The Future Belongs to Facts
“[Climate policy advocates including Obama] built up a narrative that, instead of bringing the public on board with dialogue and understanding, relied on emotion and authority,” writes Mr. Reynolds, who covered the summit for his blog on Instapundit, in an e-mail. “Now, the authority figures are losing authority, and the emotion is swinging the other way, as emotion generally does.”
Substitute any controversial and potentially widely sweeping issue into this paragraph for climate policy and you have a version of how things were done in the past. This mode of persuasion will fail on an ever increasing basis in the future. “Joe Six Pack” is not as stupid as the authorities (take your pick) believe. Because of the internet, good information is now free and ubiquitous. And any authority who wants to stay an authority ought to respect that fact or quickly become a relic of the past.
