There is an activist group known as just stop oil. If you’d like to know a bit about them, here is a basic Google search for them.
Just Stop Oil (JSO) wants the UK to stop approving new fossil fuel projects, which are a major cause of climate change. The group says it uses “non-violent civil resistance” and will stop protesting when the government announces an end to fossil-fuel production.
If you would like to visit their site, you can visit them here. https://juststopoil.org/
The first time I tried to access it I needed to use a VPN. So they have made some waves.
From the BBC
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-63543307
JSO tag for the Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/just-stop-oil
Commentary
This is a media entity. They have a public face and they have a public function. They collect money and donations and the direct public actions and political statements, basically street theater, in the hope of raising public awareness and pulling people towards their political ideas. They don’t want fossil fuels anymore. They want to make a world without them.
They have a color. They have a brand. I think if you actually ran into one of their protests, it would be pretty weak. I’m not saying that they are not effective but I am saying that you are rarely going to find so many people working there. In any actual physical civil situation, there will be way, way more people going about their business than there are protesters. There will be more cops than protesters and if their job is to stop traffic, traffic will be an overwhelmingly larger number than theirs. They are not a massive military entity that can simply threaten or physically move aside their opponent. They are just a bunch of people trying to stop traffic for the sake of public health.
In Belarus, there really are no regulations for environmental protection. There are no regulations regulating Russia being able to do whatever they want business-wise to the Republic. They can put any business they want here and they can use any tactics they want to ensure that their business is successful. It’s the mafia in probably the most suffocating form possible.
Two things happen to protesters here. The first thing is that outwardly, they can make their protest. They have to sign in with the police and they need a license to do their action. This means that the police get to stand around threatening people and making everyone uncomfortable instead of allowing for an educational experience. But if you go through the legal mumbo jumbo of actually getting to be a protester, you will end up looking very shaggy next to the government protest in the opposite direction. Visually, you will be overwhelmed by the grandeur of the government public scene. They are the real rock stars and it’s easy to say that you want them instead of these shabby little mongirls. You always want to vote for power is the point and they love making this point.
The second thing that happens to them is they start getting publicly censored. I know lots of people who tried to speak out politically in Belarus. This is to say that I know lots of broken people.
We used to have more of them. There used to be kind of a thought that activism was a good thing. Some people actually equate political protest with being good citizens. Being aware and making your voice heard. You want the best for your people. We want to protect your family or your community. You want to be a good person. Of course you would be politically active. Wrong. This is exactly what you don’t want unless you truly want an isolated life. I lead an isolated life. I know what happens when people play politics here. There is the most awesomest power and then there’s everything else that doesn’t agree with it.
So of course a land without political opposition is a land of death. It is possible to have Utopian politics. It is possible to have a self-sustaining enterprise that works wherever people choose for themselves as places to live. It is possible to have a functioning public voice and the allowance of a vested interest in one’s community. Of course we could do this but we don’t. We don’t do anything like this. We just keep juggling private interest groups that require too much from the planet. These people prove profitable and suppliers of currency to lawmakers so we never actually stop listening to them. As long as we are acquiring wealth, we are screwed. And this is especially true in a world of 8 billion human beings all of whom think they need a car.
The Russians were nice enough to provide an opposition for us. It’s much like the current presidential debate in America. You can have Biden or you can have the opposition. Or you can have Trump and you can have the opposition. Between the both of them, you can generate a blue team and a red team and billions upon billions of dollars being spent on public demonstrations arguing whether we want the geriatric puppet on the left or the geriatric puppet on the right. The Russians provided an entire cult of opposition where they dragged out a red and white flag and made it an auto show. Of course the revolution needed cars and industry and technology. Of course the Belarusian revolution was about money.
I don’t use gasoline except when I take deliveries. The first guy from the first delivery service drove a hybrid. Nobody gives a shit about that anymore and that guy’s well gone. Another virgin out in front of the temple inviting you into the sleez. I don’t much like the smell of gasoline. I don’t like the smell of auto emissions. I don’t like being covered in oil and grease. I don’t really think the petrochemical business is healthy for us at all. I really wish they would stop giving me plastic on everything I buy. I really wish they would stop this. I really wish they would stop thinking in money.
In the meantime, if you are in London and on your way to work it might be possible to be stopped by 20 or 30 people chained together wearing orange clothing. They will just be sitting in the road maybe. Hey get out of the road, I need to go to work! They don’t understand this and they don’t care about your personal situation. They don’t care if you need money or not. They say everybody needs money but we need a nice environment to live in more. We need to stop polluting the world they say and this is more important than you getting to work on time. Usually it doesn’t take too long and usually the police will just drag them away. The police will come and put everything in order so that traffic can continue to roll. Don’t worry. You’ll get to work.
Meanwhile, maybe you can talk to these guys and see if they need some help. Or maybe you can start doing everything you can to get gasoline out of your life. Making conscious decisions away from using one’s car is a good way to get started. There’s lots of things you can do to help the environment and your own environment. There’s a lot you can do to make yourself more comfortable. Maybe saying no to the oil business is a good way to start.
