Anti-sustainability astroturf talking points (aka "Agenda 21")

For many months I have been resisting requests from various people (both pro- and anti-sustainability) to write about Agenda 21. Why resist? Because I considered the anti-Agenda 21 campaign a distraction from real issues. Now that ALEC's "our state legislators" have made Georgia an international laughingstock over it, I suppose it's a big enough distraction to write about. But the topic of this series is sustainability: you know, exactly what the astroturf talking points are meant to subvert. Sustainability is important, and we should talk about it.

Jim Galloway's 12 November 2012 AJC article, Georgia's own 52-minute video on the ‘Agenda 21’ conspiracy, notes that the video some of ALEC's "our state legislators" chose to play in the state capitol, like every other attack on sustainability that uses "Agenda 21" as a key talking point, also includes this:

”The Delphi technique was developed by the Rand Corporation during the Cold War as a mind-control technique. It's also known as ‘consensive process.’ But basically the goal of the Delphi technique is to lead is to lead a targeted group of people to a pre-determined outcome.....”

The actual RAND Delphi study is readily available on the web, and it doesn't say what Agenda 21 conspiracy buffs say it says. Come on, conspiracy buffs: show me where the RAND study says its goal is "to lead a targeted group of people to a pre-determined outcome." Nobody can show me that, because it doesn't say that.

Galloway's article says ALEC's "our state legislators" were being taught that T-SPLOST was

somehow evidence of a regionalization conspiracy somehow associated with the U.N. Give me a break! T-SPLOST was backed by the Georgia and Metro Atlanta Chambers of Commerce and quite a few big businesses, plus the Republican Governor of Georgia as well as the Democratic Mayor of Atlanta. Are they all in the pocket of the U.N.? And the opponents of T-SPLOST, much as the Tea Party likes to flatter itself, extended across the political spectrum, including the Georgia Sierra Club as a key member and most Democrats I know around here.

Besides, T-SPLOST was about as pro-sprawl and anti-sustainability as you can get, which is why I opposed it, ad nauseum, and repeatedly.

Seriously, someone wants to claim a pro-sprawl tax proposal supports a case for some sort of anti-sprawl conspiracy? It must be a very weak case to drag that in! No wonder the whole world is laughing at Georgia about the Capitol viewing of those astroturf talking points.

Next: the real U.N. Agenda 21.

-jsq