I Am An Activist

[Jamie in Chile]

Activists on the front lines of the climate movement have done things like destroy the encampments of loggers in forests, block roads, climb onto planes and motorway gantries and bridges, throw paint on the glass pane protecting art and occupy offices. I have never done any of those things and possibly never will, but I still consider myself a climate activist.

Activists on the front lines of the climate movement have done things like destroy the encampments of loggers in forests, block roads, climb onto planes and motorway gantries and bridges, throw paint on the glass pane protecting art and occupy offices. I have never done any of those things and possibly never will, but I still consider myself a climate activist.


I have participated a little with Extinction Rebellion in coordinated activities doing mass calling to Barclays Bank, mass online commenting, supporting at one of their planning meetings, and marching with placards. But not even that, in my view, is necessary to be an activist.


Just sharing a few things on social media, raising the issue of climate change with family, friends and work colleagues, signing petitions, and donating to activist organizations, arguably makes me an activist.


Greta Thunberg has said that we need billions of activists and I don´t think she is anticipating that billions of people want to lock themselves to trees or tunnel under a motorway for days. If you believe that we should have less fossil fuels and less climate change, then you too can help. Speak up in your work place, write an email to your local MP, and don´t be afraid to mention climate change online, or at the dinner table. Well done, you are now an activist.


The more the better and if you do want to go on protest marches, block the construction of a new oil pipeline, lead campaigns, and spend hundreds of hours on this, good for you. If you prefer to share one story on twitter and then have a few conversations with friends and leave it at that, then thanks for helping out as well. Pensioners can be activists, parents with children can be activists, people struggling to pay the bills can be activists, everyone can. You don’t have to have pink hair or dreadlocks to be an activist.

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I Am An Activist

Activists on the front lines of the climate movement have done things like destroy the encampments of loggers in forests, block roads, climb onto planes and motorway gantries and bridges, throw pai…

foxesinchile.wordpress.com

 

[Graeme M]

I am wary about the so-called benefits of disruptive action. But perhaps I am wrong. On social media and in my social circle I do not perceive sympathy by and large for XR or AR or JSO etc. But then again, these groups keep getting the media coverage and combined with the broader influence of science and media reporting about climate change, perhaps the whole combines to change the public perception.

Veganism is different - it doesn't receive favourable opinion from media or science, so disruptive action for animal rights etc remains much opposed by nearly everyone...

 

[Jamie in Chile]

They don't need to be popular. Martin Luther King wasn't popular either in his day, but he and his followers and friends and colleagues got results.

 

[Brian W]

They don't need to be popular. Martin Luther King wasn't popular either in his day, but he and his followers and friends and colleagues got results.

No, but they have to be heard, and that means people have to listen. Some forms of activism make the activist look like a maniac and nobody wants to listen to a maniac.

 

[Jamie in Chile]

It seems to me that the dynamic is.

Person A "You should be a vegetarian, you are killing animals"
Person B "I am going to eat more meat because of you rude idiots!" (but actually continues to eat the same meat, or only eats more meat for one day)
(some time later)
Person C "I personally am a vegetarian, but I don't like to push my choices on others. Aren't those activists annoying? You eat as you see best. I hope you enjoy the steak. How is it?"
Person B "Unlike some rude vegetarians I encountered in the past, that person was polite. You know, I need to go vegetarian after all."

Person A is actually critical to the process even though the short term reaction to it is just annoyance and no change. Person A shook up Person B and planted a seed in their mind. They will never admit it, even to themselves, but if they only encountered Person C types then nothing changes for them.

it is similar to the good cop, bad cop strategy where obviously person A is the bad cop and person C is the good cop although it's not really a strategy in a way because it isn't coordinated.

I think it's the same for fossil fuels.

Person A "I am blocking this road because of climate change".
Person B "You idiots. I hate you. Now get lost. I want to punch you in the face!"
(some time later)
Person C "This electric car is good. I did a calculation last week and I reckon I'll save anywhere between £1000 and £3000 over the term of the lease, compared to a petrol car. Charging from home and not having to go the petrol station is really nice."

So again in this situation Person B would then buy an electric car and claim to themselves that this had nothing to do with Person A. Or they may even have forgotten about Person A, but the seed was put in their mind. If it wasn't for Person A they wouldn't have bought an EV until a few years later.

 

[Jamie in Chile]

A good example of this was described in Nelson Mandela's biography. I can't find in online, but I have the book in front of me, so I'll hand copy it out:

He has a coming of age ceremony in his tribe and the Chief Meligqili stood up and spoke, saying

"we Xhosas, and all black South Africans, are a a conquered people. We are slaves in our own country."

Mandela said

"I know that I myself did not want to hear....I was cross rather than aroused by the chief's remarks, dismissing his words as the abusive comments of an ignorant man who was unable to appreciate the value of the education and benefits that the white man had brought to our country.......
But without exactly understanding why, his words soon began to work in me. He has planted a seed, and though I let that seed lie dormant for a long season, it eventually began to grow. Later I realized that the ignorant man that day was not the chief but myself."

I think most people are not as wise as Mandela and therefore not quite capable of reaching that last part "Later I realized that the ignorant man that day was not the chief but myself."

But the seed is still in your mind.

And it not peaceful protest marches or scientific reports that put it there for most people, it is something disruptive or annoying.

Eventually you tell yourself that you went vegetarian because of reasons other than the annoying activist you encountered or saw on TV. But it's not true.

Most of the main successful movements for social change involved disruption, civil disobedience, being annoying. Gay people fighting the police at Stonewall. Martin Luther King causing chaos in the streets, and freedom riders that knew that they would be met with violence. Working class men in the UK got the vote by burning things, women got the vote by all manner of things that were annoying and unpopular.

A number of the environmental activists know all this. They are not trying to be liked. That's irrelevant.

They are trying to put a seed in your mind so that you'll be more open minded the next time someone (the good cop) says "I've been taking the train to Europe rather than flying for a few years, it's so much fun, I really don't miss those airport queues or the airport food."

 

[Brian W]

You have a very simplistic way of looking at things. People are complex and you need to understand them better.

 

[Jamie in Chile]

No, but they have to be heard, and that means people have to listen. Some forms of activism make the activist look like a maniac and nobody wants to listen to a maniac.

But they will then listen to someone who seems relatively closer to the middle ground.

The maniacs make the people previously considered radical look reasonable.

A good example was that countries were debating whether to set net zero goals of 2050 or 2070.

XR came along and said net zero by 2025. Their spokesman went on TV and gets shredded by Andrew Neill for the indefensible position.

But the whole debate shifted and it became should we have net zero by 2030 or 2040 or 2050.

Before XR net zero by 2030 or 2035 would have been considered mega radical. After that it became fairly mainstream and was being discussed by the centre left Labour party.