It’s never been about being woke
Responses to a detractor of Extinction Rebellion
This follows on the previous post on my manifesto, and follows in the next post on misdirection.
He is my local MP, a conservative who unlike his predecessor, speaks for his party not for his people. Here are three of my reactions amid an Extinction Rebellion Cambridge campaign to call him out on Facebook:
- Anthony Browne MP [2020/09/05]
Extinction Rebellion has today illegally stopped newspapers from publishing by blockading their print works. At the same time it is pushing for a Bill in Parliament that would take away the right of voters to have an input into environmental policy making — an extraordinary power grab by a supposed environmental group. This is on top of all their illegal blockading of roads and criminal vandalism to Trinity College. In short, they are attacking freedom of the press, attacking democracy, and see themselves as above the law. They are also dominated by Marxists who want to destroy capitalism. Rarely does anyone from the organisation have the courage to do public interviews. They are a truly disgraceful organisation, with dark, fascist overtones, and no self-respecting person should get involved. It is not a case of the ends justifying the means. By repulsing most of the population, they are setting back the cause of environmentalism.
- Anthony Browne MP [2020/09/06]
‘Extinction Rebellion’s plan for eco-oligarchy’
spectator.co.uk
[Thanks for the banner pic]
- Andrew Zolnai [2020/09/06]
I am an Extinction Rebellion UK Scientist from So. Cambs. and will take the Hon. MP’s points in sequence.
XR are not ‘law breakers’. We are disruptors. And with COVID, Climate Emergency and Brexit, the Hon. MP better get used to it.
The Hon. MP refers to “speculative future carbon capture technologies” to be precise. Red herring #1: the real issue is that conservatives / business see tech as powering our way thru climate change. But they fail to account for climate cost — in my previous industry of petroleum for ex., modelling entailed future technologies that were either unproven or not-yet-existent.
There is no hypocrisy around Climate & Ecology Emergency Bill (CEEB) — Caroline Lucas tabled a bill. Red herring #2: the real target is Citizens Assembly (CA) that takes power away from executive and legislative, which would terrify Guv and MPs alike.
Referring to oligarchy is “the pot calling the kettle black” — current Guv institutions are oligarchic and they don’t want the (perceived) competition (and as former “oiler”, I know a thing or two about oligarchies).
Moreover, how dare XR suggest a mechanism that canNOT be emasculated by executive or legislative?! Seriously, the Hon. MP needs to be reminded XR arose out of 30 yrs. of ineffectual democratic processes.
‘CA imposition…’ is speculative if not scare-mongering #1: CA and CEEB will demand 360° accounting of both ingress and egress of consumables and polluters that contribute to the current Climate Emergency (CE), from which accounting will be assessed any future steps.
For the Guv to repeal a tabled Bill: Democracy and due process, anyone?
‘CA out of democratic control’ is speculative if not scare-mongering #2: CA have had and will have a due process. The Hon. MP needs to learn about CA’s before engaging on commentary.
‘CA possibly causing unrest’ is speculative if not scare-mongering #3: as they say in court, “speculative and not relevant”.
Re: ‘MPs handing over power’ see speculative if not scare-mongering #2: and do learn the difference between CA and Parliament.
‘ Undermining democracy etc.’ is incendiary language #1: Are we approaching a “fire and brimstone” conclusion?
‘Leaving the general population behind’ is incendiary language #2: has the Hon. MP tried to engage with or get to know XR?
‘XR imposing their will’ is incendiary language #3; has the Hon. MP looked out the window and not seen the unrest? An MP’s duty includes reading their constituents’ “mood pulse”. As a So. Cambs. resident, I have not heard of hustings or town hall meetings his predecessor used to such great effect.
- Anthony Browne MP [2020/09/08]
I’ve said quite clearly and will say it again — as a campaigner, a journalist, a parliamentarian, an environmentalist and chair of the Environment APPG, I strongly support the aims of any group seeking draw attention to the serious climate issues we face. But I do not support Extinction Rebellion’s means — it should not break the law.
Attacking a fair and free press — one of the cornerstones of democracy — should be anathema to anyone seeking to change opinions, never mind changing the law. I was glad to hear a strong defense of press freedom in the chamber yesterday.
- Andrew Zolnai [2020/09/08]
1) None of your credentials amount to anything if you don’t do your own thinking. And your thinking is formed by you, not by messages passed on by your party and business leaders. Your thinking is formed by collecting info far& wide. Engage with your constituents, engage with your opposition — and not just with XR — consider the possibility that you may be wrong as a means to really hone your arguments. As in my commentary on your previous piece, please come up with your own arguments, not set pieces we read elsewhere.
2) I’ll repeat my previous opener:
“XR are not law breakers, we are disruptors. And with COVID, Climate Emergency and Brexit, you better get used to it”.
Disruption is all over, and we must adapt our thinking to it. So potted pieces will not do any more. Be creative and engage with the new situation at hand!
3) if you addressed the issue XR puts to you, the Guv and the press, then we might have a dialog. But as long as you dismiss us that way — and i wager it’s not you, but the fear of what might happen if you upset Murdoch et al. — then we have no way forward. And it’s you that’s the problem not us, as you won’t even try and answer the question. Challenge us, but on the issue at hand, not some tired old trope.
4) it’s all about integrity, which your predecessor had in spades, all the way up to quitting your party and then being voted out, but she stood for what she believed her constituents were looking for. If you really did care about the environment, you wouldn’t dismiss the Climate & Ecological Emergency Bill. You’d engage with your constituents first, then take their views to Westminster, and make speeches that speak for ‘we the people’, not for your party and its backers. Until you do that, your integrity as a politician is non existent.
5) so come out and talk to us, meet us at protests and engage with us, create surgeries, hustings or town hall meetings to look us in the eye. Then and only then might we believe what you say.
- Andrew Zolnai [2020/09/11]
[Where this post’s title came from]
“Since we [ Extinction Rebellion UK ] blocked News Corp’s printing presses on Friday night, the right-wing media have been trying to place us firmly on one side of the culture war. But Extinction Rebellion has never been about being “woke” — at least, not in the sense weaponised by the right to stoke polarised conflict…”
XR Co-Founder: ‘We’re Being Failed By the Corporate Press — Our Survival Depends on Coming Together’
VICE.COM
Update: here is a position paper after Trinity College lawn was dug up… In the shade of a tree grafterd from “Newton’s apple tree”, did it hit a nerve among both “town and gown”?
