this post was submitted on 22 Sep 2024
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"Oh, if I only had talked to my three friends about climate change then this wouldn't have happened."
That's how collective action works, yes.
Who is electing your government? Who is feeding the corporations by buying their products? If you think your three friends not caring, and my three friends not caring, and OP's three friends not caring is all inconsequential and there's no point in changing their minds, then how do you envision change happening? That is a geniune question; do you actually have a plan of action, or is it just "the corporations and governments are the ones who have to do something"?
Like the saying goes, "no individual drop of rain sees themselves as responsible for the flood", or something along those lines.
Not me or my three friends, or any of their three friends, or any person who isn't worth at least 11 figures.
By taking action. Words are cheap. Actions speak louder than words.
Apart from the fact that "taking action" is still not a concrete plan and your comment is still void of any real substance, are you planning on taking whatever "action" alone? Are you going to be a one-man army? Because otherwise you need to raise awareness and bring people to your side.
By "action" do you mean voting? Are you going to do it alone?
By "action" do you mean blowing up a pipeline? Are you going to do it alone?
Taking individual action can be part of raising awareness if done publicly. Riding a bike around your community is an act against climate change, and an awareness campaign simultaneously.
Material conditions compress to the point that people begin risking their lives and livelihoods for the sack of access to physical necessities. The institutions that subsist on a stable, pliant public begin to fail as more and more economic surplus gets plowed into law enforcement. Food shortage and riots, combined with public hostility towards energy companies, make working in the fossil fuel sector too dangerous compared to the money it brings in. Natural disasters do enough damage to domestic infrastructure that generating and transporting fossil fuels cannot continue at the same rate.
Floods don't happen because a large number of water drops decide to spontaneously leap over the side of the river bank. You need the terrain to change. You need a lot more water or a sudden compression of space all at once.
Without that, the current keeps all the little droplets moving in the same direction.
Now, unlike water droplets, individuals can be forces of radical change. But they need to be prepared to take radical action. Telling your friends "have you heard about this thing called climate change" isn't going to cut it. Telling them "have you heard about this movie How To Blow Up a Pipeline" isn't going to cut it. Telling them that you're decamping from society to form a guerrilla chapter of Greenpeace is a start, assuming you don't think any of your friends will rat you out to the police.
But even then... its three droplets against hundreds of thousands moving in the other direction. And all the individual droplets know that.
As for the first part of your comment, I'm not fully sure that I understand. From the context of the conversation, it sounds like you disagree with me and are saying your plan is "food shortages will happen and civilization will begin to collapse, and that is how things will change"; and I'm not saying that won't happen, but I am saying it would be morally reprehensible not to try and do something about it before it got to that point. If anything, the possibility of that happening is all the more reason to try and raise awareness to the problem before it gets that bad, so I'm not sure why you are disagreeing.
As for the rest, it sounds like you're overanalyzing both what is just a simple metaphor, and what is a two strip comic panel. To overanalyze and counter your own analysis, the rise of the water is usually caused by heavy rains, which is what the "water droplet" part of the metaphor is referring to; and the comic strip is meant to be an oversimplified and funny way of saying we should raise awareness to the problem and convince them to take action - whatever action you prefer; it's meant to be absurdist. It is not literally saying "you should tell your friends climate change exists". And if your preferred solution is forming a guerrilla, then that is what the comic is telling you to talk to your friends about. You can't form a guerrilla on your own; or, if you do, there's no one to protect you or keep the fight going when you get taken to prison/killed.
And if for some weird reason your friends haven't heard of climate change, then yes, that quite literally would be the start, unless you want your friends to think you're a loon and call the cops on you.
Exactly, and that's why you raise awareness by talking to people. If you get 3 friends and I get 3 friends, we now have 6 friends. And if each of those manages to get another 3 friends, then now we total 26 - that seems like a much better number to start a guerrilla with. And if you keep that chain going long enough, you'll get enough droplets to change the current.
Sometimes when I have discussions like this with someone, I feel like we are standing in the rain and we both agree with need some kind of roof to shelter us. And then when I say "we should build some kind of support structure, maybe get some tools and materials" the other person turns hostile ^(or^ ^politely^ ^disagrees,^ ^but^ ^90%^ ^of^ ^the^ ^time^ ^they^ ^turn^ ^hostile)^ and goes "No! What we need is to build a roof!". Like I'm not even necessarily disagreeing with whatever your proposed solution is - a roof, voting, boycotts, blowing up pipelines, forming a guerrilla - I'm just saying that to get the solution you need a solid foundation.
"how do you envision change happening?"
You're so close to getting it...
If I'm so close, then help me cross the gap. Just in your other comment you said you wished "we could have grown up discussions", and now that you have an opportunity to have one and educate people you instead chose to go with a childish condescending jab with no substance or value behind it. Almost like everything you say is just virtue signaling BS fluff so you can throw blame at other people and avoid having to make changes in your life.