This needs to be done everywhere
People need to get involved. That’s how change happens.
I see way too many folks who want a better world but doing nothing useful to make it happen. People complaining about corporate media, but refusing to support non-profit news organizations. Folks complaining about politicians, but not writing to them, not calling their office, not doing anything. People whining about Adobe, but not helping alternatives. People
If you are not feeling some pain, you aren’t doing anything useful.
You need to feel pain. That means:
- Changing habits in your life
- Voting
- Joining a local organization or creating one
- Running for office.
- Writing physical letters
- Giving money.
The more pain you feel, the more useful you are. Someone who gives £20,000 to a political party will feel more pain than someone who gives a like on facebook.
Social media gives people the false impression that posting content is how you change the world. Posting content on social media requires no effort and is therefore painless and useless.
Only pain moves the needle If you give £1 to a cause you care deeply about, you will feel some (tiny) pain, but you moved the needle. If you spent 8 afternoons collecting signatures for a petition that you will deliver to your city council, you will feel pain. But you moved the needle.
I actually try to apply this to my own life. I stopped buying bottled water. I got rid of Microsoft Windows. I use Linux. I give a lot of money to non-profit newsrooms like ProPublica and The Guardian. I financially support alternatives to Adobe such as Gimp and Inkscape. I try to write 2/3 physical letters to politicians every year. This is all pain. But collectively we can move the needle.
I like the message of this, whilst feeling that it puts a lot of pressure on the end users to be informed of their actions to better society, when it really should be up to our elected leaders to enact/educate on these topics. It also minimizes the impact of large corps who have far more moving power than the vast lot of us combined.
Not to say that grassroots community action cannot bubble up to move a needle.
I tend to follow your ethos, but not because I think it will make a change in soceity, but more to help myself feel better. If there is a God, they might see that I at least tried a little in this life to minimize my impacty in it
I just slammed my balls in the rear door of my Range Rover a couple of times. Am I good now?
Yes but I’d say only for new cars, seems a bit unfair to people who bought their cars a couple of years before the charge is introduced. Do they really want to pressure those people to go and buy another car? (more environmentally damaging than keeping what they have).
There’s plenty of smaller second hand cars on the market. You want the privilege of having a bigger car you should pay for it regardless of when you bought it. We’re all inconvenienced by their need to have a large car for their own “safety” or convenience so I won’t feel sorry for them when they’re charged more.
