Thank you for the discussion about how we might think of very disruptive and potentially damaging protest actions. It’s very much at the front of conversations here in Australia. I particularly appreciated the Instagram post about Bill Moyers research – a friend pointed it out to me a few months ago when this topic came up and there was some heated debate within the environmental circles about whether really disruptive actions were “helpful to the cause”. My friend Isaac quoted Bill, and also suggested that people in the environmental movement who complain about other people in the environmental movement and their tactics, is a bit like a football goalkeeper saying that the team would be likely to win more games if everyone was a goalkeeper. If you get my drift. Isaac’s point being that bringing about social change is a team activity, and we need diversity in every team. Thanks for the thoughtful extra work you put into outlining the history and role of disruption.
Thanks, Queensland team! Yes, there's been a lot of discussion around this in both climate and non-climate spaces on this side of the ditch too. I like that analogy and the focus on how many different specialisations and tactics are needed for a sustained movement.
Glad that you liked the peppering of history too, we enjoyed learning about it while researching! (Who knew that the women's suffrage movement was actually pretty physically intense?)
Thank you for the discussion about how we might think of very disruptive and potentially damaging protest actions. It’s very much at the front of conversations here in Australia. I particularly appreciated the Instagram post about Bill Moyers research – a friend pointed it out to me a few months ago when this topic came up and there was some heated debate within the environmental circles about whether really disruptive actions were “helpful to the cause”. My friend Isaac quoted Bill, and also suggested that people in the environmental movement who complain about other people in the environmental movement and their tactics, is a bit like a football goalkeeper saying that the team would be likely to win more games if everyone was a goalkeeper. If you get my drift. Isaac’s point being that bringing about social change is a team activity, and we need diversity in every team. Thanks for the thoughtful extra work you put into outlining the history and role of disruption.
Thanks, Queensland team! Yes, there's been a lot of discussion around this in both climate and non-climate spaces on this side of the ditch too. I like that analogy and the focus on how many different specialisations and tactics are needed for a sustained movement.
Glad that you liked the peppering of history too, we enjoyed learning about it while researching! (Who knew that the women's suffrage movement was actually pretty physically intense?)