Protest for Change

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As well as giving time for hobbies and travel, retirement is also an opportunity to pursue things you feel passionately about. On my part I now enjoy being able to play a fuller part in my roles as a school governor and charity trustee. I am conscious however that retirement also brings the potential to help to alter the world; to activate about and engage with the powers of change. 

To date and for me this has probably amounted to little more than signing a few petitions and writing letters of protest. I hold certain ideals and principles dear and try to live my life in accordance with them but hardly anticipate whole-scale change as a result. Am I being defeatist before I start?

This evening Mister E and I went to the cinema to see Selma, the story (or at least part of the tale) of Martin Luther King and the fight for equality for blacks in America. It was immensely powerful and a reminder of the need to activate and stand up for what we believe in. "If we know then we must fight for your life as though it were our own," wrote James Baldwin, " For if they take you in the morning, they will be coming for us that night." 

But how many causes today are caught up with or symptomatic of self-interested nimbyism? 

How many are being pursued by yoghurt-knitting warriors who don't understand either the science or contrary arguments to their causes but simply enjoy the battle?

What are the really big movements for change out there (discounting climate change and animal rights)? 

What should they be or is it the case as John Osborne said that "There aren't any good, brave causes left. If the big bang does come and we all get killed off ..... It will just be for the Brave New-nothing-very-much-thank-you?"

Retirement is getting deep!



Comments

Debra Journet said…
I grew up in Selma south (but not Alabama). I protested the VIet Nam war when I was a college and graduate student. I know my political commitments were shaped by time and place. But I am discouraged by how apolitical so many of my students are.

I would say the big issues in the US are very much what they used to be. The killing of young black men in the US and the new laws being enacted to make it harder to vote.

Gay marriage is also a big issue here. Ebola/measles. iSIS. Abortion.

Plus ca change.
13 February 2015 at 15:28
Caree Risover said…
Yes,you are right about the apathy with politics. I wonder if your point about time and place may be the culprit? My own children and their peer group appear either disinterested or unaware of political issues save for saving the planet from climate change which now seems to be rammed into kids beginning with the early stages of their primary education but is so widely supported that popular protest appears unnecessary.
13 February 2015 at 22:40
Debra Journet said…
Well, unfortunately climate change is a controversial topic in the US. Most Americans are either ignorant of or actively opposed to science. And (mostly) Republican politicians (including those who are highly educated and must surely know better) cater to their prejudices. It is one of the most disgusting aspects of partisan politics that have become the norm in the US.
14 February 2015 at 14:47
Caree Risover said…
My fear about climate change is that whilst it has been scientifically established that the planet is warming, there is still scope for debate about the reasons why. Politicians here, however, have jumped on the band-wagon and, because it is an easy way to raise revenue, slammed carbon taxes on anything that moves. The pretext for this was that the funds raised would be spent on renewables instead, but now the Government has reduced the subsidies in that respect whilst continuing to take the taxes.The only time there was any public disquiet or debate on the issue was when some dodgy e-mails exchanged between climate-scientists came to light suggesting that their modelling may be being fixed to show the results their sponsors were seeking. Now and because anthropogenic global warming is being taught as a fact and reiterated by the media and politicians with no scientific understanding, it is accepted by all as the great cause to support in principle but you don't actually witness many people consciously reducing their carbon footprint as a result and nor is there any obvious passionate protest of the Government for not going far enough (or even back-tracking) - perhaps self-interest on all parts gets in the way.
14 February 2015 at 22:02
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