Plane stupidity
Yes, it’s a pun. Brilliant isn’t it? Clearly the word ‘plane’ here is used to mean ‘plain’ but conjures up images and the suggestion of aeroplanes. At least, that is, for those who know how to spell – and of course, only in writing – not in broadcast or other forms of verbal communication.
I don’t think those anti-aeroplane people hired a marketing professional. I don’t think a single one of them even did a copywriting course. And for once in my life, I think that’s a pity.
I mention this because I’ve been recently working on a lot of text about climate change, or ‘earth scorching’ as I like to call it. What a shit subject to have to read about! I mean at least you can have a bit of a laugh when you edit copy about public health and think how ridiculously obese the nation has become – a country full of fatties worrying about the flu and blissfully unaware of the massive chocolate and crisp shortages we’ll have to face when the world runs out of oil.
But climate change? There’s no joy in that. You can say what you like about grapes and olives growing in the southeast of England. That’s not going to make it the Mediterranean or – more importantly according to the stuff I’ve been reading – inhabitable.
Which to my mind makes it all the more infuriating that a group campaigning to get the government and the rest of us to wake up and do something about it, call themselves ‘Plane Stupid’. That way, before they’ve even turned up to giggle like idiots on Radio 4’s Today programme, they’ve already given the likes of Melanie Phillips, Jeremy Clarkson and ‘Professor’ David Bellamy, ammunition to discredit them and their thinking.
I started this blog because I’m frightened of the conspiracy to laugh at editorial staff everywhere and because increasingly these days I find that I can’t understand the words any more.
But now I’m frightened of sun-burn and salt water too. I daren’t use the tube. I’m thinking of moving to higher ground and investigating the property prices in the Liverpool area.
And I’m frightened of the deniers – the ones we mustn’t call deniers because the expression is reminiscent of holocaust deniers – the ones who take exception to being likened to fascists but work for the Daily Mail, or accept campaign contributions from the oil companies then demand free speech – the ones who want to stop President Obama from acting effectively on climate change.
But most of all I’m frightened that the people who do have some inkling of what the catastrophic effects of climate change might be, are too immature and too stupid to recognise that what gets results in this world is not the truth of your message, but the way you present that message to the media and the public.
