RFK Jr doles out more common sense about climate change and changing someone’s belief systems . . .
RFK Jr says that President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act will drive billions of dollars into hair-brained carbon reduction projects like offshore wind, which produces energy at five times the cost of onshore wind and does enormous harm to dolphins and whales.
He says carbon fundamentalism, which values the reduction of carbon above all else, overlooks the reasons most people want to protect the environment in the first place, such as saving rare species and habitats. He told host, Steven Rinella,, this may constitute the biggest mistake the environmental movement has ever made.
RFK Jr: I asked a friend of mine who is a psychiatrist, “How do you persuade somebody who is completely subsumed in a religious like belief system?”
Roseanne: If you challenge somebody on their religion, it just makes them dig in . . .
RFK Jr: My friend said that’s a feature of every Orthodoxy that it’s impervious to facts.
It’s impervious to any kind of external stimulus and he said the only way that you can do it is through the Socratic method of not fighting back.
You ask questions and as long as you you keep doing that, and you don’t fight them on it, but say:
- “Is that what you expected the benefit to be from it?”
- “Is that working for you?”
And to do it in a way that’s gentle and non-confrontational so that the person is stimulated to begin asking questions on their own.
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The Buddha says much the same when he explained compassion to us . . . that we want to call out to the Divinity in all of us to rise up.
This is what compassion does, it calls out for that Divine Spark to rise up, for all ego defensiveness, the need to defend, to disappear.
Compassion helps us disengage, and it is as Infinite as our potential.
Judgment can be insidious, so to really watch words not spoken, to engage with our hearts when we are with others, and to ask:
- “What is your heart’s desire?”
- “Do you feel that you are doing, in every way, what you desire and want to do?”
- “Do you feel in every moment of every day that you are the fullness of Who You Are?”
Questioning in this way we are saying, “I support you in what you desire. I’m not expressing agreement or disagreement; I am supporting you in Love.”
The Buddha says there are very few beings upon our planet when approached in this way, with such unconditional support and permission to become, that do not flourish because in that question is also the opening for a very human conversation:
“You know, I’ve always wanted to try and do this but I have self-defeating mechanism.” and then there is advice and sharing and that is different than compassion.
It is a true heart conversation, and it doesn’t mean that either of us has the fullness of the answers we are seeking.
It means that we are seeking together and that is becoming, that is the path of enlightenment.
