But there is no need for me to write a full promotional – their introductions speaks for itself:
From the opening ceremony’s video of a little girl running from an earthquake to the promises of emissions reductions, everything taking place in Copenhagen is contrived. The outcome of climate talks — no treaty, no emissions reductions — was known in advance. And yet participants pretend there is an unfolding drama. As such, Copenhagen is history’s first completely postmodern global event. It’s a festival of phoniness. With the ambitions of Versailles but the power of Davos, Copenhagen creates a cognitive dissonance for its creators, which results in ever-more manic displays of apocalypse anxiety and false hope. In the end, Copenhagen tells us more about ourselves — our post-American world, our fragmented media environment, and our hyper-partisanship — than about any attempt to slow global warming.
ADDENDUM: A fourth essay of equal weight to those of above is worth the readership’s attention:
Demosclerosis
Jonathan Rauch. National Journal. 5 September 1992.
Our Republic is sick: Rauch diagnoses our illness. The first part of his argument is in no way novel – a collection of factions and interests groups obstruct the national interest. Rauch goes a step past this, however, and concludes that this is the natural state of any liberal democracy who has not felt the iron hands of dictatorship and war. In applying economic formulas to politics, Rauch forces America to look in the mirror and see the demons within.
Hat tip to Joseph Fouche of the Committee of Public Safety for this one.
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