Nobody Cares: Passion & Protest Won't Save the Planet. (vegan / vegans / veganism)

I'm gonna start with two really short
anecdotes that have seemingly nothing to do with what I'm talking about but I think you'll see the salience in just a moment I remember I saw a documentary about a jazz musician and at one point this jazz musician got fired and the person telling the anecdote to the documentary filmmaker he said that he had gone and complained to the management of this nightclub whatever it was and said you know how can you how could you fire this guy he's a genius you know he's musical genius and the manager replied we don't need a genius we need someone who shows up on time isn't drunk isn't high on drugs does a good job gets along with the other staff you know the series of kind of mediocre requirements for what adequacy meant you know in this context for being a good jazz musician you know genius is nice when you can get it but the other things may not be negotiable those may be hard requirements there was a movie I saw only only bits and pieces of I didn't watch the whole movie when I was a kid I think my sister was watching the movie and I just saw a few scenes from it and there's a fellow that gets fired in the movie from a TV repair shop and his father goes to talk to the boss his father says you know how could you how could you fire my son jack he's an electronics genius and the guy who runs the shop looks in the iron flies we don't need a genius we need someone who can fix broken TV you know that that scene really stayed with me if you've been watching this channel for a while you've heard me many times refer to the somewhat mediocre down-to-earth reality of what politics is like at City Hall including my own experience with you know municipal politics City Hall in Toronto now there's a sense in which you know anyone can complain why aren't we talking about more inspirational ideas from the history of political philosophy why aren't we talking about genius why aren't we talking about matters of great passion whether from art or protest movements why aren't we talking about the the shocking and the bizarre why do we have to talk about the mediocre down-to-earth details of how political movements get organized how social change actually happens I think that one of the differences between me and most members of my generation is that I don't think of the main theater of political change as Street protests I don't think of it as the arts either you know of painting some inspirational work of art that supposedly changes the world I do think of that mediocre bureaucratic reality Democratic reality too but democracy and bureaucracy are always intertwined I think about laws and Parliament's and lobbyists and constituencies and community activists and you know the long cycles of public education militating for social change and you guys have heard me mention a million examples of this whether it's cigarette smoking or drunk driving you know none of these are yeah none of these have to do with genius or you know extraordinary people with extraordinary minds making dramatic breakthroughs there's this there's this really kind of down to earth tone that I bring the whole question of a vegan politics and its really has to do with my assumption even about what the word politics means and what the long term horizon for veganism is now in looking back at the videos on this channel I think it's interesting that so many of the the movements I've criticized are at the opposite extreme and they have that in common there are several videos on this channel criticizing Gary Yourofsky if you're new to the channel search for urops key and I think there are three videos offering substantive critique of Gary Yourofsky why disagree with him about the use of violence but a number of other issues that I still think are important I still think are really worth thinking about Gary Yourofsky has in common with many of the other movements of Krishna he has in common with for instance direct action everywhere again I have several videos substantive critique irritation if we're this idea that if we just want it badly enough if we're just passionate enough if we're you know if we just show enough raw emotion then this social change is gonna happen and many people who believe in the kind of street theater of protest politics they also think in those terms if only we can get people on the street corners weeping and screaming doing something very dramatic show me a great deal emotion that will bring about political and social change and it never does I think that shows a real misconception with politics and on the Contras have pointed out instead you get Gary Yourofsky looking like a nutcase and making all of us vegans look like in that case he is sitting there in front of a TV camera on the news saying unbelievable things about the use of violence and how he wants to torture and kill rapists and you know and you know he it's an intentional decision on his part to show this over-the-top emotion this tremendous passion and again many of the street protest groups are like that to where they really think that it's passion that's gonna change the course of history that it can't possibly be the presentation of facts in a boring meeting at City Hall it can't be a set of negotiations with politicians it can't be the drafting of legislation that no it's the the agony of you know passionate people pouring out their hearts whether in the street protests or in a work of art or you know on videotape that that is is gonna change the world you know I remember I had a job it was a period of my life right a bunch of short-term jobs just before I moved to Asia and I remember I had a job once and my mother said to me one day when I had this job she said well you know I'm sure you're gonna do you know the best you can eat with this job and I remember I said he was completely honest answer I said no I'm gonna do as much work as is appropriate for the job I'm gonna do I'm gonna complete the assignment I'm not gonna do the best I can the best I can is much more is a much higher status I could possibly do with this assigned work for this job that would be on a whole nother level but that's actually not appropriate like this job is not calling for a great work of literature or great work of genius this job required me to write some reports to do some paperwork would have you and actually it's not appropriate for that to be brilliant or maybe or even to do a ton of research for it or what have you remember that job you know was what it was um you had a certain amount of work to do turn it into the deadline you know nobody nobody wants it to be ten pages longer than it needs to be but it's what it is I remember my mom she really couldn't accept that she could not understand at all what I meant and she became extremely agitated and freaked out and even though it didn't involve her she demanded to see what I was doing like the the work I was doing the written work I was bracing job and again I thought she might learn the lesson from I did show her you know when I'd finished that that task that report said this is what I turned in and she actually she thought it was great she thought I'd done an excellent job she said oh well this is this is fantastic you did a great job that's she said so why did you say that before you know it doesn't make any sense I just tried to repeat her I said no you know there's a question of doing what's appropriate what's effective of doing what the job calls for that's different from doing the best you can or doing the post you can those are just two completely different things and there's a difference between something being my personal passion and me pouring my heart into it and me doing what's appropriate and effective so I mean you know my own involvement with City Hall is a pretty short time in my life compared to my involvement with Cambodia or my involvement with Thailand or even my involved with politics of China you know the number of hours and the number of years I spent going to City Hall to try to address ecological problems is different but for me in many ways the draft nests of City Hall the bureaucracy they are the type of democracy that exists there that shapes my idea of what real politics is as opposed to you know revolution in Cambodia which we can also talk about I know a lot about what happened in Cambodia's Revolution and in a sense of course that's real politics too but it's not it is not what I'm recommending vegans do to change the world you know know when you stand up at City Hall and give a deposition there's a question of doing what's adequate and effective nobody wants you to be a genius at City Hall nobody wants you to turn in a 200 page report that reflects brilliance and genius and a ton of original research you know if you can put turn in a two-page report maybe they'll read it you can give a deposition that's concise factual effective that addresses the problems you can influence what happens at City Hall even just completely alone with no money to back you up with no lobbyists to back you up with no good stitches you can especially if you're if you're bringing them useful information and giving it to them in a way that can really influence policy outcomes and I've seen that happen many times with other people and you know to some extent I managed to do it myself but I mean I remember there was one guy he was actually a university professor born and raised in Italy and he was making it his crusade to attempt to show up in some city hall meetings it's had to do with ecology I do with water pollution and to point out to them that the city was lying to itself they were publishing fake charts fake statistics intentionally misleading you know graphs concerning water pollution and the decisions that were being made about wastewater treatment and drinking one of these kinds of things they you know my heart goes out to me was a completely sincere example of someone just trying to do the right thing for the right reasons but again on a deep level this is so different from the weeping and wailing and screaming on the street corner that so many vegans imagined defines real politics this guy had to have the humility to take some time out of his day to do a little bit of research to come to City Hall to stand up at a podium you know maybe as a slide show he has an illustration and say look I understand you guys are making these decisions that impact ecology and pollution I've read your report I have some level of expertise here are the errors in the report I need you guys to know you're making the wrong decision for the wrong reasons because there are false facts in this report to me that's that's real politics you know and anyone in veganism got the issue of water pollution is so huge most vegans have seen this movie conspiracy if you can devote the time and expertise to doing water samples from one river and to following up legally then the consequence of that the sources of pollution and the connection to the meat industry and to work with government and the public and the people and to militate for legal change enforcement of regulations public awareness you know I remember I again to mention my own mother I mean I used to say to her about her own decisions that were ecologically responsible she didn't he didn't give a damn you know when she was wasting whatever electricity but she was doing things that work that were terrible for the environment I remember I say to her you know um can you put the stars back in the sky because at that time I hear our pollution has gotten better in Toronto since at that time in Toronto I'd say look it's been years since I've seen stars in the sky at night the combination of air pollution and light pollution you know you you could not see the stars at night in Toronto anymore large parts of China are like that of course now you can't see the stars due to due to air pollution to make people aware on the level of public education cultural change that these these decisions whether it's eating meat or legislation at the government level these are linked to real consequences in the water and the air in our health in all our lives they're linked to of course ethical consequences in terms the suffering of animals to make those connections of people and to do it through real politics that's something nobody is ever gonna regard as heroic nobody's gonna regard it as dramatic and nobody's gonna regard it as genius in a sense that's why I'm asking you to take it seriously and to regard that with some real hope for the future any political movement that requires genius is doomed to failure and I think you the great thing about veganism is that a bunch of idiots can get together and make the world a better place and this whole crazy controversy yeah all the controversies whether is my conflict with the radiation everywhere or Gary Yourofsky or these you know diet gurus who threatened to you know beat me up and have me arrested who threatened me with violence who defamed me etc what is it what does it illustrate I mean who are the early adopters of veganism we have such a strange mixed group of people but if we can get over this paradigm of imagining that we're gonna change the world just because we want it just because we're willing to scream about it and weep about it just because we're going to throw a tantrum about how upset we are that a restaurant serves foie gras or that people are still wearing fur on the streets I mean the psychology of that to me I think it can properly be called infantile it is childish it is infant like because you think that if you scream and you weep and you wail if you're just passionate about enough you just upset enough then someone in the position of a parents a parental authority someone is gonna give you what you want like a child that screams until somebody gives it a chocolate bar that if we just all lose our tempers if we just all act crazy enough and show enough passion then the parental authorities of the world will you know nod their heads gravely and hand us the chocolate bar we're asking for just so that we stop crying social change doesn't happen that way not short-term not long-term and you know still I got love for you guys you know I sympathize I sympathize with the whole range I sympathize with the crazy cat ladies who send me hate mail saying that they love their cats so much that there's no it's no problem that they kill cows to give their cats cat food made of dead cows all the way over to I mean you know all the all the crazy eccentrics we've put together you know this this mess that we call a social movement and it's not yet a social movement I hope it will be someday I hope we get organized you know I still sympathize with you guys even even the people who hate me the people who hate me so intensely I regard you as people who've sat down and have all the puzzle pieces laid out at the table but you haven't put them together in the right way yet and you know it's gonna happen here they're everywhere people are gonna figure out that what we've been obsessed with in veganism our short-term fads whether it's a fad diet or chasing after celebrity that gossip or what-have-you and none of that matters even the street protests it's short-term and I'm sorry I mean people want to reinterpret history as if it's the the street protests that make the difference and it's not street protests did not end the Vietnam War Street protests did not lead to black people having equality I mean you know you want to look at what actually happened after the assassination of JFK who actually passed the laws that made a difference on the other hand look at look at the laws that made life so miserable for black people after World War two so called redlining you know the the creation of black ghettos legally how that really happened in United States of America a lot of it happened it's it the City Hall level some of it crucially happened at the level the president United States but yes you know what there are men wearing suspenders and blue ties who are sitting in dark rooms you know at the crux of where democracy meets bureaucracy there are you know people who pass laws there are people who make decisions and if you live in a democratic government you do have the opportunity to have your voice heard you do have the opportunity to get organized and to militate for legal change for cultural change for social change you can make a difference but in many ways in the last five years we've all been looking in the wrong place to make that change