The Only Thing We Need to Do is Get Everybody REALLY Riled Up!

        Happy Sunday!  As soon as I get a little time I’ll start livening up the blog with polar bear videos and the like, but for now I’ll continue to examine Gene Sharp’s The Politics of Nonviolent Action, Part One: Power and Struggle, and connect it to our need to stop climate change.

Sharp: “Obedience is not inevitable…The most powerful ruler receives only the habitual obedience of the bulk of his subjects…People are generally law abiding, except when ‘unmoored by catastrophic events or by social convulsions’.  At any point in a given society there are limits within which a ruler must stay if his commands are to be obeyed.”

         Think of the “ruler” here as the fossil fuel corporations, and how, by funding climate denial and using their political influence for twenty years to stop action against climate change, they have strayed beyond those limits. 

Sharp: “Obedience is essentially voluntary…although highly influenced by various social forces…The will or opinion of the individual is not constant and may change in response to new influences, events, and forces.”

        Consider the stranglehold the National Rifle Association has had on American politics for decades now.  Columbine didn’t have any affect on their power, Virginia Tech didn’t either, nor did Aurora, but the horrific slaughter of all those little kids at Sandy Hook suddenly has the NRA very much on the run.  Just like that, a political titan is on it’s knees.

Sharp: “In certain situations the subject may even conclude that it is in his self-interest to disobey a regime – especially if he foresees its collapse.  The degree of his lack of self-confidence also varies and may be influenced by changes in the attitudes of other subjects.” 

         The biggest hurdle we face is not the fossil fuel industry, it’s actually getting everybody riled up enough to stand up to that industry.  Once that happens, the fossil fuel industry will be on the run in a hurry.  But what will it take to make that happen?

Sharp: “Even in sanctions, there is a role for an act of will, for choice.  The sanction must be feared and its consequences be seen as more undesirable than the consequences of obedience.”

         I think this could be a huge motivating factor, because nothing’s worse than the consequences of climate change.  Nothing.  So what are we waiting for?

Sharp: “Gandhi, on the basis of his efforts to produce large-scale disobedience and voluntary acceptance of imposed sanctions, observed that feelings must be very intense to make possible the acceptance of such sacrifice.”

         So our challenge is to find how to arouse those intense feelings.  I know we Pissed-Off Polar Bears feel them, but few others do, even within the climate movement.  We have one great ally that will really get people’s attention: Mother Nature.  With the incredibly mild December we are having, it’s virtually certain we’ll face another scorching summer. 

CH

I’m including little snippets, but if we’re going to break Dirty Energy’s stranglehold you need to read Gene Sharp’s stuff.  Please muster up the $34.85 (plus shipping) and purchase The Politics of Nonviolent Action.  You can order it HERE.

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Examining Some of the Sources of Fossil Fuel’s Power

Using Gene Sharp’s The Politics of Nonviolent Action, here are some of my thoughts on what the fossil fuel industry depends upon to fortify it's position of power.  If I’m wrong about any of it, or missing anything, feel free to comment.

Sharp: “A ruler’s power is affected by the number of persons who obey him, cooperate with him, or provide him with special assistance…the ruler’s power is also affected by the skills, knowledge, and abilities of such persons."

The fossil fuel industry’s workforce is key here.  Most of these people are living in regions already hit by devastating heat and drought.  Even if they have bought in to climate denial all the way, they see what’s going on with the weather, that’s got to nag at them.  They see how it’s affecting their communities, that has to give them doubts.  And they have kids who will have to live their entire lives with the depredations of climate change, if that doesn’t give them second thoughts, maybe their kids will insist upon it.

Sharp: “Psychological and ideological factors…affect the power of the ruler in relation to the people.”

The climate denial machine is well-funded and sophisticated and its message is repeated frequently on Fox News, talk radio, and go-to right wing websites.  Climate change shouldn’t be a political issue, we should all be pitching in to save the planet, but this denial machine has deliberately made it a political issue.  Hardcore conservatives consider climate denial a major part of their identity, so even though Mother Nature has forced many on the right to believe climate change is underway, there are plenty out there who can never accept reality.

Sharp: “The degree to which the ruler controls property, natural resources, financial resources, the economic system, means of communication and transportation helps to determine the limits of his power.”

This is the big one.  These guys not only control our power sources, they’ve worked with allies in our government to undermine the development of alternative energy sources such as wind.  They have us by the balls.  But we must stop them or our civilization will collapse.  We must break the stranglehold. 

They also frequently have sanctions on their side, depending which judge hears the case.  The Bush administration packed the courts with right-wing ideologues, so if an activist goes before a judge, there’s a decent chance he will be tried unfairly.  When climate activist Tim DeChristopher went before federal judge Dee Benson, the judge forbade his lawyers from presenting Tim’s motive for his actions, so the jurors were to judge only on whether he had done what he was charged with, which he’d already admitted he had.  So he spent over a year in prison, and will not be free until next June.  Those sanctions have worked.  DeChristopher has been silenced and hated the experience, and people don’t want to go to prison and have that on their record.  

Sharp: “All rulers require an acceptance of their authority, their right to rule and command…Just as subjects may accept a ruler’s authority because they believe it is merited on grounds of morality and of the well-being of their country, subjects may for the same reasons at times deny the ruler’s claims to authority over them.”

This is HUGE.  The fossil fuel industry wants us to believe they are supplying us with a needed service,  They want us to accept their position of power as a good thing.  But what they are supplying us is killing the world. They’re like heroin dealers, feeding our addiction.  We need to, on the “grounds of morality and of the well-being of our country”, strip them of their capacity to keep forcing this dirty energy upon us.

Sharp:  “If the subjects deny a ruler’s right to rule and command, they are withdrawing the general agreement, or group consent…This loss of authority sets in motion the disintegration of the ruler’s power."

That’s what we all have to do.  REMOVE OUR CONSENT.  It's unacceptable for them to destroy the climate that's sustained us.

CH  

I’m including little snippets, but if we’re going to break Dirty Energy’s stranglehold you need to read Gene Sharp’s stuff.  Please muster up the $34.85 (plus shipping) and purchase The Politics of Nonviolent Action.  You can order it HERE.

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