Tomorrow's the #ClimateStrike demonstration, here in Zürich is at 17:30, at Central. Sadly, I don't think it'll do us any good. I guess I'm waiting for some sort of revolutionary tipping point. I think these days people believe the presence of bodies changes opinions of politicians or citizens, but I don't think that's actually true. What did effect change in the past was violence and a mass of people is the threat of violence. Then the forces of order can send soldiers and riot police, and if the cause is just, sometimes, these people join the demonstration and a takeover occurs. Whether such revolutionary acts change the situation for the better is unclear. I think that generally speaking it's not true. The people taking advantage of such chaos are not the people I want in power.
So what about peaceful demonstrations? Such demonstrations are an act of speech: the hope is that the newspapers will report on it, the undecided will change their minds, the dejected will gain hope. The speech can be more forceful by causing economic disruptions, like a strike: blocking the roads, for example. The hope is that more newspaper will report on it. The hope is that the undecided are convinced by the conviction of those who put their bodies on the line. This is how the undecided can learn that racism or war is terrible.
But what about humanity cooking the planet? Since not enough people vote for the local Green party, I guess the majority of the general public doesn't feel the urgency. I also don't feel like there's some sort of media blackout that prevents people from learning the truth. People know the truth and don't believe it matters.
So now I'm trying to imagine how we'll ever get the message across … and I've go nothing. I guess I'll go to the demonstration expecting nothing. And when the next generation points at me and asks me why I never did anything to stop the disaster everybody knew was coming I'll say that I didn't know how.
CO₂ concentration is going up. The graph starts at 320 parts per million. It also shows all the climate conferences, starting with Rio around 350 parts per million. We're now at over 440 parts per million and no conference seems to have made a dent.
Despite decades of global climate conferences, CO2 levels are rocketing upwards at record pace. – CO2 vs the COPs, Barry Saxifrage, for Canda's National Observer
I was talking to @phf@social.sdf.org some more. How do you think this will end? Violence?
The older generation here in Switzerland has some lost USA memes stored away in their brains and since there are so many assault rifles still in households the government will have be really careful about escalating this. As far as I'm concerned, the branding of the Last Generation as the new RAF that needs to be locked away for years and years has already passed. From what I can tell, the police apparatus has managed to avoid a lot of the brute force brainiacs. So in as far as civil war-like situations, I think Switzerland is safe, for now.
I mean, we did have people trying to storm the Bundeshaus a year after the US Day of Shame, Jan. 6 – so we the potential for this sort of mob violence is there, for sure. But that's more like a troll uprising, not the kind of fascist takeover I fear more. Then again, the one can lead to the other, naturally. And the Nazis being inept trolls at first didn't stop them in the end.
I guess all of this reveals that I'm concerned about the wrong kinds of people taking advantage of a violent takeover. My bet is on Fortress Europe and widespread famine, accompanied by partial fascist takeovers. Hopefully those will resolve themselves in the end. Sad to think this now seems more likely than people coming to their senses and trying to save the planet, actually.
This is something I think the right-wing troll-book is doing very well: all the injustices, all the cracks in the system, every weakness – every divisive thing is exploited, even if the various points go in opposed directions. Coherence is not goal. And so the AFD and all the other parties at the brown end of the spectrum are increasing the pressure and preparing for the day the system breaks. We must fight for democracy and we must fix all those injustices to dry the actual swamp.
Global climatestrike poster for Zurich
And so the day came… We waited for a while until the march got started. There was some shouting of paroles but not a lot, and many of the organizers seemed to be young adults that aren't allowed to vote. As the sun was setting and the event reached Helvetiaplatz and the short speeches began, Claudia and I sat down in a nearby coffee house and ate a little something and then we went home.
We talked about young people, about politics, the necessity of change, the unwillingness of people to change.
People sitting on the road in Zürich
#Climate #Politics
