https://twitter.com/marcsrhudson/status/1637791469476954112 If you don't understand protest waves and movement cycles and ABEYANCE, you are a risk not just to yourself, but to those around you.
“Activist Credibility Tokens”
I made a video about what I call "Activist Credibility Tokens" - how people try to get them, how there's an "easy" way and how that sets up perverse incentives, unhelpful patterns. Tell me what you think... https://twitter.com/marcsrhudson/status/1637048946613706754
Two climate videos, one glaring silence (spoilers – it’s social movements)
Thanks to Twitter, I saw two videos yesterday - one which is very recent, about the so-called "activist industrial complex" and the other from three years ago by the Financial Times, presented by the actress Nicola Walker. Both, in their ways, are good to think with, but perhaps not for the reasons their creators think.... Continue Reading →
Of Theseus, Vygotsky and the lack of dry docks for planks to be replaced
So the old puzzle goes - of Theseus's ship - if you replace the mast twice, the sails thrice and every plank of the hull over time, is it STILL, after all that the "original" Theseus' ship? (and, if it isn't anymore, when did it stop being so?) Then there's Lev Vygotsky, the Russian educational... Continue Reading →
Hello to new after-the-Conversation-article readers – barriers to skillsharing…
Today the Conversation posted another article of mine about Extinction Rebellion - you can read it here. I got a high profile follower out of it, and a lovely email from someone, and a media request. Anyway, if you've come here, you're probably interested in social movements, and so you're in the right place (or... Continue Reading →
What’s BUGging me today? #MovementPathologies
tl;dr The 'Bottom-Up' Grift (BUG) is the spinning of a line - for profit and/attention - that the true path to utopia is via 'bottom up' activity. This post defines the BUG, explains how to spot it, where it comes from, what to do about it. The Grift Making a career out of saying "we... Continue Reading →
“What can we do, as individuals?” Unpopular answer to popular question
Quickly as ever, bringing two strands together. First, there was an excellent comment on a previous post about why get involved in social movement organisations/what happens if they try. "isn’t there an option about doing what you can, when you can, and doing your best to live coherently, talking to others when the conversation might... Continue Reading →
We need to wake up from “wake up” rhetoric
Quickly, because looong day (but good one) and my guilty pleasure Michael Connelly awaits. THIS SORT OF THING PISSES ME OFF. It implies that "world leaders" are asleep, not aware what is going on. a) that is horseshit b) if it were true, what would it say about the efficacy of 30+ years of academic,... Continue Reading →
Schoolboy Powerpoint Fail AND “the costs of doing social movement.”
Two things before I feed the swans and then work into the evening on industrial decarbonisation and multiple streams approach ONE - I did a mostly good talk about ID and MSA today. Halfway through I realised I was sharing the screen of my penultimate powerpoint presentation and that I really ought to have the... Continue Reading →
Gormless “individual action!” vs “system change!” #climate “activists” talking past each other, as usual. My declaration of irrelevance, sorry, independence
Uggh. a) I have COVID b) I have had enough of climate "activists" and their gormless miss-the-point-"debates" about individual versus "top-down" action. The love-and-light brigade tell us our individual footprints matter, that we need to "be the change we want to see". They ignore the corporates (indeed, blah blah BP invented carbon footprints blah blah)... Continue Reading →