Wednesday 13 October 2010

Transition Town Attacks Critic ... again!

Rob Hopkins, Co-founder of Transition Town & Board of Trustees member of The Transition Network, felt the need to respond to my (censored) post on his Transition Culture Blog. As you will see from this (and other Emails soon to be posted) Mr Hopkins is quite adept at ad hominem attacks.

My response is further down the page.


From: Rob Hopkins
To: Ian R Crane
Sent: Wednesday, October 13, 2010 9:22 AM
Subject: Transition Culture comment

Ian,

Just fyi, I won't be posting your recent comment on Transition Culture, not due to 'suppressing debate' or whatever daft slant you may choose to put on it, but for the following two reasons:

1. I regard you as little more than a glorified DVD salesman, and I have absolutely no interest in helping you to promote your wares. If you want advertising, go elsewhere.

2. You are one of only two people whose comments I have blocked, the other a highly abusive American who was just being outrageously rude to everyone. Your behaviour after our 'debate' (coming on raving about how you had 'won' the debate... I always understood that how debates worked was that it was for those listening to decide who 'won', not the participants themselves) showed such a profound lack of grace that it really ran counter to the spirit I try to encourage on the site.

Transition Culture is my own personal blog, not the site of Transition Network. It is my call what happens there. I don't censor debate about climate change, just look at comments thread after my recent post about the 10:10 film, lots of people with views even more absurd than yours.

At the end of the day, you think I am a stooge for the New World Order (with my 'paymasters' and so on), and perhaps you even believe, as Peter Taylor recently said, that Transition Network is "controlled by the United Nations". You clearly feel I am a puppet of dark forces and incapable of independent thinking, and sufficiently twisted that eugenics might actually be a part of my motivation for doing the work that I do. You somehow feel I rule Transition with an intellectual rod of iron, yet you clearly have little or no understanding of how it actually works.

I see you as a deeply deluded self-promoter, with appalling research skills (your recent blog about the 'Green Agenda' was a prime example of that), and unable to answer a simple yes or no question about your views regarding the Holocaust. Had I made a remark like that, I would have been very keen to clarify my position rather than going on the attack. It feels to me like there is little to add, nowhere to go from here. I will not be posting any comments from you, and you need not expect any from me on your site.

Rob

... & my response!


To: Rob Hopkins
Cc: Ben Brangwyn, Peter Lipman, william Lana
Sent: Wednesday, October 13, 2010 12:49 PM
Subject: Re: Transition Culture comment


Hi Rob,

just fyi, I will be posting this and other selected Emails received from you, on the Transition Town Watch blog..

Perhaps you could help me with something, you state that I claimed to have 'won' the Glastonbury Radio debate. Would you please direct me to the specific reference which would validate this claim? I agree with your observation that the listener should decide for themsdelves the outcome of any debate, which is precisely why I have endeavoured to raise awareness of the debate and encouraged the listener to decide for themselves. My recollection is that you accused the host Ross Hemsworth of colluding with myself and Peter Taylor to 'hijack' you and requested (or should that be 'demanded') that the debate not be aired. Consequently any 'lack of grace' was entirely yours in the aftemath of a debate for which you were grossly under-prepared, inadequately informed and evidently rather embarrassed that you had to resort to homily and hear-say in an attempt to explain your case.

I also remind you that Peter Taylor would not have participated in the debate at all, had you not attempted to solicit my views on AGW in the early stage of the interview, when you knew very well that the interview was intended to focus on the issue of 'Peak Oil; With the benefit of hindsight, I'm sure you realise that this was a spectacular 'own goal'!

For the record, my 'deluded self-promotion' does not include being so arrogant that I feel the need to post the world according to Ian R Crane on a daily blog! Neither do I draw (nor do I seek) a £50k+ salary and benefits package from a charity.

Also for the record, having effectively ignored both yourself and Transition Town for two and a half years I am at a loss to comprehend why you decided to initiate your rather crass attack on 23rd September. Anyway you did and I shall now take your counsel and allow the reader(s) to decide for themselves as our correspondance is posted in the public domain.

However, that said, the subsequent Email exchange with Ben Brangwyn was most enlightening ... with the outcome being exactly as predicted.

Ian

3 comments:

Chris said...

From:

Our home town of Totnes in Devon is one of ten communities across the UK which will benefit from a £10 million fund set up by the Department of Energy and Climate Change to reduce its carbon footprint. Totnes will now receive grants to pay for a mix of “behaviour changing” measures, energy efficiency projects and renewable energy installations. The initiative will benefit 8,500 residents and is being led by Transition Town Totnes.


hrrmm .... £10,000,000 of tax payers money, nice work if you can get it!

Anonymous said...

Rob Hopkins accuses Ian Crane of being a deluded self-promoter. This is the pot calling the kettle black; Rob Hopkins would turn up at the opening of an envelope if he thought it would get his picture in the local paper.

Anonymous said...

Transition Town has created such division within our small community that I have to wonder about the real agenda. Before Transition Town came on the scene we could discuss issues such as pollution objectively. Now it's a case of "You're either with us on climate change or you're against us." They really get my goat!