Saturday, July 17, 2010

There's Always One (at least)

I just can't get over one of the last conversations I had at TED. It
started simply enough, with handshakes and introductions and inqueries
into the other's profession. He's an app designer from LA; my badge
labels me a consultant.

"What kind of consulting?"

"Communication and design strategy."

"Give me an example."

"Executives giving keynote presentations, start-ups pitching to VCs,
the speakers here at TED. Everyone needs a story, and they need
graphics to support it. Al Gore and An Inconvenient Truth is a great
example of the medium."

And then he said something weird.

"I don't buy into that extreme left-wing global warming stuff. I'm a
Republican."

Which is the sort of thing that catches you off-guard. In a kind of
how-do-I-respond-what-do-I-focus-on-does-this-person-even-live-on-the-
same-planet kind of way.

"You mean the idea of man-made climate change that every credible
scientist supports?"

"Not every one. Have you read Ayn Rand?* The economics don't work.
There's no profit in climate change. I'm not explaining it right but I
could."

I was baffled. Was this a rebuttal or some kind of tea party mashup?
Where does one start to deconstruct this? Realizing I was about ten
years too late (much like actions on climate change), I excused myself
to another venison sausage and other, saner conversation.

(BTW, he crashed a Fellows party later and tried to sell his app
services to everyone. Tres uncool.)

Does this sort of thing happen to anyone else? I mean, people
rejecting established, scientific fact because it doesn't fit with
their ideology/Glenn Beck said so? I may not encounter a lot of people
like this in my travels, but I fear they're out there in large
numbers. And they're going to fuck things up for all of us.

* Author of The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. Libertarian darling,
though her economic philosophy has been thoroughly discredited. At
least among the reality-based.

1 comment:

Christine said...

Hey this happens all the time to me talking to people about radio and TV. And when I'm talking to donors. You are not alone in this bizarre world. - your cuz Christine