Games.
These aren't.
Nearly twenty years ago as a single parent of a wonderful two year old ball of joy, I was bringing up very very close to nature - indeed she often slept with it, in the shape of one or other of her ferrets, I decided it was time for her sake to start to get into the environmental issues of that region. Our 'lifestyle' was extremely humble. Unlike the great majority of people moving out to rural fringe areas I came in my early 30s with no income from 'off'. I had continued part time, at times, a previous profession that took me back to the cosmopolitan centres for the first five years after moving up but upon creation of said ball of joy I gave up those professional credentials forever. A child needs both parents around all the time. Fait accompli. No 'sacrifice' as her life and her planet are the only true joy. No pension from some previous southern life to await; local rates of pay when i could.
And then something else dominated my own life for five years - a useful diversion that in fact feeds back into now. Unpaid then and now.
There is a short version: In my 'diversion' years, quite unplanned I had a certain amount to do with fighting in public the Masters of The Universe. And a few Mistresses. Nothing to do with commerce even if the haute bourgeois setting is so at the root of so much in UK. Fancy lifestyle. I was in a wing of social justice. What's that got to do with Fancy Lifestyle ? one may ask. Well the answer is that almost all UK social practice of the authorities is in fact dominated behind the scenes and often closed doors by self serving vested interests. Local Authorities act in most cruel manner against the citizen at times and when the citizen seeks some recourse, their mates who are in the legal firms they employ to present their side - more often their intended path of destruction through the life of some safe enough family they persecute, get rich. And the taxpayer shells out. To keep afloat the quite unjust gravy boats of those involved. I got my work appreciated in public at the highest levels - the few half decent MPs championed. One of the Mistresses of The Universe who had to be nettle stung on my path through their cant and vanity was even Harriet Harmon. Oh my she had a sour soul.
I only mention this in that I know how society works. And have many years baptism of fire forged balanced ideas about how it should.
Much speaking with a range of people over the past five or so years, including one or two rare younger people who can indeed apply sceptical constructive critique leads me to a couple of possible solutions. But there may be better ones.
However here is the thing. In my opinion even the 'words' are wrong.
I do a certain amount of low key work in folks fields and larger gardens - always trying to retain as much of nature, or if we wish to be scientific 'biodiversity' as possible. I spend time monitoring both as someone scientifically minded, and legally minded what are eco crimes in my region. I also ponder a lot how could years of film photographs and recorded interviews be turned into some powerful soul grabbing 'art'.
But it is the words i must describe myself with maybe are the first hurdle: environmentalist; conservationist; organic land custodian? All a bit pious and dull.
'Fighting'. "Giving it to the man" as people would say from the 60s, and i do not mean gathering to play tomtoms in some town or city square, i mean the real 'fight' which is in fact quite risky as the bullneck bullies do dominate the land, keeps you alive. It does not provide myself with any society as i know full well 99% of these environmental 'activist' types over many years are such silly drips. As i state on my wanderings sometimes when i may meet the occasional genuinely good mind " the tree hugger spiritual brigade ere my initial people - those i wished to be my people, but over the years i realised from inside just how useless and self obsessed they are...i knew them well, and chose them to be the parents i would wish my child to encounter..... i've even slept with a few of them.... and all of it was not fun; was dead, especially the sleeping with bit...and that was before they en masse seem to develop a new 'connected consciousness of the universe' which basically amounts to accusing one of medical conditions if you aren't quite as dull as they are... in the 80s even your worst enemy like a National Front bovva boy would never stoop so low as intimating one suffered from a defined medical condition... this lot all want their kids nowadays to get defined as autistic or Asperger's, mainly for safety in permanent benefits...and oh how they also love to let that medical term roll over into their appraisal of the person they were rolling over in the sack with .... except they weren't doing much rolling as their ice maiden aura may melt if some real heat gets a goin.."
All those words sound dull. Strange when the greatest fight to have - and even if myself i only like quiet nothing and a bit of nature thrown in for interest, is fighting to retain much of life on the planet. Even the Bojo stated a few months ago bunny huggers are great too.
But still it is as if only certain words are allowed. And i certainly wouldn't trust any 'eco warrior' as i have encountered a few and know they don't know that generators don't need to be ;eft on all night both ruining the lives of other humans never mind polluting. And are generally less good at cleaning up all their litter after some late night do than they would like you to believe.
So yes where does one start - well the words, conservationist etc. A problem.
And then there is the conflation in the last five or so years once the absurdities such as Mister Farage came along. I know well several 'freedom' loving "bring back control" people who are adamant they are very environmentally focused. Very. (whilst noticeably never doing anything to reduce their very bourgeois lifestyle). And there is one good thing about just such people which is they don't run away crying as all bunny huggers i have ever known if one speaks of FACTS - and i am 110% certified BH i even rescue near dead pheasants from the road, and dont feed them to my ferrets, unless they are dead. I try and bring them back to life. I have many funny films of this.
I can have a most at ease chat with almost any Faragian bullneck - especially the female bullneck variant, that i know is sincere when it comes to the terrible degradation of habitats and rivers etc.. But then when it comes to atmospheric issues it is hilarious in that they have been programmed by idiot politicing and 'identity' tribal matters to take that sharp intake of breath between their tightly shut teeth.
Which just shows how foolish they are after all simplistic bullneck bollocks simplified into dumb one liners such as control etc has been their meat and two veg. Never mind how atrocious all green rhetoric i have ever known has also been. It is only about one word: pollution. The rivers are damaged or destroyed, which to the inexpert obviously damages the whole natural food chain, by pollution. The majority who speak of climate change via industrial emissions - which of course includes industrial levels of high emission cows farting too, should just speak of pollution. And pollution is simply the introduction of other chemicals at rates nature has yet to evolve to deal with; whether they be sulphuric acid to be 'extreme' to miniscule little co2 variability. The evolution takes many centuries or millions of years of course. Soon it seems much of life on the earth will have woven into its very lifeform microplastics. A brain will perhaps even within decades be maybe 1% microplastic. In time though lifeforms will evolve to maintain efficacy with that change (in 'environment' simplisticaly described as a new 'phenotype') incorporated; smome may fail to evolve to high rates of change. Maybe many species will lose in that super speeded up race to adapt to changes in environment. There are species that can even thrive in places where there is natural sulphuric acid present.
This material here is not about the technicalities of anything. Its about people. And it isn't about their waste or shit. Its just about their bullshit.
Except it is also because it just may be time to start doing it all for real. Because the people have changed - no not in the way the hairdyed lasses of Extinction Rebellion claim, in a real way.
SO lets start with what endgame. Assuming one agrees it is not a game. Myself i just want everything to stop and we have a big worldwide tidy up first - why, because i have even lived among the wealthy, and i only pity them. Only ever pity. Because their lives are so dull and joyless. Behind their painted masks and smiles. Joy if from doing something, difficult. Maybe impossible. And also knowing that 'come the day' your kids won't get the guillotine out "so mum/dad what did you do in the war..." [as a confirmed permanent forever pacifist having seen real conflict close at hand in various parts of the world and at home, and knowing even in Gaza they could still just WALK AWAY... all refences to chopping bits of bodies are figurative, a leg pull...joke...]
Speaking with various people - the middle or as they all pretend to be just a bit upper middle - especially the Waitrose Bags.... on truly bad local environmental crimes sometimes even they raise and then never answer any nice letter even asking could you support a little - just be moral support, friend, compaƱera, don't want any of your dodgy hedgefunding husbands filthy city lucre... they ghost. By default. Even the good ones. Even those whos facebooks are littered with eco crime sobbing, nope behind ones back as one cycles off from an hour lovely chat with them where they say they care... they plot how to eat the conversation they had just had chiming...may as well be windchiming they love the expensive models of them.
But i also know them. See video segments if i can get them uploaded this year. They do sort of like something a bit risque.
And thus i have just one thought. I had it nine months ago as i surveyed the saddest most hypocritical serious prosecutable (protected) wildlife destruction in my favourite highup hillside place of all. What is the solution? are they possible?
And one thought was somehow to enable, help, encourage small teams of younger people - late teens 20s, to be monitors. There is existing wildlife law. And as so many of their mums to get vulnerability benefits (keeps your tenancy in place too more easily - so so soul destroying to have to somewhat angle ones own truth to an unhealthier truth so as just to afford a roof being all the Londoners bout any affordable one so i am on their side but also know they participate in a system of cages - labelling young and eaving them in a metaphorical pheasant pen when they need to be treated as normally as possible because many of these things are just phases - with better parenting, is a trap a tragic trap) claim all their kids are adhd autistic well lets utilise these 'propensities'; Nice accurate long checklists of facts. The facts of environmental law. Existing. And wander checking what is not being complying with.
Crime is crime. If said ecocidere of a local wasteland overgrown steep unusable fring land spot - before he ecodided.... had his bike stolen from outside the deli, well he would feel he had a duty to society to see it were prosecuted. Funny how there is a bit of imbalance in that value system. Funny how many excuses and waffles you hear when it comes to categorical crimes against the current environmental law in theory carrying considerably harsher penalty than nickin his 50 quid bike.
Asperger's type personalities which every single parent - many on mindfulness courses at bedtime, why they also cannot sleep, claims for their incoming Camilla or Horatio even these days, i believe dont have 'moral' compasses or rather their moral compasses are not polluted by bullshit. A crime is a crime to such a person. When every middle class mother i have known for years claims some similar 'specialness' for their version of Milo or Betty, well the arent 'variants' or even differently abled... the norm so give em what they want! No need for playing social mores they are suposedly forever unable to play acording to their label. Humanity is just numbers and black and white. Baddies and goodies perhaps. Fine.... Use it!
And then there is... well all these recent type A types...
of course complicated by some idiot savant who needs to overcomplicate. For their careeer possibilities by definition they are type A. And it isnt a 'theory' just a
fact: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_A_and_Type_B_personality_theory
30 years ago it was crystal clear which people had developed fairly ambitious master of the universe traits off the telly... (that's all that happened) or been infected by some type A neighbour or family friend... they dreamed of DB7s at bedtime and lusted after them or at least some haute bourgeois status symbol and some got them too, often at any cost. That's all a Master of The Universal Type A personality is.
I have a theory, that maybe the very recent wave of Immos plague of them my way.... i think they could in fact be used. Type As at least have one good quality: they can sniff bullshit after all it is how they made their filthy lucre so as to be able to buy our poor houses here.... for absurd overprices.. and it sticks in their nostrils.
Well, maybe its time to try and harness them.... and they do adore 'success' ... me i adore my own many years of failure even if i did try my best... this is all just for fun... and a perfect well chronicled example of what to DO...to my fledglings...or in more modernspeakish, mentored free thinkers being mentored on quite standard politics with good values, in their 20s.
And for them, i do go all the way...always. And win.
The following link is here of Something Understood 6 June because it is a lovely example of how the 'downside' of poverty is all that the journalist of today can ever focus on when in fact there are many upsides. I know as I am happiest person I know. Despite the pandemic of atomisation that swept over UK as we entered this century which so fractures rural existence as well.
MEANIES OF THE BBC ONLY ALOW A MONTH OF LISTENING
EXPIRES EARLY JULY 2021
Following the Archbishop of Canterbury’s recent remarks about the problem of hunger in the UK, Mark Tully considers social and personal attitudes towards poverty.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06y96gs