It can be difficult to stay motivated in a world where it seems as if “The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.”
That’s why this blog means so much to me: I get to write and report on everything that is happening, including the good stuff, plus I get to read all the comments and emails from people who care so deeply about this issue. So to those climate hawks who are feeling de-motivated, I have two messages:
- Those who oppose strong climate action and aggressive clean energy deployment want you to become disillusioned. Don’t let them claim that victory. The stakes are too high.
- Spend some time with other activists — folks who may not be able to change the entire world but who are least working on their corner of it. One of my favorite quotes is from Ian Fleming’s first James Bond book, Casino Royale (1953): “Surround yourself with Human Beings, my dear James. They are easier to fight for than principles.”
On that second point, Bonnie Frye Hemphill, who organizes Business Leaders for Climate Solutions, a program of the northwest nonprofit Climate Solutions, has a guest post at WonkRoom about Power Shift 2011 that I repost below:
Hey climate movement, you know what I missed about us that Power Shift pumped right back into me last week?
The awesome.
Yeah, flashmobs, pranks, swiftly organized warroom tweetups, late-night dance parties of 15,000. Remember that rebellious side of us, that “we won’t take the past for an answer” side of us? Remember that “join us because this is awesome and you’re invited” side of us?
Politics is personal identity built into popular movements. The Tea Party is powerful because it ready-makes an identity for those who feel left behind by the 21st Century. It’s a safe space in a post-9/11, post financial collapse, peak-global-hegemony America. And the Tea Party’s done well wiping up a messy identity crisis by defining what they’re afraid of.
We’re also proud to define ourselves as what we’re not: we are cooler than the fossil forces of the past. They rail on chalkboards; we rally with giant puppets in the streets. They are talking heads for septuagenarians; we are sneaking into shareholder meetings and embarrassing giant fossil fuel companies. They are snarking about crosshairs on Facebook from defensive compounds in Wasilla. We are 10,000 lithe young people fighting for our future while a crotchety old pitbull like Tom Donohue screams to get off of his front yard at the US Chamber of Commerce. We are in the West Wing interrupting the President of the United States of America to remind him that energy shouldn’t kill.
But the past is where we leave the comparison. Those fearful forces haven’t got much vision for the future, and we sure do: we are identity awesome. We are the people not afraid to build something better than the assumptions handed to us.
Other American generations have staked their identities on propositions equally grand – rebelling from tyranny, beating back fascism, defending the world from communism. Our generation is staking its identity as the people responsible enough to face climate science for what it means, and political corruption for what it is. To build a cleaner, leaner, more durable and more prosperous way of life on our full tide of vibrant energy. The people smart enough to put our moral muscle to work.
But we need to remember how to have a blast doing it. Where’s the rebelliousness, the youthful energy pulling more pranks to call out our opposition? Remember when the Yes Men and the Avaaz Action Factory staged a mock press conference on the US Chamber’s “sudden” climate action? Remember when Tim DeChristopher tied on his bandanna and marched into the fray of a corrupt shareholder process? Remember when young people lay down on the train tracks against tremendous new coal facilities? (That hasn’t happened yet, but it should.)
We mustn’t abandon tried-and-true organizing tactics, nor our hard-earned insider game. And if we do rebel our way into a better world, we do so on the shoulders of giants: after all, we’re now defending the Clean Air Act that our foremothers first passed, celebrating Earth Day last week because our forefathers founded the first four decades ago. And we need the scientific white papers still, because after all, we’re fighting for a political reality that keeps pace with the chemical reality of the atmosphere. This is a movement of the young and young at heart – if you are awesome, you are in.
Hear! Hear!
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This is awesome Bonnie! Way to go, I love it!
This (literally) grizzled oldster feels a little hipper today. Right on, and (green) power to the people.
Great and Necessary, But Not Sufficient
I applaud the enthusiasm and energy expressed here. And I applaud the message. But in reflecting on the overall movement, and where we are, and what needs doing, I’d like to mention/add a few things.
Consider the differences among these three statements:
1. “If you are awesome, you are in.”
2. “If you are ready to Kick A, you are in.”
3. “I’M ready to Kick A, and we’re going (all ten thousand of us!) right now, this minute, over to the White House to sit down in front of the gates and stay there until President Obama himself comes out to listen to us and until we convince him to take a much stronger stand, now, regarding educating the public about climate change. If he’s flying around somewhere, we’ll all wait in front of the WH ’till he gets back. The weather is nice anyhow, and we’ll have all that rebellious fun I just talked about. Have your friends bring sleeping bags. Ready, set, NOW!”
Do you see the difference between these three statements? OK then. The present post makes and enthusiastically celebrates Statement 1. (And so did the cheerleaders at U.C. Berkeley when I was there, but we rarely won tough football games.) The present post doesn’t get to Statement 2. And it’s light-years away from the ACTION demanded by Statement 3.
With all respect to the author (and we do need this enthusiasm, and I do appreciate the post), we need to keep reminding ourselves that leadership is not the same as cheerleading. Here was a leader: MLK Jr. Here was another one: Gandhi. Here was another one: Rosa Parks. And here another: Julius Caesar. (I didn’t say that I agree with him.) Now did anyone ever see MLK Jr., Gandhi, Rosa Parks, Caesar, or etc. smile and do somersaults at football games? No. In effect, they had the personalities, and used the approaches, reflected in Statement 3.
“If you are awesome, you are in.” That enthusiasm is helpful, yes. But for those who haven’t seen it, watch the full YouTube video clip of Mario Savio’s speech on the front steps of Sproul Hall at U.C. Berkeley in the early days of the free speech movement. There’s a difference. Even as we need enthusiasm, we need much more of the other and complementary approaches.
(I appreciate the point that James Bond made, thanks Joe.)
Be Well,
Jeff
F*** yea.
As often as climate change depresses me, sitting in the DC convention center with 10,000 awesome people was exhilarating and encouraging.
Tell me when and I’ll be right next to you on those train tracks.
Yes, let’s fight hard to reverse the giants of the fossil fuel kingdom and their hold on governments of the world. Maybe through our energy and intelligence we can prevail over money and power at the highest levels.
But let’s also put some energy into planning about what to do if we cannot prevail and things play out to their ultimate end. Planning is needed for that, too.
But where is THAT planning?
Bonnie;
Jeff’s right that we need clear strategy and more. You and I know that Climate Solutions is pursuing those and refining them. My spirit is more than lifted, it’s rocketed into the stratosphere!
Major corporate interests are afraid of the future. They’ll use every trick of mass marketing to depress any enthusiasm for the changes we must make.
Okay, so that’s reality, now what?
I’m a not quite septugenarian. I was part of the 60′s and 70′s that protested Vietnam and celebrated a visionary lifestyle that became a major movement. Jeff Huggin’s comments are a precautionary note. The alternative lifestyle movements of the 60′s and 70′s became self indulgent. The difference is it was a time when America’s wealth was growing at an astounding pace. Now we face the end of the era of America’s promise. Any movement that builds enthusiasm is essential. We’ve had too many days of facing and avoiding brutal realities. Working at Climate Solutions must seem like pushing the boulder up the hill almost every day. There was a time when K.C. could show up at a rally of thousands. Now it feels as though you can’t mention global warming without angering your friends. The status quo has been brilliantly successful at its strategic communications.
Thanks for blasting your enthusiasm for Climate Shift across the ether! Your “strategic communications” should go viral!!
Dan
P.S. You were “awesome” at the Capitol Hill Sustainability Festival. Persuading people to talk and write beautifully about Climate Change.. Wow! I still remember and am still impressed.
All, I was shocked to wake up to phone calls from friends to read CP extra carefully this morning. Joe, special thanks to you for making my day – never did I think I’d wake up to find my idol had given me a digital high-5.
And thanks to those of you who’ve found some hope and fun in this. That’s exactly the point: we may be fighting to build a better world BECAUSE of the science, but we’re fighting to build it FOR each other, after all.
Jeff, you make some excellent points, that true social change takes far more than cheering by the masses or pretty speeches from those onstage. But that’s for another post sometime. What I’m positing here is that stabilizing the atmosphere with a more responsible way of life is not quick, not easy, and may not even be possible. But not trying is not an option. And to try as hard as we can, we must stick together unfailingly and for years upon years to come. Method is usually message in itself: we must not only offer a better end than the fossils – ie, a cleaner and more durable world – but we must also offer a more attractive means. Ergo the awesome.
One very intentional thing about my “If you’re awesome, then you’re invited” logic is that the contrapositive may be even truer: “If you’re already involved in this really difficult work, then you must truly be awesome.” If you’re giving thought to this piece, you must already be dedicated to this really difficult effort – clearly, you are truly awesome. I’m honored to be working with you.
“They rail at chalkboards,” she writes, taking a peck at Beck. Few people more richly deserve to be pecked.
She goes on to advocate committment to a cause, but also insists that it should be fun. Perhaps in Bonnie Frye Hemphill we have a young Molly Ivins?
Chris, I sure hope so — there are few things we need more right now than a young Molly Ivins. Great post, Bonnie… really captures a lot of that awesome PowerShift energy that I’m charged up by right now.
Way to go Bonnie! We need more of this enthusiasm, so much more. And not just in the public sphere, where policies and politics are created… but in the corporate boardroom as well. The private sector has a fantastic role to play! If we can get even HALF of this type of enthusiasm out there in the world where business decisions are made and the economic development plans of the future are crafted by communities large and small… then we’ll be in a much better spot than before. Collaboration is key – if we’re talking about restructuring our economy :)
Keep it up!