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 →
SMOTE – (social movement organisation transcience and emptiness.) Why “we” refuse to see it, say it. #ClimateTwitter
All these people on Climate Twitter, spouting variations of information deficit, or hope deficit or anger deficit. All of them studiously avoiding the key (imo) question - what do social movement organisations need to do DIFFERENTLY, given that for the last 30 plus years, they have not managed to slow the acceleration of the destruction... Continue Reading →
Things we can’t see, don’t have the language for, that MATTER (the mechanics of social movement organisations etc etc)
We can't, usually, 'see' carbon dioxide. But we know it is there. Since the 1950s very very accurate measures of its concentration in the atmosphere have been kept (thanks to Uncle Sam and his military industrial complex). While dickheads - to use the technical academic term - like ex-Prime Minister Tony Abbott scoff at "invisible... Continue Reading →
Hypocrites, Zealots and (in)activists – a cartoon (and inevitably unhelpful rant)
I asked my brilliant friend Marc Roberts if there were a cartoon in this blog post, and this is what he came up with. It is in the latest issue of Ethical Consumer Magazine, and it is genius, I am sure you agree. The problem is that the reality is EVEN WORSE THAN THIS, because... Continue Reading →
Martin Luther King – “Perhaps we shall not overcome after all.” (#satire)
"Our Dumb Century" by the folks at The Onion is a staggering satirical achievement. Lots more to say, but this fits my current mood (see the Cher, incentive structures and our inevitable doom post etc)
If you open a space, you better set some rules, and keep ’em…
I have seen it so often - a meeting that could ("should") be about "what can we DO" instead becomes a "the world is so unfair" kinda thing. Don't get me wrong, people need to be able to vent, to feel recognised, to have their anger and pain acknowledged. Trouble is, in the absence of... Continue Reading →
marchudson.net 