"Never wrestle with a pig because you'll only get muddy and the pig enjoys it."
Friend of a friend Moira recently (usefully) slapped this old adage onto (climate science) 'denialists'...
"Arguing with denialists is like mud-wrestling with a pig...
it all gets very messy... and nobody wins... but the pig enjoys it!"
NB. No offence intended... neither to pigs... nor to denialists. :o)

Love it! (on so many levels)
So, here is Carbon Dave's advice:
on wrestling... on pigs... on mud... and on denial...
(learnt the hard way... and still learning*):
1. Make sure you enjoy it... *at least as much* as the pig...
(It will show, it will keep you fit and healthy, and it will slightly limit the pigs pleasure.)
2. Be sure you have right clothes on (attitude etc), before indulging in muddy pig wrestling. Ensure you have plenty of time to have a good shower, a laugh at yourself, and a warm-down after.
3. Don't be surprised if the muddy pig get's you muddy. Or they squeal, or play dirty, or run around in circles, small and large, tirelessly.
4. When the pig taunts you to come back for more mud wrestling - (they will) - make sure it is you that decides whether to 'go back for more' - not the pig.
5. Above all, remember that, in reality, generally speaking, pigs are amazingly lovely intelligent loveable creatures! So at least be the same! Be the best you can be.
6. Be kind! Be kind and gentle. Otherwise 'the audience' will judge you not the pig. They already feel sorry for the pig, before you start. So enter the ring with caution - if atall.
Remember, many 'deniers' and 'sceptics' (whatever those terms really mean, since we all have a *bit* of denial inside us, if we are honest,) are hurting inside, sometimes somewhere quite deep and painful... sometimes without knowing it...
So be compassionate - love the pig? (See 1.) For a human being to so deeply in denial as to deny something as deeply real and serious as climate change, at this point in history, they must be hurting real bad.
And they are, after all, just muddy pigs.
We and they are, after all, brothers and sisters, everything is interconnected, we are all part of each others journey, and we all have something to learn from each other. Unless we deny ourselves that possibility, and *deny* that pleasure!
Go well...
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"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard (some say 'harder') battle.”- PLATO
"Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible." - THE DALAI LAMA
"They call me MISTER Pig!" - PUMBA "We gotta learn to get along!... 'they' are your neighbours... 'they' ain't going to go away! You have to get along. You have to Learn to get along." - WOMBAT Now PLEASE enjoy this - pure one world wisdom - condensed into ONE happy enlightened WOMBAT minute: http://www.global-mindshift.org/memes/wombat.swf
I'd love to hear your comments :o)
Posted by: Dave Hampton | May 30, 2010 at 11:51 AM