Incoming train
There are folk who hate climate activists.
Plenty of them.
They’re on Twitter. They’re in the papers.
They hate Greta. They hate just about any activist.
But why hate someone who’s saying nothing more than, “Hey! Get off the tracks! There’s a train coming!”
It’s good to get advance notice of danger, isn’t it?
Reasons for hate
But then, maybe you’ve got reasons for your hate.
Perhaps these hateful activists threaten your commercial or political interests?
After all, they want us to do stuff now about dangers that may not kick in for years… And who cares if the world burns in 20 or 25 or 50 years’ time? We’ve got pockets to line and money to make NOW.
Short-termism
Short-termism is built into our modern day world. It’s built into capitalism. It’s built into politics. It’s almost a philosophy.
As long as our quarterly returns look good, or we’re going to get re-elected next year or the year after, why should we care?
Knowing or unknowing
So here’s the question: Do you hate climate activists because you’re a willing collaborator with short-termist politicians and the lobbyists for profit-hungry corporations – or because you’re their ‘useful idiot’?
Don’t let me rush you.
Take your pick.
Beliefs
Or perhaps you loathe climate activists because they challenge your beliefs?
We’re encouraged to believe that greed is good. It’s a constant message: that unfettered self-interest rewards everyone eventually; that unlimited growth answers every problem.
But climate breakdown indicates otherwise… Because it now looks as if unfettered self-interest and unlimited growth might destroy our world.
And it’s painful, of course, to accept something which exposes your earlier beliefs as wrong.
Being scared
So you look for excuses to resent those who do the exposing.
Perhaps you justify your loathing for climate activists on the basis of their being too preachy? After all, who likes being preached at?
Or is it because they’re smug?
Don’t we all hate people who’re smug?
But is it really preachy to care about the future?
Is it really smug to be scared?
Victims
Or maybe you feel victimised – oppressed by those who suggest our world’s on the wrong track.
Perhaps you’ve joined ‘The Victims’ Club’, sponsored by powerful and wealthy press barons in every nation on Earth…
It’s a great club!
Let’s pretend we’re victims…. while smoothing the way for a future where there’ll be more victims than anyone can even begin to imagine.
Let’s sit around doing nothing and pretending we’re oppressed – while facilitating the oppression and suffering and perhaps even extinction of future generations…
It’s a wonderful game. Just see how righteous it makes you feel!
The fools!
Perhaps climate activists are a scapegoat for all the things you hate about yourself?
Look at them! Waving their placards and marching here and there like muppets!
They almost look as if they have real friends!
Don’t they realise they could be sitting in your shoes, festering in victimhood and simmering with hate?
A death cult
But there are things that climate activist haters should hate a whole lot more than climate activists. Important things.
Like the rich and the powerful taking most of our planet’s resources while spoiling it all for the rest of us.
Like corporate greed riding rough-shod over the interests of our species.
Like the near death-cult of our establishment and its leaders.
Lemmings
A tiny elite are shepherding humanity towards its death – herding us like lemmings towards the cliff’s edge.
Politicians like Johnson, Bolsonaro and Morrison are their errand boys.
Why let them destroy our children’s future?
An important question
So next time you question climate activism, next time you participate in sneering at Greta Thunberg or other activists, ask yourself this:
What kind of hater are you? The corporate tool? Or the useful fool?
Luke Andreski
Luke Andreski is a founding member of the @EthicalRenewal and Ethical Intelligence collectives.
This article comes from his 2020 book, Short Conversations: During the Plague.
His new book, Short Conversations: During the Storm, comes out this month.
You can connect with Luke on LinkedIn, https://uk.linkedin.com/in/luke-andreski-ethics or via EthicalRenewal on Twitter https://twitter.com/EthicalRenewal.
Luke is a founding member of the @EthicalRenewal collective and author of Short Conversations: During the Plague (2020), Intelligent Ethics (2019) and Ethical Intelligence (2019).
I don’t like them because they stop ambulances and jam up cities, punishing the ‘useful idiots’ they want to enlist. One guy they stopped was actually a home insulator. And think
of the fumes from those idling engines. Though in the USA, things like ending fuel independence helps cause the spiralling costs and shortages hurting the poor the most. There’s no seamless move to wind and solar. And nobody has a pre-developed technical plan which is down to earth and cost effective.
Most people agree climate change is a problem, so the argument has cut through. But incompetents win no further.
Hi Mick I fully understand the inconvenience thing but I would point you to the results of peaceful demonstrations in this country by referring you to the example of the Iraq war protests:
“Perhaps the largest demonstration this day occurred in London, with up to one million protestors gathering in Hyde Park”
“According to the French academic Dominique Reynié, between January 3 and April 12, 2003, 36 million people across the globe took part in almost 3,000 protests against the Iraq war.”
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protests_against_the_Iraq_War
These were in the most part peaceful demonstrations and permitted by the authourities. They did not stop the war which has thrown parts of the middle east into chaos and resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands and degraded large areas of land..
The climate crisis could lead to the possible extinction of a large part of the human race if not all of it and judging by the results from COP21 our western governments are largely happy to carry on business as normal.
I believe therefore that any action which makes governments listen/change direction to policies that ensure that most of us and our families and global neighbours survive is now appropriate no matter what the personal inconvenience.
Thank you, David – that’s my position, exactly. I actually consider people like Insulate Britain to be heroes, risking physical abuse and imprisonment to bring to public attention something so bluntly obvious and yet routinely ignored – that insulation and conservation of energy is a low hanging fruit in tackling climate change. We should be doing it. Why aren’t we? At least IB have got people like us and Mick talking about it!