Procrastination - The Thief That Steals Your Future.

          Though its usefulness persists, the metaphor “flogging a dead horse” is a cruel and crude expression. It belongs to another era – pre-RSPCA, I imagine – and its retirement surely is well overdue. I mean, when was the last time you, or anyone you know, flogged a horse, be it dead or alive? Hence, I propose replacing it with something not only kinder but also more relevant to modern lifestyles. How about, “clicking a dead link”?

          This sprang to mind last week, prior to attending an event to do with the struggle to prevent further destruction of the natural environment. Isn’t that battle already lost? Are activists just clicking a dead link? After all, they’ve been at it since the middle of last century, even before Rachel Carson’s seminal book, Silent Spring (published in 1962), raised widespread public awareness. The net result of 75 years of expression of concern, activism and even some legislation, is that the ecosystem is being degraded faster than ever. This must be disheartening, to say the least, for Jonathon Porritt, who joined the Ecology Party (now the Green Party) in 1974 and whose latest book* launch I was about to attend.

          Jonathon Porritt is fortunate to have a name that is memorable in and of itself. If you are fighting a cause, a nom de guerre is a useful identifier that helps you get attention more easily. That said, there are several ways to misspell his forename! Nevertheless, the moniker has stuck with me, so I was persuaded to turn up and hear him, regardless of my habitual aversion to speakers ‘preaching to the converted’. After all those years of battling globally-entrenched economic interests, I would not have been surprised to find him somewhat despondent and bitter, yet that expectation was not met. Certainly, there was anger and exasperation in what he had to say, but he pointed to battles won and expressed hope for the future. We all need significant triumphs from time to time, if only so that we can continue to claim that hope really does spring eternal.

          The struggle to convince humans that lemmings are not a good role model is timeless. The inhabitants of Easter Island became so obsessed by building huge stone statues, that they chopped down all the trees and ruined the soil in the process, thereby assuring their own destitution. Perhaps they didn’t see it coming but, in our modern times, we don’t have that excuse. We have scientific data to warn us that our equivalent of giant statues, the pursuit of constant economic growth via extractive capitalism, will result in the Easter Island-ification of the whole planet.

          But how do you get people to acknowledge this inevitability? I was walking in a nearby park (with my litter-picker), when I came across a collapsed tent and the belongings of its recently departed inhabitant(s) that were scattered around – toothbrushes, clothing, utensils and some other, unsavoury-looking detritus. I was thinking about clearing it up, when a dog-walker came by and said, “You’d think the council would clear that up”. I murmured assent, but that was not what I was thinking. The council has more important things to clear up, e.g. the social consequences of poverty, ignorance, addiction and destitution. It’s the inhabitants of the tent that need taking care of, not the litter of their homelessness.

          When people are struggling to get through the day, they have nothing to give to the future. Only by considering the welfare of our fellows on a par with our own will we collectively make significant progress towards averting the looming eco-disaster. Did you ever have that feeling that you’re banging your head against a brick wall?

*Love, Anger & Betrayal. Just Stop Oil’s young climate campaigners.