An inconvenient inconvenience

Full disclosure: I have yet to be inconvenienced by the rolling actions of the Extinction Rebellion and their supporters. Were I to be, and particularly were this to occur in the midst of something urgent (e.g. rushing to a flight – oh the irony) I admit that I may vent some frustration at those blocking my path, in a weak moment I may even call them ‘self-righteous otherwise-unemployed hipsters jumping on a cause celebre’, though I’d immediately regret it.

As it stands however, I have nothing but admiration for the motives of the Extinction Rebellion, even if a small minority of their ranks may even fit the above stereotype. Who I do take issue with are the media commentators (usually found on commercial breakfast shows or the type exclusively broadcast, on mute, in empty office lobbies) who chide these protestors for drawing public support away from climate action by being too disobedient in their civil disobedience.

Firstly, that is the point of the exercise. If public support for climate change is contingent upon climate action not puncturing the day-to-day affairs of Joe Citizen then public support is as useless as another ton of hot air. We have spent 30 years mythologising some amazing technocratic solution to climate change where the Friedmanite pursuit of self-interest magically precipitates the most complex economic transformation since the industrial revolution and, lo-and-behold, it hasn’t happened. Decarbonising the global economy is going to be incredibly inconvenient, but we still have to do it, even when all hopes of a convenient win-win have been exhausted, thus we had better toughen up.

Secondly, the Extinction Rebellion wants to remind Joe Citizen that they are Joe Citizen, and not Joe Employee. While the rhetoric of the Extinction Rebellion is largely directed towards the ‘authorities’ in reality it exists for the passers-by. The machinery of liberal democratic government has been so effective at working through existential crises over the post-War period that we have been able to believe that some faceless committee will finally appear to fix all intractable problems. Zoom out further however and it is clearer that most great leaps forward require a large chunk of the citizenry to exercise their citizenship, as it was with civil rights, and as it must be for climate change.

And thirdly, if these pundits really are so outraged by small groups of people effecting the lives of many without their permission, why have they been so silent on the concerted interference of business lobbies in the climate reforms of elected governments? We have just endured a lost decade of logical, incremental climate reform because well-known vested interests have spread disinformation and discord to ensure that they could contain climate reform within a pace that suited them. In the face of such uncivil disobedience with democratic norms and such willful capitulation of the political class, the actions of the Extinction Rebellion reflect a civil society remaining remarkably civil. So bravo ER, and if I miss my next flight to a cosy corporate climate love-in because one of you has glued yourself to a bridge, I hope I have the chutzpa to join you (until my EA reschedules me on the next one, of course).  

The views expressed here are entirely my own.