What am I good for? Of “All Our Yesterdays” and “Yes, but let’s BELL the BLOODY CAT.” That’s about it, I think…

A house move is a chance to reflect (because I don’t ever ruminate otherwise, oh not at all).

So many books. So so many bloody books. So many of them not read (so many not written, too.)

You get to thinking, as per my Twitter header –

Obviously I am employed, so not completely unemployable, and I am doing some “useful” research etc etc. But more broadly, what do I have to offer this species (and others?) as we accelerate over the cliff edges?

I think the following about sums it up.

a) Explaining how “we” got here, especially as regards the climate crises. That’s what is underlying my “All Our Yesterdays – 365 Climate Histories” project (which I will write about more soon.

For now, thanks to the people who, over the previous few days, have offered support and encouragement – it has made a very big difference. (And you too, Sam, you too, who has been offering support, encouragement and advice for the fat end of a decade.) If you are reading this and you want to support the project, well, here’s some suggestions.

b) Being relentlessly and publicly impatient and hopefully upsetting with

i) endless invocations to “bell the cat” from people who know better than to apply “information-deficit” models of change but who – for various reasons – persist and

ii) the delusions of the social movements. I am “proud” (is that the right word?) of neologisms like smugosphere, emotacycle, ego-fodder etc. I am more proud of my insistence – however imperfectly enacted – that social movement organisations take strategic, proactive steps to avoid these snares. Are there things I regret in this? Thousands and thousands, especially around upsetting individuals who I did not actually intend to upset. Has it been enough? Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha (cont. p94)

But here we are, and I should remember that Samuel Johnson thing.