Real Politics is Humbling, Radical Politics is an Ego Trip

I think it's easy for people to mistake
my message about street activism as somehow cynical and pessimistic it's not at all I'm really very optimistic about the political difference people can make just not on the street so the man you see next to me here is George Mumbai Oh George mam bo is more powerful than say an elected backbencher in Parliament he's more powerful than most mayors of city governments he's not more powerful than a prime minister or president of a country but nevertheless this is a guy with the ability to get a meeting get an interview with almost anyone in government not just in England but probably throughout Europe this is someone who can get research funding for any research project he could possibly want to undertake this is someone who has published numerous books I think he basically publishes a newspaper article on a major newspaper once a week every week but anyway as often as he pleases he appears on the radio and television at his command he is one of the most powerful and influential people in Europe period and has been for more than a decade okay his name carries a lot of weight his ability to you know do public outreach and educate the public his ability to do outreach to elite levels of government and educate inform those people his ability to to really change the world is tremendous and yet here he is getting himself arrested on the street for very little possible positive outcome now you know you could say in some sense a guy like this is sort of in denial about his own elite status you could also say that this is just a cynical ploy for yet more public attention and popularity maybe he's gonna stand for election in future maybe he's stoking up you know uh the support from the left-wing radical side of the political spectrum even that's a little bit counterproductive because the the votes you've really got a court or exactly the more conservative elderly people you're going to get the radicals voting for you anyway George but um you know to some extent there's just chasing Fame and and yet more public influence but even when you look at the more sort of pitiable downtrodden protesters here look at this young man jumping on top of a streetcar sorry sorry it's a subway some kind of public transport but you know paradoxically what you need for the sake of the environment is more public transport more subways more streetcars you know fewer individually owned automobiles but for whatever reason they protested on behalf the environment by stopping the subway service and as you can see two different young men tried to do this and they were pulled down and apparently beaten up by the crowd to some extent these two young men who are in British parlance poncey gets I mean I'm sorry dressed up the way they are I am sure the crowd regarded these as poncey over educated underemployed young men like myself by the way much like myself except I'm not young anymore um you know there's always a certain class character to these things in British culture is the resentment of the working class against even the middle class let alone the upper class you know there's a sense that these people need to get home from work and how dare you you know there's a lot going on here but these these young men who got dressed up in a suit and tie to get beat up and probably arrested that we've got all dressed up to go to jail if you really think they have no way to positively influence the government in a democratic society you're wrong if you think they have no way to either you know influence public opinion you know the purely democratic side of politics like Socrates they have no ability to reach out to change their world that way or if you think they have no ability to reach upward to government and government funding event and research funding if you think they have no way to make the world a better place in a more hierarchical and non-ag a latarian way you're wrong - I'm tremendously optimistic with those things even in a sort of semi democratic society like England England's political system is not as good as you know Switzerland but nevertheless it's open to exactly these kinds of voices highly motivated idealistic voice and want to make the world a better place getting research funding you know setting up charitable organizations that very often do get governments as well as charitable donations to pursue their their goals and you know kind of the most meager form of activism you can imagine will still be more effective than getting beat up pulled off the top of a train and put in prison whether it's these guys or it's the other guys who locks themselves to a car and got hauled off by the cops or is George George wrong Bo lying on the street and getting hauled off to prison if you set up a vegan pancakes stand you know on the sidewalk legally you got the permits and you start selling pancakes maybe you can sell vegan t-shirts also you know as humble as that may be it's still more effective than what you're doing with this kind of street activism getting yourself in jail and so on so really think about that who is the optimist here and who is the pessimist I mean the other thing I'm optimistic about is exactly the humbling nature of that kind of outreach that kind of real participatory political process going to City Hall and trying to explain to them how they could make better use of solar power and wind power it's humbling you know and being on the sidewalk selling pancakes at a pancake restaurant you know setting up a business like that and reaching out to people saying hey these pancakes are vegan here are the impacts of veganism maybe they get a pamphlet with their pancakes or something you know you do some kind of educational thing with uh-hum it's humbling and you see the face to face reality and if you go to City Hall you present those ideas it's not like standing on a street corner shouting and preaching that you have the answer and you don't have to answer anybody's questions that the answer is just solar power and wind power well know if you actually have to make your case if you have to do the math if you have to show just how much money it's gonna cost just what the input and output them through what it's gonna be in how much land that's gonna occupy and what are really the advantages when you do the math shutting down a coal power plant shutting down a gas power plant and replacing it with solar and wind when you start to work that through it's humbling and educational for you as the activists and it's humbling and educational for everyone else participating in the process right that's the ultimate reason why I disagree with this kind of phony radicals okay it's really sad street radicalism it gives people this misconception that activism on the street is the realest form of political participation whereas what goes on in Parliament what goes on in the mayor's office is somehow phony and the reality is 180 degrees opposite the reality is the other way around right we have to have an appreciation for what's real and what's fake we have to regard weakness as weakness and strength as strength and this kind of phony radicalism it trains people instead to regard weakness this strength I mean people like to disrespect my truth but the fact is that you know my name is I don't know