Two images, two different claims. Neither of them are ‘new’ as such. The first comes to us from Nathalie Rothschild, commissioning editor of Spiked-Online. It was taken during the “March Against Climate Change Chaos” in 2006. The second was taken during the UK’s 2008 local election campaigns.

The Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist) say go red to go green, and David Cameron, the leader of the Conservative Party tells us to vote blue to go green. Which is it? 

Doesn’t this all seem a little familiar?

Neo’s choice was far easier – he trusted Morpheus. And he was actually being offered a choice that he ultimately could take responsibility for having made. He goes on, somewhat ridiculously, to overthrow the tyranny of the computers. The level at which we are being asked to engage with British politics is no less ridiculous, the only differences are that we have no choice and the computer models that determine the scope of British politics remain unchallenged.

It makes no difference whether we take the blue pill, or the red pill. Whatever we swallow, we end up green. Whether we approach the future from the Left or the Right, we end up back in the past.

This is not an attempt to make a ‘we’re-living-in-the-matrix’ kind of argument. The point here is what happens when all political organisations simultaneously attempt to capture –rather than challenge – the sense of crisis that has been generated by environmentalism. The Communists, the Liberals, the Conservatives and whatever it is that New Labour are, all want you to believe the same thing: that unless you support them, you, or more likely your children, will live ,and probably die, in an a chaotic and dangerous world. The radicals, the revolutionaries, and the establishment struggle to identify themselves, and so seek to legitimise themselves by inventing an emergency that they, and only they, can solve.

This is what happens when everything is seen through the prism of climate change. It warps spatial relationships, distorts colours, and narrows depth.

David Cameron said,

Our message in this local election campaign is simple: vote blue, go green – and save money. Why? Because it goes to the heart of what Conservatives believe.

To answer this, we will return David to the Matrix, where he ought to listen to what this annoying bald child has to say about bending reality, and ‘belief’.