June 19th, 2010
Location: Castle Park
Tree: ?
Interview to follow below (not transcribed yet).
If you’re not doing something about something, you’re wasting your time. There may be a concession for very poor people who’s immediate needs are surviving, - essentially, and this is part of the equation and problem. It’s hard to tell someone to stop fishing the sea dry when they need to pay rent. Or to start recycling when they already have to walk 10 miles just to get water… But surely it’s a matter of using ones imagination to at least begin to avoid making the detrimental choices. Perhaps the imagination is a luxury so those of us with that luxury should use it on behalf of those who can’t. I may suddenly seem judgmental and narrow minded and naive but occasionally I’ll watch or hear or read something that fires me up again.
Without revolution we are probably screwed because those running the show are clearly not going to make the right decisions in time and they aren’t going to give up their power in a hurry either. We need fresh and dynamic people with other priorities than those currently being touted to make themselves heard. Ideas alive with the right priorities – that value people and planet over money and power etc. There are millions of us who want change – who see this way as mediocre at best, but we tread water most of the time. We often do nothing. The trouble is – there is a lot of dead wood too. The masses who have grown up with certain inherently destructive expectations of their life – ie. The guy who grew up expecting to drive a BMW and see the world. Not bad dreams in themselves, but they don’t fit in with the conflicting needs of the planet. Can he be re-educated?
Can I be re-educated to be activated every day. To Do every day? I watched the Us vs John Lennon yesterday. What happened to all that fire and optimism and attitude that he was part of. The revolutionary spirit that swept the world in the early 70s. How did we end up with vacuum packed politics and media. Why when we have access to all this material – this history of corrupt politicians and big business, do we sit and watch. We read it, watch it like it’s a movie going on. We don’t act. Most of us. People have warned us for years. Have our celebrities been neutered? We watch comedy satire and documentaries warning and explaining the problems and it’s all just more information. Have we been gassed? Neutralised? Numbed? Have they put drugs in the water supply to quiet us? Did we watch too much TV and were hypnotised? We’re beaten down by the horror on the news and can’t take it any more?
I need to find those doing and get inspired. I want to see radicals speaking up and us winning for a change. What pisses me off is why these politicians don’t just do it. Why don’t they do the obviously right things? Why should we have to ask them to? We March, we petition, we write letters – occasionally and still they do what they want. It’s like they’re a broke record. And we all listen as the needle reads the same bit of the tune.
So why am I going on like this? It’s the old ‘point of the solution thing’. It’s the matrix – the minority who see the truth. If not us then who – if not now, when? As I’ve mentioned, I’m leaning this thing towards sustainability. Maybe I’ll go one step further – revolution. I can’t sustain this on my own. Me climbing a tree and writing an internal dialogue will wear thin, and I want it to be bigger, more colourful, enlightening, creative and ultimately light any corner of this enormous potential fire. The dead wood can either burn up for the cause or it can rot on the landfill. That’s what it comes down to. This is a war of sorts. One that is being fought whether you signed up or not. Your conception signed you up. You were signed up by an orgasm. So let’s make it worth it. My mother had a poster – it went something like this: “Doing nothing is to side with the powerful not to be neutral!” so how does this work? Here’s a rough guide:
• Personal sustainability – including food, social – (emotional…) This may include hours spent at work to achieve this.
Other necessary strings to the bow…
• Contributing – actively to a cause – this means more than just paying direct debit to charity.
• Contributing to culture – not resigning yourself as absorber / consumer.
There is an argument that there are those that save the planet, and those who make it worth saving. So I’m looking for radicals and revolutionaries to meet me up trees. This concept is nothing new. Fight the power / the ‘man’ / Rome / Babylon…etc. I just feel it’s my duty to re-brand it / repackage it / re-iterate it here. I am one tiny voice among many tiny voices.
Recording of conversation will follow here with Grace McWilliams, JAcob PArish and 2 passers by.
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