Sunday 18 August 2019

Explaining Greta Thunberg to an American

Prior to the fall of 2018, no one had really ever heard of Greta.  Then, the 15-year old Swedish teenager came out with this 'strike' idea in Swedish schools over climate change, global warming, and global warming.  Using social media, she advanced the idea of Friday at noon.....kids getting up and striking, for the remainder of the day (Swedish schools typically run to 1:30 PM.  Signs were made up....slogans devised.....with Swedish schools acting in a paralyzed state.  Yes, adults basically couldn't establish authority.

So it spread.

By January, via social media....it arrived in Germany and various European countries.  Same deal.....leave classes at noon and strike.

The Germans loved this sort of thing, and journalists flocked to it.  School authorities?  Powerless.

So Greta sailed out this week of Europe and is heading to the east coast of the US.....mostly because flying would have used more carbon (she actually said this.....but engineers have proven that the sailboat will use more carbon for her, than flying in a regular plane.

She believes that her presence will flip US students over to her message......striking on Fridays.

The fact that she has Aspergers?  Well.....no one in the German journalist group will mention this, but yes.....she has Aspergers.

A problem?  Well....if you were an innovation or technology company, it might be positive to have a boss or leader like that.  In a religion or political group?  No.  You don't want a one-sided person running a political group.  As for someone trying to run some kid's group on climate change?  No, it's probably not going to be some super-positive idea.

But here's the curious thing.....when you approach some American kids and suggest a strike at noon on Fridays.....most school boards will step in and send a letter to the parents that either the kid attends or a officer will come to the house and take actions.  Failing a kid in various classes if he were to miss dozen Friday afternoons?  Some schools would take this action and send a signal.

The other possible action is that some kids....especially university students.....will begin to question Greta on her facts, and challenge her.  I have my doubts that she'll be in the US for more than ten days, and quietly be sailed back to Sweden.

So I'm reminded of the child crusades of 1212.  There are two legendary figures (Nicholas of Germany, and Stephen of Cloyes, France) who led Greta-like antics in 1212.  Neither are exactly proven as fact, or non-fact.

In the case of Stephen (the French kid).....he claimed that he had a letter written and signed by Jesus, and addressed to the King (Phillip II).  For some reason, the King just didn't believe the Jesus letter was authentic.   Stephen kinda claimed that he was going to lead a crowd to Holy Land and be crusaders....saving Europe, the King, France, and Christianity.  At some point, he had 30,000 idiots lined up and following him south through France.  By winter, the group thinned out, and the whole crusade business and Stephen.....just disappeared.

In the case of Nicholas, it ran the same way.....but without the letter from Jesus.  This child group was going off to fight the crusades and thousands of kids flocked to the group.  By winter, their whole mission had dissolved up.

It's argued over the two kids, and if either is true, or maybe just one single story in itself.  But the more you look at it.....if true, both kids were likely Aspergers or with paranoid schizophrenia.   

So prepare for the Greta show, and the news folks to hype it up.

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