This week in my Eco media and Writing class, the topic is activism. We watched Bidder 70 (Tim DeChristophers story of civil disobedience) & The East, and we are reading A Friend of the Earth (TC Boyle). In rereading FOE, Im struck at how easy it is to parody activism; and, in watching The East, we see how dangerous the lines are between standing up for basic environmental and human rights and losing ones balance and mind--when the values of right and wrong in a topsy turvy environmentally degraded earth leave one profoundly perplexed, unsettled, frightened about the problems before us. We are living in a culture of sheer environmental madness ... standing on the sharp edge of disaster. I recently asked a noted environmental justice person and energy solutions expert what can be done to solve climate change and the answer was, I dont know. Reports on climate are dire. Toxic spills poison again and again. Fukushima spews unabatedly. Activism still seems over reactive to some. They ask: What can it solve? Is it merely hysterical theatrics? Yet activism has stalled Fracking in New York State. Its changed Germanys energy policy. It got us the Clean Water act and resulted in many important clean ups. In other contexts: It ended apartheid in South Africa, got women the vote, freed India from colonial rule, and brought on civil rights (among others). And then there is former experimental theatre actor Reverend Billy: Exiles on Main Street: When Ordinary People Resist the Oil-pocalypse huff.to/1fE7eC6 via @HuffPostGreen. Of course, there is Idle No More, many groups such as 350, and so on. Is it enough? In my own life, I keep wondering why Occupy didnt keep growing, why the big marches ended a few years ago, why more people are not rising up. Its a question I think about a lot. What makes a person become an activist?
Posted on: Thu, 03 Apr 2014 06:57:59 +0000
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