The rebellion is almost over. Did it succeed in raising awareness and action against climate catastrophe or was it destroyed by indifference and public outrage? From the #extinctinctionrebellionlondon feed on twitter throughout the last two weeks I would say, like most polarising political events in this day and age, it was about 50/50. They have however attracted significantly more animosity in the last 24 hours due to the incident at Canning Town, where a protestor got on the roof of a tube train and was subsequently pulled off by angry commuters and physically attacked. Were they wrong to do it? Has it cancelled out all the good will and support they had received so far? Has it instead endangered the very cause they seek to promote?
I don’t personally think any of these questions are really relevant. It doesn’t actually matter what they do. They have created disruptions and delays in people’s everyday lives, they were never going to be loved for it. That’s not the point. These are just desperate actions by desperate people in a desperate situation and all they are trying to do is to wake the public up, create media attention and force Government to take action where there is none.
The XR story in the press has focussed on the people in the rebellion and their actions but they are, in some ways, the least relevant bit of this story. The focus shouldn’t be on what they are doing or who they are but WHY are they are doing these things? What drives normal people to agree to civil disobedience and risk arrest? The answer is a problem so paramount and pressing that no-one can actually deal with it and so they instead keep their attention on the messengers rather than the message.
When the media did decide to report the rebellion they dwelt mostly on the actions of single individuals: the 91 year old, the Paralympian, the ex-police officer, George Monbiot. This is because we find it very difficult to relate to things en masse but give us the plight of one human being and everyone pays attention. If thousands die in an earthquake, its just a statistic, we can’t emote, but if we read a story about one person trapped under rubble, we are connected, we care. This is just how our brains and emotions work. We can’t really do anything about this but it is one of the main reasons that the climate crisis is not taking hold in people’s minds in the way it desperately needs to. We need to see beyond others or ourselves as individuals and understand this is a crisis that requires us to see it as a problem that affects us all. We need to do this in order for us to have a chance in hell of reducing the disastrous impact it will have on everyone.
And so you can dwell on the people in the XR and their motives and you can dismiss the entire organisation for its actions but it does not change the situation. It might allow the governments of this world to condemn and subsequently ignore what they are demanding. It might absolve you of action yourself and convince you that it is not the way forward but everything they are trying to highlight is still happening and still needs to be dealt with. And it isn’t. Not by a long shot.
I have tried to document and highlight their actions and support what they do because in a world where nothing is really being done of any real significance they are doing something. It has created a discussion where there was none. It has stimulated policy when there was just lip service. It has generated action when there was just paralysis. Are we any closer to the level of engagement this existential threat requires? Not by a long shot.
I always thought of the Extinction Rebellion as an idea rather than a group of people. I didn’t care who they were. Crusties, middle class do gooders, eco terrorists, they just seemed like labels that were being put on them so that people could distance themselves from what they are doing. I just see it as a concept we could all get behind. Something that would actually remove the relevance of our personal identity and background. I see it as a symbol that could eventually unite everyone because none of us want extinction, for us or for the millions of species that are currently in jeopardy. We want to survive, we want life to continue on this planet. So we are all in the Extinction Rebellion regardless, whether you like it or not.
Normal service will resume next week…