We’re all going to die. And we’re all going to die in large or small (1) part because social movement organisations run on emotion rather than anything approaching strategy. And they spend all their time trying to get the next hit (2), rather than getting folks to do the long, slow, boring work of social... Continue Reading →
"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 →
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 →
My very smart Canadian friend (no, not you, Cameron - I have another very smart Canadian friend) just sent me an interview conducted with a researcher/activist called Marcie Smith, by a chap called Branko Marcetic. It's title is Gene Sharp, the Cold War Intellectual Whose Ideas Seduced the Left and it is brilliant (as in... Continue Reading →
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 →
You have two feet. One is for learning, the other is for contributing. If you find yourself in a place where you are doing neither, it is your responsibility to respectfully use your two feet (or wheels) to go somewhere that you are. If you don't, chances are you're gonna be ego-fodder. Respectfully: So, no... Continue Reading →
The context of is this. I recently met someone who writes good poems (unlike me). And gets paid for doing so (ditto). And this person (age, gender etc will not be mentioned) swerved the suggestion to write on what is already the central issue, and will soon become the overwhelming issue, for our species (and... Continue Reading →
I get it and I don't get it. I get that parents of young children are reading the science (at last) and freaking the fuck out (pardon my French). I would be too. Except, in 2004 I went under the knife - no taddies in my baby batter thank you very much. And, as I... Continue Reading →
Reader, I am ashamed to admit it, but I liked it when the vet stuck a thermometer up Humbug's backside. Humbug did not, and that's where my enjoyment came from - childishly punishing the little stripey fucker (as he is usually affectionately - known). Off his food (seriously not like him), having clearly lost weight,... Continue Reading →
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 →
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