Thank you Sam. The Grzegorz Ekiert and Noah Dasanaike essay is the best contextual analysis to answer a question which increasingly troubles me. Namely: WTF is happening to the world l know. I can see sinister and threatening events but lack the ability to put this into some wider context of a pattern and what this means to my ‘world view’. Indeed to the very type of society l live in, my freedoms, wealth and prospects (and to my children’s). The article told me nothing l didn’t know but interpreted what l do know into an explanatory framework. We’re in trouble and in general we don’t know we are. Even in my own country (UK) there is only a vague notion that we are actually involved in an ideological struggle to protect our long established political societal settlement. Furthermore our ability to ‘protect’ is much diminished in relative (historical) power terms. We rely on our allies and they are in even worse shape, consumed by political infighting with neoconservatives forces, whose ultimate aim is to join the ‘dictatorship club’.
Thanks for your discussion of what polls actually measure: what people indicate they will do in the moment, not what those people will actually do in the future. Also important is your clarification of the difference between saying support and doing support. That distinction reminded me of surveys regarding people's recognizing the perils of climate change and saying that they support measures to confront these perils.
Here's an AP/NORC survey (US only) from 2018: https://apnorc.org/projects/is-the-public-willing-to-pay-to-help-fix-climate-change/ In this one only 57 percent of Americans surveyed SAY they would be willing to incur a $1 monthly cost to mitigate climate change. Again, if confronted with an actual $1 monthly cost that percentage might decline.
And a more recent survey from Germany of 130,000 respondents world-wide: https://fortune.com/2024/02/16/most-world-sacrifice-1-percent-paycheck-help-stop-climate-change-not-us-uk-canada/ Here a surprising 69 percent SAY they would sacrifice 1 percent of their salaries to combat climate change; the US, UK, and Canada are outliers: "In the U.S., just 48% of people would be willing to contribute. In comparison, over 90% of the people of Myanmar and Uzbekistan would support climate solutions—despite earning significantly less. Generally, the researchers discovered that the richer and colder a country is, the less willing its citizens would be to personally pay up in the fight to stop global warming." Again, this is what people SAY in the moment, not what they will DO in the future.
Thank you Sam. The Grzegorz Ekiert and Noah Dasanaike essay is the best contextual analysis to answer a question which increasingly troubles me. Namely: WTF is happening to the world l know. I can see sinister and threatening events but lack the ability to put this into some wider context of a pattern and what this means to my ‘world view’. Indeed to the very type of society l live in, my freedoms, wealth and prospects (and to my children’s). The article told me nothing l didn’t know but interpreted what l do know into an explanatory framework. We’re in trouble and in general we don’t know we are. Even in my own country (UK) there is only a vague notion that we are actually involved in an ideological struggle to protect our long established political societal settlement. Furthermore our ability to ‘protect’ is much diminished in relative (historical) power terms. We rely on our allies and they are in even worse shape, consumed by political infighting with neoconservatives forces, whose ultimate aim is to join the ‘dictatorship club’.
We’re in trouble
Thanks for your discussion of what polls actually measure: what people indicate they will do in the moment, not what those people will actually do in the future. Also important is your clarification of the difference between saying support and doing support. That distinction reminded me of surveys regarding people's recognizing the perils of climate change and saying that they support measures to confront these perils.
Here's an AP/NORC survey (US only) from 2018: https://apnorc.org/projects/is-the-public-willing-to-pay-to-help-fix-climate-change/ In this one only 57 percent of Americans surveyed SAY they would be willing to incur a $1 monthly cost to mitigate climate change. Again, if confronted with an actual $1 monthly cost that percentage might decline.
And a more recent survey from Germany of 130,000 respondents world-wide: https://fortune.com/2024/02/16/most-world-sacrifice-1-percent-paycheck-help-stop-climate-change-not-us-uk-canada/ Here a surprising 69 percent SAY they would sacrifice 1 percent of their salaries to combat climate change; the US, UK, and Canada are outliers: "In the U.S., just 48% of people would be willing to contribute. In comparison, over 90% of the people of Myanmar and Uzbekistan would support climate solutions—despite earning significantly less. Generally, the researchers discovered that the richer and colder a country is, the less willing its citizens would be to personally pay up in the fight to stop global warming." Again, this is what people SAY in the moment, not what they will DO in the future.