About 15 years ago I went on a training day (it didn’t work – I stayed a douche). It was union steward training. Mostly those days were death by powerpoint, info-deficit tosh. This one thing I am about to describe, though, it stands out. It was a card game/exercise. Each individual was given a card... Continue Reading →
Desolation angels
She had been asked to attend a shit meeting, at which one of the blithely ignorant assholes the electorate seems to love was talking among his friends. She was sent on an intelligence-gathering effort, for an environmental pressure group. And she told me, fighting back the tears, that it had been a truly awful, traumatising... 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 →
Ego-foddering: Why is it awful, who benefits, what is to be done? #oldfartclimateadvice #climate
I believe that one of the biggest problems “we” face as individuals-in-groups-trying-to-unfuck-the- world, is the seductive call of ego-foddering. This piece explains what I mean by ego-foddering, the two main types that I have spotted (there may well be others!). It then moves on to who benefits from it, who does NOT and what consequences... Continue Reading →
Three questions about social movements
A friend of mine just shared this blog post by Duncan Green which begins Tomorrow night I am doing an ‘ask me anything’ session on skype with some students from Guelph University in Canada, who have been reading How Change Happens. They have sent an advance list of questions, which are really sharp. I’d appreciate your views... 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 →
Anthroposcenic Anthropological gits and shiggles. #moraledrain #oldfartclimateadvice
IMO, we need a new word: The Anthroposcene. Defined as: the space (scene) where everyone who uses the word Anthropocene unself-consciously (without finger-wavy ‘air quotes’) gathers to exchange book recommendations, memes, attention, credibility etc. And where everyone who has just woken up – thanks perhaps to the IPCC’s 1.5 degrees report – to the fierce... Continue Reading →
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