This is as hot as the Cold Worrier gets during the lecture.
But there's more and you can hear the anxiety in the old man's voice when he tries to process the fact that, at a time when we need intelligent, coordinated action to deal with our crises, we are stuck with the fact that although "the United States has been the richest country in the world for a long time, way back into the 19th century, it has always been a kind of cultural backwater." He says,
For example, for 40% of the US population, these crucial issues of species survival are of little moment because Christ is returning to Earth within a couple of decades and then all will be settled, that's 40% of the population. [Chomsky's emphasis]
I'm with Chomsky on this one.
It means we have some 140 million people who are living hopeless lives of illusion -- and may be unreachable by fact-based reality. Hell, even by their own standards, something is wrong: The Second Coming is terrible swift sword time, Christ comes back to kick some ass and will take no prisoners, not even the innocent cutting across a golf course on their way to school are spared. Who can overcome the effects of such Kool-Aid? Such shelf-life-expired beliefs lead to supporting demagoguery and heave up populists who can't be reasoned with -- like Donald Trump, who has so eroded our democracy in such a short time -- and who have brought us closer to the cliff's edge than ever. We have seen four years gone by without any significant action on Climate Change.
Some scientists have posited 2030 (some optimists say 2050) as the point of no return -- when we will have crossed a global threshold we can no longer do anything about. Even now, at best, we can only slow a certainty, delay the inevitable. How do we educate these people in science? No wonder Chomsky looks bleakened:
Well humans are now facing the most critical questions that have ever arisen in their history, questions that cannot be avoided or deferred if there is to be any hope of preserving, let alone enhancing, organized human life on Earth. We surely cannot expect systems of organized power, state, or private systems to take appropriate actions to address these crises - not unless they are compelled to do so by constant, dedicated, popular mobilization and activism. A major task as always is education.
This is spot on and requires no further comment.
In a follow-up section titled Reaching People, Shawn Wallace, as if over a dinner table, asks, "What do you think of civil disobedience, chaining yourself to things and going to jail? Is that...?" Chomsky is game for civil disobedience, reminding Wallace of the number of times he has gone to jail over the years to protest abuses of power. But he does say that civil obedience requires previous groundwork being laid, that it be part of a larger, more cohesive plan. He tells Wallace:
For example, when peace activists break into a submarine base and bang missile nose cones without any preparation; the net effect is to anger the workers. "Why are you taking away our jobs?" The anger of other people, "Why are you getting in our way and annoying us?" What's the point? Just because it makes you feel good? That's not the right kind of civil disobedience.
It ain't the 60s anymore, when people got together in the 70s. There's a lot of educatin' to be done. And Chomsky's looking disheveled, as if he'd been trying to pull his hair out.
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