"The shit is hitting the fan," but it’s not an emergency, according to Holdfast Bay Councillors Holdfast Bay’s elected members have overwhelmingly rejected a bid for the council to declare a climate emergency. In front of a packed public gallery of young and old, councillors were at pains to display their environmental concerns and credentials,... Continue Reading →
Expect (lots) more magical thinking, from eco-types as well as reactionaries
Easy it is to see the dynamics playing out in people we don't like. Easy it is to see how the complexities, ambiguities and downright extra-messiness of Modern Life can lead people to reach for simple(minded) "solutions" and slogans like "Make America Great Again" and "Take Back Control." Not so easy to spot it, or... Continue Reading →
The morality of morale maintenance – of days off, nihilism, 4/1/23 and #oldfartclimateadvice
I One of my go-to Nietzsche quotes is the one where he says "when you look long enough into the abyss, the abyss begins to look back into you". And for years I had a get out (a CVE, for the classic Doctor Who geeks) from this - I could be climate activist/abyss-starer at night... Continue Reading →
Two simple questions, zero bloody ideas. wtaf we’re toast
Asides from other frustrations ("250, 150, 100, 65 and oblivious" is all I will say right now) there are a couple of deeper ones. Or rather, one beast, two heads: what is the actual point of academics and think-tankers? Seriously? What is the point of them, for progressive social movements? Yesterday I asked a simple... Continue Reading →
Activism and the #emotacycle: opinions/suggestions sought.
Hello everyone, In July 2019 I will present a paper at an academic conference entitled “Political Emotions.” The abstract is below. I’m posting a very first draft/series of thoughts in the hope that I can stea… sorry, borrow, insights from smart people. Let me know what you think of the emotacycle concept, the details. What’s missing,... Continue Reading →
Infiltration and environmental movements – what is to be done? #ExtinctionRebellion #climatebreakdown #spycops
The future is not written, but there are several excruciatingly safe bets about the years ahead. atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide and methane will continue to rise poor people will suffer the resultant impacts of #climatebreakdown hard and first the state will try to suppress social movements which seek to do anything about rendering these... Continue Reading →
Hope, false hope, stupid hope and #climatechange: From Paris to Extinction (Rebellion)
Here's the tl:dr - The Paris Agreement and Extinction Rebellion are two sides (or symptoms) of the same coin, i.e. the suspension of critical faculties by people who know better but are in desperate search of reasons to be hopeful about our grim meathook future.... Back in 2015 I wrote a piece about the Paris... Continue Reading →
What might have been, but wasn’t
How it could have been (Starting on time instead of fifteen minutes late) Having someone clearly identified as welcome/way of making sure people who don’t know anyone know where to come to etc. Having a note taker Introductions Pairwise. "Sit with someone you don’t know. You are going to find out their name and what,... Continue Reading →
12 years a slave to the rhetoric
[Update 13 Jan 2019: hmm, this blog has been put somewhere on facebook and had some click throughs. Could someone share the link in the comments? Curious to see what/if any comments. ALSO, this latest post on this site may be of interest- "Infiltration and environmental movements - what is to be done?"] It's... Continue Reading →
Ehre heads. On the (f)utility of theory
Short post but hopefully not a shitpost. Went to a thing recently. There was a good 'sweeping overview' history of the twentieth century around Keynesianism/neoliberalism (though it undersold the importance of ICT and containerisation for my taste). Halfway through I scrawled to a colleague "Five quid says he says nothing/has nothing to say about 'what... Continue Reading →
marchudson.net 