Don’t just do something…. sit there

SEVENTEEN December 23rd 2021

“All of this has happened before, and it will all happen again”. So begins the Disney version  of the Peter Pan story. I suppose the concept can  be applied with validity in a variety of contexts: the tendency for history to repeat, the common themes of political struggle, the inevitable circularity of nature, the need for persistence (’if at first you don’t succeed…’) or the madness of doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

Right now it speaks to me about my own history: being a boy who tended to get preoccupied by issues to do with what was true or false, fair or unjust; and getting caught up in arguments about it as if they were a matter of life and death (which in this iteration, of course, they are), often to my own detriment; and, somehow, often finding myself being the one who stuck with a cause long after others had given up and moved onto something more rewarding. And then, later on, being a youth and then a man who did the same things. I’ve seen myself do this over and over. It’s unlikely to change now and I probably wouldn’t chose to change it if I could. That’s how obstinate and annoying I can be.

This has caused me a lot of trouble at various times in life, although particularly as a youth, when being obstinate and annoying was par for the course: I just did it with knobs on. I actually hardly ever did anything directly harmful or dangerous like hitting someone or damaging property or setting something on fire, I just argued with people (often not very politely, I admit) and refused to back down just because they had more  power or ‘authority’ than I did. I did this until and even though I got punished. One of my school reports at the time remarked that I had “a habit of getting himself into trouble without regard for the consequences”. This was understated and fair enough. Basically, I was what used to be called a “problem child”. I was always presenting a problem, causing trouble. From my perspective, the problem was not actually me, but the fact that something unfair, dishonest or unkind was being done by somebody else. Viewed from the other side, however, it was most definitely me who was the problem.

You can probably see where this is going.

Many, many years on we find ourselves in a situation where the authorities perceive that people like me are causing a big problem and that they therefore need to think up some new and more severe punishments to make us behave better, Basically they are attempting to suppress protest by making it illegal to inconvenience or annoy anyone. This is so ridiculous and sinister that I think the vast majority of people can see that it is wrong, although  nobody else (like for instance the alleged ‘Official Opposition’) is doing or saying much about it. We are, effectively, getting hung out to dry. People have already  gone to prison and more people will be going soon. You may think that what some of these particular people did (repeatedly sitting down on a motorway) was ill-judged or reckless. But sooner or later, assuming the government gets its way, a lot more people will be going to prison for doing much more ordinary things. Basically they will be going to prison simply for ‘being annoying’, for making a fuss about the fact that the governments of the world and their funders in big corporations are deliberately destroying our habitat and stealing the future from our children. At some point, society will collectively decide that these people are ‘martyrs’ and that they have been badly treated. By then their actual lives may be in ruins

This is usually what happens to the “problem child”. S/he behaves in a way which is annoying because something is wrong and nobody is doing anything about it. Because s\he, rather than the actual issue, is treated as “the problem”, the annoying behaviour escalates until it becomes more and more disruptive, perhaps even outrageously so. Bystanders start to find it more difficult to see the connection between the behaviour, the protest, and what is being protested about. “Surely”, they think, “This person is a bit crazy. They are just an extremist. We can’t have them doing that. They need to be stopped / punished”. 

What the bystanders don’t do is take responsibility for how they are contributing to this situation; by choosing, for instance, to withhold their attention from the problems which the person is protesting about – whether this is, as it might be in the  case of a child, that they are being subjected to injustice or bullying or lies or abuse, or whether it is, as in our case, that the human habitat is being irreparably destroyed at a terrifying speed. Typically, the bystanders haven’t addressed themselves to these problems because that seemed like it would be a  bit difficult or inconvenient for them. Instead, they have let the “problem child” get on with it. Eventually the behaviour of the problem child becomes so annoying (because they are desperate for somebody to address the problem and nobody is doing it) that the bystanders feel justified in switching their attitude from ignorance and indifference (or perhaps passive sympathy) to one of outright hostility.

This is pretty much exactly what  has happened with the Highway protestors, who I think made a tactical error in ‘acting into’ this dynamic, thus making it easier for people to ignore the problem they are protesting about (which will lead inevitably to the deaths of billions of people) and focus instead on condemning their behaviour (because ithat might lead accidentally to the deaths of a very few people – or simply because it is very annoying). Although I completely respect  the motives of the Highway protestors, admire their courage and appreciate their conviction, I think it would have been better to restrain the impulse to act ‘outrageously” and to wait for a better opportunity to tilt things our way, to pose the dilemmas which acts of civil disobedience present to authorities in a more skilful way, to fence rather than to bludgeon; or simply to wait until our forces are stronger.

It might be that I am feeling this because I’m 65 and not 15; in which case I must have changed somewhat after all. In my youth, perhaps I would have been with them, facing down the angry motorists and openly defying the injunctions. I think I would have felt very enlivened by it, in fact, just as I used to when I was a teenager and was being admonished by some hypocritical and unjust authority figure whom I knew, underneath the superficial letter of the law, to be in the wrong. And I would most likely have found myself in a prison cell before I stopped to think about it. Having seen the insides of various prisons in a professional capacity, I have a pretty good idea that being incarcerated in one would be a very unpleasant experience. Even so, I might be prepared to put up with it if I thought it would bring about the changes we need; but at this point I don’t.

I still identify, for sure, as a rebel. The ‘Rebel for Life’ ribbon permanently on my wrist has both meanings. Maybe what has changed is that I’m no longer so keen to embrace the sense of martyrdom, which I suspect used also to bring me some psychological satisfaction. In fact, now I’m a bit sick of being the one, or one of the ones, who sticks my neck out while others sit back and watch – whether they do that admiringly and sympathetically or not.

Some of the people who put a lot of energy into starting up our movement observed that a problem about some ‘activist’ organisations was that their tactics ultimately discouraged, or even excluded the mass participation which they believed to be necessary for eventual success. As they described it, one lot of (‘good’) people were seen to be doing bad things to other (‘bad’) people, thus providing  dramatic and interesting viewing for the mass of people, who engaged with it basically as spectators. These spectators might be ‘involved’ and ’supportive’ but only really in a passive way. This method, it was felt, wouldn’t bring about the mass participation in civil disobedience  required to force the government to change course. I think those who were saying this had a point.

Curiously enough one or two of them have been, I believe, influential in promoting the actions of the Highway protestors which, in my own view, have made the same tactical error. This is only a view, and I may be wrong (I hope I am) and even if I’m right I don’t blame them for it. Many of those activists who have been thinking intensively about the climate crisis for the past few years (instead of, like the majority of people,  ignoring it or distracting themselves from how serious it is), have become understandably very desperate and have, I think, become ready to commit themselves to courses of action which they would previously have considered to be unwise and even wrong. That’s what desperate people do.  I might get there too eventually, but I don’t think I’m there yet. Of course, I may simply be in denial, and I always think it’s worth bearing in mind a parody of the famous ‘IF…’ poem I remember seeing on a jokey poster many years ago: “IF you can keep your head when all about you are losing  theirs,….. it could be that you just don’t understand the seriousness of the situation.”

Anyway, whether or not I’m judging this right, my current view – and this is 

very different to my 15 year old self – is that this is a time for restraint; not holding back because we are afraid or reticent to offend, but because it is necessary in order to think of what is the best thing to do. In order to break the current dynamic – in which a relatively very few people act out a drama which others watch – and to get something different started, we need to engage – actively, not as spectators or ‘supporters’ – many more people.

Judging by what I noticed when we were on the streets intensively for a couple of weeks in August, this might be possible if we pitch it right. We did do something different during that period – in that we took care to speak carefully to people on the street who saw what we were doing but weren’t ‘with us’, and instead of telling them what we ‘knew’, we asked them what they thought. Not only did this approach seem to elicit a more sympathetic and supportive response, it also brought us some information – which is that loads more people than we might have suspected do actually feel supportive of what we are doing; they just don’t know how to find their way into being involved. This access problem has very many facets, of course, and it’s not simple to solve it ; but solving it is what I think we need to do. People say, literally, “I approve of what you’re; doing but I couldn’t do what you are doing”. I think we have to find out more about that, perhaps to show them that. in fact, they could do it, or maybe to find out what they ‘could’ do instead.

At any rate, it feels crucial not to keep doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Sometimes, when you don’t  know what to do, or how to do it, the best thing may be to do nothing for a while, I’m quite a fan of saying “I don’t know” and I really believe that if we had a few more politicians ready to say “I don’t know” , we might not be in this god-awful mess.  Doing nothing in a purposeful way, saying “I don’t know” until some wisdom arrives, can be very valuable . It can also be very difficult and require a lot of discipline, especially if you have a sense of a humanity-ending climate crisis coming rolling down the road, but that’s pretty much what I think we need to do. There’s a maxim I always liked that I’ve heard used in praise of the merits of reflective meditation: “Don’t just do something, sit there.”

Another question about this which has occurred to me is: what happens if we do nothing? My assumption is that something else would be bound to happen; because we would have stopped acting as a kind of pressure-release valve and so others would start to feel the importance of acting. Something like that, anyway. Whether or not this  other ‘something’ would turn out to be the right kind of thing is a moot point. About ten days ago the ex-footballer Gary Neville used Twitter to call  for a protest  against government corruption to take place outside Downing St. Responses were instructive – everyone from the mad fringe of the anti-vaxxers to Q-Anon and ‘The Party Party’ seemed immediately to be trying to get in on the act . (Then of course renewed concerns about spreading covid dampened enthusiasm amongst the sane people). 

I’ve heard a few people in activist movements recently predicting a soon-to-come “moment of whirlwind”. I guess I understand what they mean,  The times feel turbulent and fragile.. There is much frustration and righteous rage and strong urges, toward both good and bad. Although this brings great danger it also brings opportunity; in many  ways it’s a hopeful situation for people who believe in the necessity for direct action. But it the whirlwind is actually around the corner, I somewhat doubt that its outcome will be as peaceful or as possible to shape and direct as some might hope. How do we come together at the right moment in the right way for the right cause? It’s a big, hard question. But interesting to remember that there are many other places from which the spark that eventually brings the whole house of cards tumbling down, could come. And anyway, good on Gary. (again.) If it looks like it’’s happening sometime, I’ll be there.

Meantime, ill be thinking, talking, planning and building, trying to keep in mind two crucial things: that gentleness and goodwill, listening and respect.seems to be what brings people alongside; and that if we are not together – united with solidarity in a common cause which can bring enough of us together at the right time – then we cannot win.  Who knows if the time is now or yet to come, but today I feel optimistic that it will come eventually. When it does I hope we will ensure that those who put themselves in the line of fire early on, those who are going to be spending their Christmas in prison, for acting – perhaps rashly but certainly with great selflessness and integrity – will be rewarded; not by being regarded as ‘martyrs but by having the damage that has been done to their lives properly recompensed and by seeing that the real criminals are eventually held to account. We know where they live.