When I have broached the possibility that we can learn something from the FC rebellion, people immediately disagreed with me. Now that the convoy has been dismantled, most people in Ottawa are immensely relieved. The aftermath of this occupying force has left a bad taste in people’s mouths. Herein lies the first lesson to be learned from this blockade.
1) Do not overstay your presence, else you will alienate the people who you are trying to align to your cause.
The second lesson is:
2) Do not engage in abusive or harmful activities. This is one of the main reasons for people’s hostility toward this group. This is another reason to remain peaceful during any rebellion.
At this point it is good to ask – What is the point of the rebellion? Some convoy leaders claimed that the goal was to overthrow the government and to install a new one. I believe that this was not the primary goal of most of the participants in this convoy. The most often stated goal was to lift all COVID mandates and restrictions. Again, what we can learn from this convoy is:
3) Maintain a clear goal for your peaceful rebellion and make it clear that any other side activity is not part of your efforts.
This convoy also revealed other lessons:
4) Any demonstration needs to be carefully planned and executed with some precision and discipline. Such planning was evident with the FC.
5) If the timing is right, the demonstration can hit a common nerve and thus large numbers of people may respond to your call to demonstrate. After two years of COVID restrictions, and with an end in sight, the plan of the FC was able to attract many people who were genuinely frustrated and ready to act based on a series of various grievances.
6) Finally, the protesters were able to construct obstacles that could be quickly assembled and not so easily removed. They had trucks, but there may be other techniques that are also easy to construct and difficult to dismantle.
In conclusion, rebellions have a bad reputation. The oppressed call them revolutions. Ruling powers tend to dismiss such uprisings as rebellions. Thus, we hear of the American Revolution, and not of the American Rebellion, even though it was a rebellion against British rule in North America.
Why did Extinction Rebellion choose the term "Rebellion"? What was supposed to be rebelled against? Is it against the environmental crisis? Hardly. Is it against the compliant system? Is it against climate crisis denialism? Is it against the fossil fuel industry and growing corporate rule of the global economy?
There are various kinds of rebellion. Some are peaceful, some are violent. Some are effective, some are failures. What kind of rebellion is XR engaged in? What is its goal? What is its strategy? And what are the means to achieve the goals of XR?
Rebellious Seeker
February 26, 2022
1) Do not overstay your presence, else you will alienate the people who you are trying to align to your cause.
The second lesson is:
2) Do not engage in abusive or harmful activities. This is one of the main reasons for people’s hostility toward this group. This is another reason to remain peaceful during any rebellion.
At this point it is good to ask – What is the point of the rebellion? Some convoy leaders claimed that the goal was to overthrow the government and to install a new one. I believe that this was not the primary goal of most of the participants in this convoy. The most often stated goal was to lift all COVID mandates and restrictions. Again, what we can learn from this convoy is:
3) Maintain a clear goal for your peaceful rebellion and make it clear that any other side activity is not part of your efforts.
This convoy also revealed other lessons:
4) Any demonstration needs to be carefully planned and executed with some precision and discipline. Such planning was evident with the FC.
5) If the timing is right, the demonstration can hit a common nerve and thus large numbers of people may respond to your call to demonstrate. After two years of COVID restrictions, and with an end in sight, the plan of the FC was able to attract many people who were genuinely frustrated and ready to act based on a series of various grievances.
6) Finally, the protesters were able to construct obstacles that could be quickly assembled and not so easily removed. They had trucks, but there may be other techniques that are also easy to construct and difficult to dismantle.
In conclusion, rebellions have a bad reputation. The oppressed call them revolutions. Ruling powers tend to dismiss such uprisings as rebellions. Thus, we hear of the American Revolution, and not of the American Rebellion, even though it was a rebellion against British rule in North America.
Why did Extinction Rebellion choose the term "Rebellion"? What was supposed to be rebelled against? Is it against the environmental crisis? Hardly. Is it against the compliant system? Is it against climate crisis denialism? Is it against the fossil fuel industry and growing corporate rule of the global economy?
There are various kinds of rebellion. Some are peaceful, some are violent. Some are effective, some are failures. What kind of rebellion is XR engaged in? What is its goal? What is its strategy? And what are the means to achieve the goals of XR?
Rebellious Seeker
February 26, 2022
No comments:
Post a Comment