Review: New Decade, New Dreams
 |
| Nuit Debout. Wikimedia Commons photo |
Maybe it's because I smile a lot, but Germans seem to enjoy telling me, with near-zealous amounts of fatalism, that the world is going down in flames. And if you're in Australia right now then yeah, that must seem pretty true. They must figure that I am oblivious to all of the latest apocalyptic news flashes - but nah, that's far from true. It's just that I look at the world with both eyes open: the one that sees the negative shit that is happening out there and the one that sees humanity's equal and opposite reactions to it. Yes, I'm talking about activism. Again.
The media pretty much always leaves activism out of the picture. It speaks about the concerns of the wealthiest 1 percent almost exclusively. Therefore, it sees everything with one eye closed, or one eye 99% closed at the very least. As everyone looks back on the past year and the past decade, that tendency will surely be amplified.
The media pretty much always leaves activism out of the picture. It speaks about the concerns of the wealthiest 1 percent almost exclusively. Therefore, it sees everything with one eye closed, or one eye 99% closed at the very least. As everyone looks back on the past year and the past decade, that tendency will surely be amplified.
So join me, if you will, in an exercise in hope, and take a second glance at the last decade. I would like you to see it the way that I saw it - in other words, it ain't all that bad. And, all you have to lose is your cynicism. (Yes, I get that cynicism is pretty much a fashion accessory in Berlin but, I won't tell anyone. Promise!)
All the evidence of the terminal decline of humanity (the Anthropocene, the plastic waste, the far right's encroachment on democracy, the fires and the floods) will undoubtably be trotted out as evidence of that decline in the media, in the next few days. We'll all be glad that we're drunk and hungover enough to avoid it.
There may be a few bright spots - things like 'best Netflix series' or the funniest tweet of the year. Because, what with the dystopian future nearing (at least according to the unspoken, mainstream subtext) the only way to deal and feel happy is by temporarily removing ourselves from the present.
There may be a few bright spots - things like 'best Netflix series' or the funniest tweet of the year. Because, what with the dystopian future nearing (at least according to the unspoken, mainstream subtext) the only way to deal and feel happy is by temporarily removing ourselves from the present.
Well, I disagree with that approach. Strongly. And many millions of people feel the same way, if the past decade's worth of activism has been anything to go by. Humanity is as great as ever, maybe even better, coming out of this decade. It has re-learned a lesson that was taken for granted before the turn of the last millennium: "If you want things done right, do them yourself." But not by yourself. Never by yourself!
 |
| Blockupy at the EZB shut down in Frankfurt, 2015. Copyright of Montecruz Foto |
In the past decade, millions of people pinned their hopes on climate conferences and elections, expecting them to make their reality better. And then they were let down, severely and repeatedly. Even I experienced a sense of deflation when the Brexit referendum was secured, as well as after each general election in the UK.
But even then, these devastating developments only reinforced what I already knew (and what many people had at least a sneaking suspicion may be true): that the system that created all these problems - by actively rewarding CO2 emissions, deforestation and gerrymandering with cash - wasn't ever going to fix them. Because these were the same problems that created their well-paid careers. At best, they may reduce the destruction of the environment and civil liberties... but never end them.
The rest of us aren't as well paid, especially not here in Berlin, Germany, so we are the ones who need to reverse the downward trends that the rich have started. And you know what? It's already happening. A lot.
The small number of super rich right wingers do not need us to go participate in their campaigns of stripping rights away from women, queers and trans people, the environmental movement; they just need us to stop resisting. "Resistance is fertile".
The small number of super rich right wingers do not need us to go participate in their campaigns of stripping rights away from women, queers and trans people, the environmental movement; they just need us to stop resisting. "Resistance is fertile".
Extinction Rebellion knows that. The week that Boris Johnson became the UK's official PM, Extinction Rebellion UK was already prepared to swing into action, again. Its members understand this basic truth - if you want it done properly, do it yourself. We all need to take a page from their book and prepare to make changes with or without the help of our leaders. Because our survival is much bigger than any election or administration, bigger than any economy.
 |
| Women's March in L.A., 2017. By Marcywinograd - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, |
In Trump and Bolsanoro, Salvini and Moritz we are seeing how, when the pressure's on, the system calls in all its dirty favours and flexes all of the menace that its wealth can afford, just to maintain the status quo - to hell with the health, wealth and safety of the rest of us.
We've seen how it steamrolls the people demanding reforms; destroys any landscape that arouses our passions; severs any networks that our emotional & physical stability depend upon. And yet, even then, the sheer mass of everyday people manages to stand in its way, and pervert its already perverse schemes. Jim Morrison's assertion that, "They have the guns but we have the numbers" has never been so true as it was in the last decade. It seemed like for every six months that passed, well, here comes another mass movement.
To name but a few:
To name but a few:
2011 - The London riots against racism in the police force (not just random looting, as was made out)
2015 - Stop TTIP & CETA
2017 - The Women’s March (against Trump)
There will be those who say, "Ah, but the far right was demonstrating, too." To that I would reply, Come on. We're talking about mass movements here. Not small gatherings of a few hundred people, at most...!
Most decade-end wrap-ups tend to focus on all the bad stuff that's happened, because that's what makes the news. They tend to leave out the truly amazing stuff that we need to carry on doing for the next ten years, and that makes it less likely that we will carry on. And that's exactly what everybody needs to do, if we're going to make it through another decade.
Most decade-end wrap-ups tend to focus on all the bad stuff that's happened, because that's what makes the news. They tend to leave out the truly amazing stuff that we need to carry on doing for the next ten years, and that makes it less likely that we will carry on. And that's exactly what everybody needs to do, if we're going to make it through another decade.
Comments
Post a Comment