Enrolling Winnie-the-Pooh's Companions in Climate Change Discourse (Part #8)
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In the light of the above discussion, there is considerable irony to the fact that the political grouping of the European Parliament is of 9-fold form (at least prior to the elections in 2019). A degree of analysis of the relationship between the groups has been presented with respect to earlier configurations of the Parliament, as summarized by Wikipedia (Academic studies of the political groups of the European Parliament)
| Political groups of the European Parliament | Global systemic care for the "Hundred Acre Wood" | |
| Political groups | EU Stance | |
| European People's Party (EPP) | Pro-EU | Attentively pro-active? |
| Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S-D) | Pro-EU | Attentively pro-active? |
| European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) | Soft Eurosceptic | Mildly indifferent? |
| Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) | Pro-EU | Attentively pro-active? |
| European United Left-Nordic Green Left (GUE-NGL) | Soft Eurosceptic | Mildly indifferent? |
| Greens-European Free Alliance (Greens-EFA) | Pro-EU, Regionalist | Attentively pro-active? |
| Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy (EFDD) | Eurosceptic | Dangerously indifferent? |
| Europe of Nations and Freedom (ENF) | Eurosceptic | Dangerously indifferent? |
| Non-Inscrits (NI) | ? | Incoherent? |
Less evident from conventional analyses of voting on issues and alliances (whether implied or explicit, temporary or longer-term), is how these enable systemic insight from a non-partisan systemic perspective. The European Parliament might itself be compared with Hundred Acre Wood, just as the global environmental challenge might also be fruitfully compared with that forest. Rather than the systemically limited insights offered by the third column of the table, there is a case for seeking correspondences with Winnie-the-Pooh and his companions. This could obviously include a sense of team roles, character strengths and potential pathologies -- even if these are focused on the here-and-now preoccupations of many voters, rather the abstractions of a global system and its future.
It is unfortunate that the different commentaries on the nature of that forest, in the light of Winnie-the-Pooh, offer only a "superficial" approach to its biodiversity, with few insights in terms of psychosocial diversity. Perhaps better explored in metaphorical terms, such commentaries include,
In the light of any such appreciation, the recent destruction of Hundred Acre Wood merits reflection as a metaphor of the times (Gareth Davies, Ashdown Forest fire: Winnie the Pooh's Hundred Acre Wood ablaze, The Telegraph, 29 April 2019; Carol Kuruvilla, The Forest That Inspired Winnie-The-Pooh's Hundred Acre Wood Ravaged By Fire, The Huffington Post, 30 April 2019). Given his heroic potential, and as an overly dedicated consumer, what role is any "Winnie-the-Pooh" then called upon to play (Carly Mallenbaum, Why Winnie the Pooh is the living-in-the-moment hero we need right now, USA Today, 7 August 2018)?
Potentially pertinent is how participants in the environmental psychodrama are then able to see the wood for the trees.
Any such systemic recognition internationally may be enabled or inhibited by the aesthetic connotations of the translations of "Hundred Acre Wood" indicated below
| Translations of "Hundred Acre Wood" (reproduced from Wikipedia) |
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