Editorial: More Fun than Complaining
Only a year ago I would have said that the day of the protest was largely dead. It seemed that people were too overwhelmed or scared or bored or depressed to take action. That in failing to say ‘no’ to the things that destroy our world they were also failing to say ‘yes’ to the things that can build it up again. So it was with increasing joy and a sense of optimism that I followed the reports on the Heathrow protesters in the media and, more importantly, from people I knew who were there.
As the protesters pitched their tents, buoyant about their impact, I recalled the results of a study at the University of Sussex a few years ago. What, the researchers asked, did protesters really get out of protesting? And the answers were surprising. Collective action including marches, mass pickets, fox hunt sabotages, street parties and various forms of direct action didn’t just have the potential to change the world. It imbued the participants with an enormous sense of wellbeing, belonging and empowerment.
Interviewing activists of all backgrounds and experiences the researchers found a universal sense of joy, even euphoria, that came with being in the midst of like-minded others. Even talking about events long past brought a smile to protesters’ faces. Such positive experiences are as good for the body as they are for the mind. Feeling connected and relevant can translate into less chronic illness, better immunity, a better ability to cope with stress and anxiety. Indeed, as Bruce E. Levine says in this issue, community activism can even punch a hole through the darkness of depression.
In the UK – and elsewhere – collective action is not as common as it once was. In place of protesting we have complaints procedures. There are official channels to go through, forms to fill in, dedicated departments to direct our comments to, customer services phone lines with endless touch-tone menus. The process can be exhausting and discouraging – and not always productive. Some dissatisfied people turn their frustration inward. Psychologists say, for instance, that the incidence of self-harm amongst teenagers is related in part to a need to protest – and a feeling that there is no one listening. Self-harm makes them feel alive in the same way that the climate campers felt alive.
Frustration with the often lengthy and complex modern procedure of complaining has turned many would-be protesters to the world wide web, where the desire to be heard quickly and by as many people as possible can easily be fulfilled.
Online activism is a powerful and instantaneous thing. Pictures of pollution and human rights abuses can be zipped to any point on the map in minutes. Petitions can circulate many times around the globe in a matter of days. But the electro-protest also loses something in the translation since it is almost entirely disconnected from human relationships. I often wonder if cyber protesters feel the same sense of joy and community as groups of people who inhabit the same physical space.
There is a tendency to believe that there were special circumstances that made protest appropriate to a bygone era – the Vietnam war or the Kennedy assassinations, for instance. But have circumstances really changed that much? In those days, people felt the world was coming to an end and they weren’t going to let it go down without a fight. Clearly the threat of climate change has reawakened that fear and dread and moved people to glorious and positive action.
Sad geek that I am, while I cheered the climate campers on, and tried to encourage my teenage son to engage with the issues, I was reminded of a scene from the TV show The Simpsons. In it, Lisa Simpson, the squeakywheel conscience of the family, flies past her mother on a galloping horse. ‘Hey, Mom!’ she shouts. ‘I’ve finally found something more fun than complaining!’
- This editorial was first published in the October 2007 edition of the Ecologist.
