Atomic Show #280 - Zion Lights - Director, Environmental Progress UK 1

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  1. Ms. Lights introduced her conversation with a brief discussion of our species’ tribalism, why objective evaluation of situations or facts are not nearly as important as influencing other members of the group, and reaching consensus and agreement. Because in our early development, if you were voted off the island, you would die.

    That fear remains: it’s origins and consequences are explored by Elizabeth Kolbert in Why facts don’t change our minds. (New Yorker, Feb 2017)

    Even after the evidence for their beliefs has been totally refuted, people fail to make appropriate revisions in those beliefs…

    Humans’ biggest advantage over other species is our ability to cooperate… Reason developed not to enable us to solve abstract, logical problems or even to help us draw conclusions from unfamiliar data; rather, it developed to resolve the problems posed by living in collaborative groups…

    If reason were designed to generate sound judgments, then it’s hard to conceive of a more serious design flaw than confirmation bias. Humans aren’t randomly credulous. Presented with someone else’s argument, we’re quite adept at spotting the weaknesses. Almost invariably, the positions we’re blind about are our own.

    Good article. I’m heartened that Zion Lights has accepted the challenge head-on.

  2. Thanks to Rod and Zion Lights for the fine presentation.

    So this nuclear power thing is actually a PR problem. It is a case of needing to be sold. It’s more about feelings than facts and figures.

    My father told me years ago that you can sell a product by generating a demand. If people have a demand for nuclear plants, the supply will follow.

    The Simpsons were mentioned as being a great influence on all of those environmentalists. Apparently, there is power in Homer and Blinky. It’s hard to fight this icon of Americana.

    However, like the Lincoln Project, I think a few well placed TV commercials would go a long way. I’m an old guy and have a couple of retro commercial ideas. I hope there is some appreciation for these silly ideas.

    1) There is a guy who looks like the Marlboro man. There is no greater symbol of Americana than the American cowboy. The Grand Canyon Suite is playing. The ad starts in black and white. Our Marlboro man cowboy is crushing a pack of smokes and tossing them in the trash. “I thought I got rid of these,” He declares in a low Western drawl. He goes on to say, “I like fresh air now.”The camera pulls out to show him and his horse in a meadow with hyperbolic cooling towers. The ad makes a transition from the black and white to a Kodachrome like color. There are colorful flowers growing around the cooling towers. The next shot is of our Marlboro man character riding off into the sunset and saying, “My horse likes the fresh air too.” Then there is the symbol of the atom with a few electrons spinning around it. It morphs into a 1970s yellow smiley face and the ad is over.

    The real Marlboro man died of lung cancer. He would have been better doing nuke ads.

    2) This ad also starts in black and white. The song, “As Time Goes By,” is playing. An actor and actress are dressed up like Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman are kissing in front of a nuclear plant. The actress turns to the actor and says, “Rick! Thank you for taking me here. I love the fresh air.” The same effect is then used with the picture becoming colorized. This time when the effect is applied it is similar to the look as applied to old black and white movies. Again, the atom symbol is shown with the morphing effect into the 1970s smiley face.

    Mr. Bogart died of Cancer.

    Anyway, it’s just a thought.

  3. Glad to have you aboard Ms. Lights. I guess there is reason to be hopeful… I chose nuclear power to be my life’s work after a similar awakening. No doubt I speak for many contributors when I say we will back you so long as you stay on message. A good spokesperson is a priceless.

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