Written By : Ed Driscoll
February 17, 2010

In his Pajamas Media Express blog, the mysterious blogger “Zombie” explores the strange tribal rituals of dancing to prevent global warming and notes, “My thesis is that once any movement begins to engage in hollow, ridiculous and futile gestures (such as ‘dancing for’ anything), it’s an indicator that the movement has run out of steam and will soon go extinct.”

True. Just look at disco.

More from Zombie:

It’s a bad enough sign that your movement must resort to dancing in order to achieve its aims — just as in 1890 when the Native Americans performed the Ghost Dance in one last-ditch effort to stop the white man’s conquest of America, which by then was already a fait-accompli. But it’s a dire sign that your belief system is in its latter days when your philosophers intellectually justify dancing as the only remaining course of action.

Of course, I’m being a little cruel, since the climate dancers (one hopes) don’t actually think that the dancing itself will directly fix the problem. Rather, a closer analysis of the lecture shows that the act of dancing is intended to not only serve as a propaganda tool but more importantly will help to “enable a creativity-based self-autonomy” which will then allow us to “overcome the hegemonic consumerist environment.” Also, get laid.

See also, Tom Wolfe’s 1976 essay on “The ‘Me’ Decade and the Third Great Awakening,” which noted the religious implications of a previous generation of reprimitivizing discontents.

And speaking of which, all I can say to this book’s title is don’t immanentize the eschaton!

(Originally posted at Ed Driscoll.com)

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