We had such a positive response to our use of a quotation from Thomas Paine recently that we decided to treat you to another quote. This one's from Voltaire. We want to remind all those head-in-the-sand nimbies out there that a thing called the Enlightment happened. It ushered in the Age of Reason. The nimbies won't know much about that because they don't believe in reason or enlightenment. They believe in prejudice, lies and DO AS WE TELL YOU OR ELSE!!!
The first part of Voltaire's quote undoubtedly applies to the dreadful nimby movement which is allowing fanatics and demagogues to dictate their prejudices to all around them. We've seen recently how a handful of anti-wind nutters are trying to persuade their neighbours in Shropshire that the "Lorries carrying wind turbine parts are longer than an aircraft carrier." That, dear friends, is an absurdity. It is so untrue - so painfully, maniacally untrue - that only a complete idiot would believe them. But sadly, there are idiots aplenty in this country of ours. Some poor folk will trust their neighbours on this. They will endeavour to believe the (obvious) lie that vehicles longer than aircraft carriers will deliver wind turbine parts to their destination and probably damage your petunias in the process.
Another absurdity preached by the Shropshire loons is that wind turbines sound like aircraft taking off (we noted that the nimbies of Bridgnorth seem to have the hots for aircraft). Well, here's some lovely proof that the barking progress-deniers of Salop are lying through their sharpened fangs. No wind turbine sounds like an aircraft taking off. Check it out:
The windfarm shown here is a prime example of the positive benefits windfarms can bring to the countryside and the community. It's worth a watch for those of you who have not yet been fortunate enough to have a tour of an operational windfarm. Of course, there will be nimby lunatics who try to claim that the sound on this video has been artificially engineered somehow or other, by some process currently unknown to science, so that the turbines sound so blissfully quiet. But the truth is that windfarms are quiet - surprisingly so. And kids love them.
So the "making you believe absurdities" part of the story is plain for all to see. Anti-wind nimbies lie, and their lies aren't even very good lies. They're ridiculous. Which means that you'd have to be ridiculous yourself to be taken in.
Another example? Okay. Here's a mad group from the Nottingham area. Nottingham University is eager to install a couple of wind turbines which will do precisely what they're meant to do: generate lots of lovely clean, green energy, thereby saving a fortune and cutting down on CO2 emissions (which, in case you've been living in a nuclear bunker for the past decade or two, is what we are all meant to be doing). Typically, a few fruitcakes are trying to stop this perfectly sane and sensible development, and they're using all the usual dishonest tactics to further their grotesque ends:
Now, let's not bother with their hysterical attempts at investigative journalism regarding Yes2Wind. Let's just go to their "Why Should I Care?" link and click on "Property Prices".
Whoosh! Dear oh dear, what an astonishing outbreak of phoney do we find there? "There is a great deal of conflicting evidence regarding the impact of wind turbines on property prices", or so they tell us.
In fact, there's no conflicting evidence. There is the evidence - which is, as numerous surveys show, that windfarm proximity does not tend to have any long term negative impact on house prices and, if anything, benefits the local property market. And then there is the sort of gibberish that the nimbies come out with.
Take a look: they've even quoted that part of the RICS report which VVASP quoted as "evidence" that windfarms drive property prices down. VVASP were told by the Advertising Standards Authority that they could not continue using that same quote to make that same claim because it wasn't true! But the nimbies of Nottingham do not care that they are deliberately misleading their neighbours, making claims that other nimby groups have been banned from making. They want all and sundry to Believe an Absurdity.
Now, some of us know only too well what the Absurdity-Believers are capable of. And maybe Atrocities is a strong word. But when, as per VVASP, they form mobs, browbeat and intimidate their neighbours, deny open debate and forbid free speech, force democratic bodies to dance to their lunatic tune, and ruin their own communities by creating unnecessary fear and division, well, that kind of comes under the heading of "Atrocities". Atrocities all inspired and fuelled by Absurdities (or lies, as we prefer to call them).
And then there's the greater Atrocities, which are to do with the planet (our real home, as opposed to the expensive monstrosities with views of "unspoilt" countryside which the nimbies think of as their exclusive homes) and with future generations. Lying your head off in order to prevent urgent action being taken and thereby stopping harmless, beneficial developments which will improve matters considerably for the current generation and those yet to come ... that's an atrocity.
The children of the future will not thank you for having lead such a perverse and deluded crusade against the solution. Why should they? You preached absurdities in order to make others commit atrocities. And that's how you will be remembered.
Of course, it's always extremely difficult to figure out why these headcases continually argue against something that is so good for the environment (near and far), so good for local business, tourism and the property market, so good for kids (remember, VVASP kept trying to drop weird hints about the proximity of the proposed Lenchwick Windfarm to a primary school, even though they could not prove that the turbines would pose any kind of threat whatsoever to the children), so good for everybody, in fact. Why would any sane (?) individual oppose - so fanatically, and so dishonestly - such a worthwhile thing?
This might suggest an answer:
That's it. Wind turbines are symbolic. Of the future. Of a better world.
And that's why the fascist fringe, the self-important nimby nutters of the world, are so dead set against them. All the Absurdities about noise, health, house prices, subsidies, intermittency, blah blah blah are simply sideshows - bogus excuses for opposing a Good Thing. The real reason they don't like them is because wind turbines remind them of their own failure to protect the countryside they claim to love and the children they pretend to be worried about.
Wind turbines simply remind these fools that driving gas-guzzlers, commuting stupid distances because you want to work in a city but boast that you have a place in the country, and all those other insanely wasteful activities are wrong.
In the mad world of the nimby, it's better to tell loud lies about the solution than admit that there's problem. And if that means tricking your neighbours into committing atrocities, well, so be it.
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