Excellent. It's a response that is simple, truthful, and effective, yet why don't people push back in that manner more often?
I remember a manager or owner of Cuadrilla responding to a bunch of middle-class zealots who turned up to picket and disrupt an operation to drill for oil in Sussex. He said, quite reasonably, that most of the protesters had driven there in big 4x4s. But almost immediately he issued a retraction and apologised. Why?
Perhaps there is a law forbidding the shooting of fish in barrels, or something.
I'm afraid that once you go beyond a slogan that can be written on a protest placard the activists have nothing.
So 'Stop Plastics'. Neat slogan - how can you achieve that from where we are now?
So 'Just Stop Oil'. Neat slogan - how can you achieve that from where we are now?
So 'Rejoin the EU'. Neat slogan - how can you achieve that from where we are now?
It would be boring to keep going on... but ask any activist how they would go about achieving their aims and they have no idea; they have no intellectual grasp of what practical steps are needed to achieve their aim. I also expect that few realise (or care) what their slogan means in consequences for daily life either. They just want the thrill of being 'edgy' without doing any work.
Sam - maybe that law which forbids the shooting of fish in barrels isn't far from social reality. Do we always say what we could say when confronted with this kind of superficial silliness? I know I don't.
DJ - "They just want the thrill of being 'edgy' without doing any work" - and without any responsibility. The lure of being 'edgy' does seem to be quite powerful for certain people, especially young people and older folk who feel a need to be in tune with them. Pundits too of course.
3 comments:
Excellent. It's a response that is simple, truthful, and effective, yet why don't people push back in that manner more often?
I remember a manager or owner of Cuadrilla responding to a bunch of middle-class zealots who turned up to picket and disrupt an operation to drill for oil in Sussex. He said, quite reasonably, that most of the protesters had driven there in big 4x4s. But almost immediately he issued a retraction and apologised. Why?
Perhaps there is a law forbidding the shooting of fish in barrels, or something.
I'm afraid that once you go beyond a slogan that can be written on a protest placard the activists have nothing.
So 'Stop Plastics'. Neat slogan - how can you achieve that from where we are now?
So 'Just Stop Oil'. Neat slogan - how can you achieve that from where we are now?
So 'Rejoin the EU'. Neat slogan - how can you achieve that from where we are now?
It would be boring to keep going on... but ask any activist how they would go about achieving their aims and they have no idea; they have no intellectual grasp of what practical steps are needed to achieve their aim. I also expect that few realise (or care) what their slogan means in consequences for daily life either. They just want the thrill of being 'edgy' without doing any work.
Sam - maybe that law which forbids the shooting of fish in barrels isn't far from social reality. Do we always say what we could say when confronted with this kind of superficial silliness? I know I don't.
DJ - "They just want the thrill of being 'edgy' without doing any work" - and without any responsibility. The lure of being 'edgy' does seem to be quite powerful for certain people, especially young people and older folk who feel a need to be in tune with them. Pundits too of course.
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