only one planet – and indeed it needed nuturing, and kept out of the rapacious hands of multi-national ultra-capitalistic companies. Being that one of their founder members, Penny Rimbaud was an ex-hippie himself (he must be pushing 70 now) and they live/d on a commune (a small number still do), furthered the ‘grow your own, anti-animal cruelty etc’ beliefs that my Dad had introduced me to when i was younger, and we used to go for long, long walks in the vast countryside that (thankfully) was at the edge of the Town, and began not far from where we lived (at the edge of town), in a Council house they’d waited years for, that we moved to from a ‘2up, 2down’ terraced house, situated amongst approx 2,000 others, when i was 5 – and sold for the vast sum of £800! (Incidentally, they refused ‘Thatcher’s BYO’ scam (ie: to con some sections of the working class that “You too can join the Middle-Class Elite”) – and didn’t even buy the house when they could have got it for 8 thousand or so). My Dad was a builder, saw the havok it would cause further down the line – as regards a huge housing crisis and although when i emptied the house, along with one of my best-friends, in the days following St.Patrick’s Day just before the end of the decade (my Mother’s timing was impeccable!), it would’ve been worth well past £160,000. Considering that two very well off kin had swooped like vultures, one who’d moved to one of the nicer parts of Essex years before and live in a (paid-for by that point) house worth close to 7 figures – her husband dismantling the greenhouse as if he was a contestant in a “We’re timing you” gameshow – was exceedingly lucky to have escaped unscathed. So, i was glad money never came into the equation. And even living on a very limited income now (I.P.), i’m still not. I have some small mementoes that i treasure – and as regards the furniture etc – my friend had a van, and we divided them and took them to a charity that supplied people getting their own place, and another that did the same for women doing the same post-leaving Rape-Crisis Centers.
The two (now ex-kin) are (and i can’t see that it’s changed to my knowledge) regular Church-goer’s. (Greed, avarice – i could reel a few broken ‘sins’ off).
Myself – came back from Mass one Sunday, and told my Parent’s i wouldn’t be going again. A number of large colour posters (and leaflets etc) at the back of the Church that i can imagine whose viewpoints you’ll work out fairly quickly – I found not the topic obscene – but the fact that these – very gory as they choose to use – images were on display to children of all ages – right at the exit doors. Plus i was a very heavy reader, and had been since before i got into double figures – and had got to the ‘Organised Religion’ topic by that point, done the bible from front to back (thought “Hmm” about that for a variety of reasons) – So, when we got home, i explained all this – and fair dues, being a very Irish Catholic home – i got ‘the nod’, as it were. There’s barely a day goes by when i don’t think of them. Such a profound set of values they just gently instilled in me – not forced or pushed.
As Religion goes at the moment, i still feel the same – but i have to say i’m very happy with Pope Francis – and the changes / clearing-out certain individuals and ‘factions’ at the Vatican / his views regarding homosexuality etc (which obviously must be driving the U.S. ‘fire and brimstone lot’ nuts – which is always a good thing – and hilarious too! More please!) – and suchlike that he’s done so far – Contraception needs to be one of his / the major ”Right, that’s going to be crossed out of the Rule Book” next. Attending World and Climate Change Summits is quite something too – so fair play to him.
I’m still not going to change my views however. There’ll be none of that cringing “And now let us shake hands…” palaver (who on earth thought that one up?), or paying towards the cost of the local church’s renovations and big exterior paint-job that wasn’t needed, whilst beady eye’s are on you to see how much you drop on the plate – for me.
I have my own brand of spirituality, and that does me fine. It got a little work-out during last night – when i saw what was either the tail-end of a meteor shower, or a shooting star.
Re: the band i mentioned (who also had the distinction of being discussed at length in Parliament twice – as a threat to ‘National Security’ – also monitered by both MI5 + 6 – partly due to the ‘Thatchergate Tapes’) – there’s a very interesting documentary about them on YouTube – ‘Crass – You Have No Authority But Yourself’. A good social documentary and look back on Britain at the 70’s end, and the beginning of the 80’s and how with Thatcher’s aiding, consumerism took over – and a reminder of how easily she made a decision to not only go to war – but sacrifice people’s lives, to be sure that she’d win a forthcoming Election – that she looked set to lose.
Once again paddy – a mighty fine blog you put forth there. – and set me off in all directions!
Best Wishes as always,
John.
Thanks for the comments John. I see us all growing along organically through all these media labelled “eras”…sure ..fashions change but that’s all down to the art colleges and the designers… and music progresses organically from one generation’s hand -me- downs to the next so we all gather influences and tastes as we go and sometimes influence our children as we go .People always imagine “their era” as the best of times or look back on a fantasy version of a past era. To some the 1960’s was some golden time but it was only like that for some who were in the know . For many , all that psychedelic music passed them by as they were quietly fixed to Top of the Pops or Radio One. To many most of it was just some stuff those weirdoes outside their “normal” life were into .That’s the way it usually is. Most people are outside ..looking in I know what you mean about the punk era.
I was was hippy art school type in Leeds but I lived in London too when punk blew up in summer 1977. I just happened to be in a lot of interesting places at the right times.I saw Doctor Feelgood for the first time at the Roundhouse and I knew then there was change in the air.
Life went on as usual for most people but anyone with long hair was already beginning to refashion it and gradually shave off the beards . There were many new strands of music , of course , but music is something that really shouldn’t have an age attached to it . It’ a personal thing for each of us.I still love old postwar blues and swing bands from the 1940’s as well as lots of ancient and modern stuff from every decade. To me there’s good and bad in everything. The “hippies” were just the same people as the “punks”…just sort of outlaw thinkers evolving through the generations . The media like to keep the tribes in wee boxes with neat little labels .