posted
On February First there is this supposedly worldwide event invented and organised by a French Environmental Party. Essentially, what they ask people to do is turn out their lights between 7:55pm and 8:00pm on that day in their time zone.
My first thought was "lame". However, I'd now like to make a case as to why, however lame or useless such an endeavour is alone, I feel like my participating is useful.
First of all, this doesn't do anything to inconvenience me. Five minutes of darkness is easy. Why shouldn't I expend the effort to hit the switch?
Secondly, I think it was a Colbert Report I watched recently, although not necessarily a recent one, where our favourite right wing nutjob did a bit about how placid everyone is. We laugh at hippies, and perhaps this is just part of our generation's disillusionment about the idealism that created the "hippy" movement. People are very aware that many of the demonstrations undertaken at the moment are either misguided or melodramatic and I think they tend to be afraid of being painted with the brush that paints "idealists". The result is large scale inaction.
Call me crazy, but I don't think that's a good thing. Yeah, it's non-violent inaction, but that's kind of a pathetic arguement. I've always tried to believe that doing positive things is almost always better than not doing things. Even if my participation in the world is so limited as to be meaningless, at least it's participation.
Therefore, on February 1st, I will reach out a lazy arm and hit the lights for five minutes. I would suggest that you consider doing the same.
ADDED: This is copied from my blog, but while I'm procrastinating on my homework, and playing the activist (har har), I thought I'd post here, see what Jatraqueros have to say, although I imagine it would be I expect.
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