Changes In Our Thinking
As a individual I want to change the kind of world we live in, but first of all that requires a little rethinking from everyone about how this might be achieved.
For example: –
I think discipline is needed – Self Discipline.
While we need to move away from think in terms of consumerism, so that it becomes more about the quality of life.
Just as we need to stop thinking about profits, but think in terms of environmental gains.
While also stopping to refer to the military as defenders. That is because it is health workers who help defend us from ill health.
Changes In What They Should Do
It is so very easy to create a list all ecological and social problems which we need to address, and then produce an even longer one of what needs doing to solve them.
Yet even those who get to understand some of these problems land up creating even more of them.
This is well illustrated by the daily media coverage of politicians who talk about solving out ecological problems, while they continue dinning out on lamb and salmon.
These same politicians pontificate about global warming.
Yet they still continue to promote a technology which causes both global warming and many other forms of pollution.
e.g. Nukiller Power.
Or trade unionists who go on about protecting their members and creating jobs, while at the same time promoting the arms trade.
Never mind how they keep promoting the nukiller power industry, rather than promoting the building of wind farms which will create many more safer jobs.
Neither do we just need to focus our criticism upon the above, as so many individuals who get involved in campaigning take an almost nihilistic back to an illusionary better past in to a better future approach to campaigning.
An Educational Failure
Though in many ways what we have is a failure of the educational system which causes the above, and in particular a failure on basic education.
A society which has so many functionally illiterate, and scientifically illiterate individuals, will always have a problem with people understandings statistics, economics, demographic changes, or be able to criticise bad science.
To that list must be added a failure to teach linguistics and ethical education in our schools.
One only has to glance at the Brexitland press in order to illustrate just how things really are right now.
Looking Back – Looking Forward
Yet for all the criticisms about what is wrong about ill informed so called leaders, politicians, trade unionists, capitalists, and so forth,
we still are left with our own To Do list.
I’ll not repeat this list as I would just be repeating myself, and a To Do list is no use in isolation of an even longer how to achieve changes list.
I’ve always said that the most important job of radicals, be they anarchist pacifists or no, is to identity what needs to be done, initiate campaigns, and then move on when these become main stream concerns.
All of this is doable if we apply a little clear thinking.
Though there is a immense mess to clear up which is not going to be achieved without about what needs doing 10, 20, or 30 years in to the future
—- and yet —
It is possible to improve the education system right now,
but this can only be done by putting more effort in to creating much better Adult Education.
—- and yet —
There are some issues which will take many lifetimes of campaigning to solve.