Progressive Zest
Watching Whale Wars reminded me of my time working for a nonprofit in Connecticut. I was a fresh college graduate interested in working on making the world a better place. Without any training I became a fundraiser.
Before I started I received orientation information with recommended reading, including a book called The Monkeywrench Gang. That was my first exposure to activism gone haywire. The plot was sabotage to oil lines to disrupt production. I realize the book is fictional and meant to inspire, but blowing things up did not inspire me. I asked the top managers about why this book was recommended everyone of them sidestepped the question. This was all before 9/11 of course, many things have changed since then.
I frequently say, with regards to Whale Wars, the efforts of so many well intentioned young people are squandered. If a thing is worth doing, then the efforts should be maximized, or at least optimized. Watching young men throw stink bombs at whaling vessels while a helicopter films the "action" I wonder the point; the whalers still make their haul and the helicopter is a more logical vehicle to deliver attacks. The crew is concerned about avoiding personal injury to any humans, despite the high stakes risks including ships sinking. It reminded me of the futility of the Monkeywrench Gang spilling oil, creating an environmental hazard, to make a minor point of little relevance to anyone not employed by the targeted corporation.
Statements are powerful. Actions are more powerful than just words. These activist actions aim, but strike woefully impotent to transmit the messages they want to deliver. It saddens me to recall my experience sitting in rooms full of young people with much energy and repeatedly seeing this same zest in activist-minded people on television, and knowing full well what little effect the efforts will have on anyone outside of themselves. Destruction without popular support will always lack import. Consensus cannot be created by an action - an action can only elicit that latent consensus made manifest. The Boston Tea Party was a success because it targeted the heart of the matter and most people already felt the British taxes were burdensome, the people did not come to believe that because of the action. The 2009 Tea Parties failed because the target was the spending of the taxes not the levying, and there were no actions worth mentioning. Direct action to properly target and tap into the consensus would have been to take the crowds to the businesses bailed out and loot them, that would be in line with the Boston Tea Party. The progressive zest in our society does not have the courage of that level of action. Instead it postures in video, on audio, online, mistaking clever packaging for effective communication.
Back to the Japanese whalers; the people in Japan enjoy eating whales. The international community does not feel the need to stop them from eating whales. The whaling will continue as long as those positions remain. There is no other consensus to tap into. The actions do not target the people selling and eating the meat. There are literally dozens of people subjected to the action. It is compelling to watch the effort, but a bad idea is just that, no more, no less.
Before I started I received orientation information with recommended reading, including a book called The Monkeywrench Gang. That was my first exposure to activism gone haywire. The plot was sabotage to oil lines to disrupt production. I realize the book is fictional and meant to inspire, but blowing things up did not inspire me. I asked the top managers about why this book was recommended everyone of them sidestepped the question. This was all before 9/11 of course, many things have changed since then.
I frequently say, with regards to Whale Wars, the efforts of so many well intentioned young people are squandered. If a thing is worth doing, then the efforts should be maximized, or at least optimized. Watching young men throw stink bombs at whaling vessels while a helicopter films the "action" I wonder the point; the whalers still make their haul and the helicopter is a more logical vehicle to deliver attacks. The crew is concerned about avoiding personal injury to any humans, despite the high stakes risks including ships sinking. It reminded me of the futility of the Monkeywrench Gang spilling oil, creating an environmental hazard, to make a minor point of little relevance to anyone not employed by the targeted corporation.
Statements are powerful. Actions are more powerful than just words. These activist actions aim, but strike woefully impotent to transmit the messages they want to deliver. It saddens me to recall my experience sitting in rooms full of young people with much energy and repeatedly seeing this same zest in activist-minded people on television, and knowing full well what little effect the efforts will have on anyone outside of themselves. Destruction without popular support will always lack import. Consensus cannot be created by an action - an action can only elicit that latent consensus made manifest. The Boston Tea Party was a success because it targeted the heart of the matter and most people already felt the British taxes were burdensome, the people did not come to believe that because of the action. The 2009 Tea Parties failed because the target was the spending of the taxes not the levying, and there were no actions worth mentioning. Direct action to properly target and tap into the consensus would have been to take the crowds to the businesses bailed out and loot them, that would be in line with the Boston Tea Party. The progressive zest in our society does not have the courage of that level of action. Instead it postures in video, on audio, online, mistaking clever packaging for effective communication.
Back to the Japanese whalers; the people in Japan enjoy eating whales. The international community does not feel the need to stop them from eating whales. The whaling will continue as long as those positions remain. There is no other consensus to tap into. The actions do not target the people selling and eating the meat. There are literally dozens of people subjected to the action. It is compelling to watch the effort, but a bad idea is just that, no more, no less.
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