There’s a new activism trend abound. Gluing yourself to things and places in the name of your cause, whatever that may be, glue related or not. Protestors glued themselves to pavements and roads in the UK, and at an NBA game a woman ran on the court and glued her hand to the hardwood. I always considered sticking it to the man to be more of a metaphorical call to arms than instructions.
Activism itself is an interesting topic. To care about a cause so much you’re willing to sacrifice yourself (or at least the top layer of skin off your right palm) for it. The only cause I can say I care about that much, is against the people who don’t reset the microwave to 0 after they’ve used it, so you can’t just press go for the quick option you have to go through all the boring microwave red tape just to heat your sausage roll. Now that’s a cause worth glueing yourself to the road or a lamppost or the local post box for.
My problem with activism is it’s quite a conceited endeavour. To feel so righteous in ones opinion, to think that you and those supporting your cause are right and everyone else wrong (or at least wilfully ignorant) is quite a statement in itself. I’m not sure i’m that confident in any of my opinions on anything (apart from this one, irony be dammed). Not only to be so steadfast in your opinion, but also that you have identified the exact cause and culprit for the issue, so much so, you take up arms (or glue down arms now apparently) in the name of the cause.
Normally the protests are aimed and targeted towards those at fault, but I was surprised when reading about the glue protests in London this week that they seem to be a bit confused. Before we proceed, the ‘glue protests’ refer to those using glue and not those about glue, I don’t think they exist yet. Well not least until horses can communicate and organise marches (trots? gallops?) against it. Even then they would probably lose once Neil from Art Attack got involved in the pro-glue campaign. Anyway, the protesters in London were targeting Lloyd’s, the insurers of the oil companies, rather than the actual oil companies. A move akin to arresting the parents of a criminal rather than the murderer themselves. Calling for the heads of everyone who engages with an oil company becomes a slippery slope. It only takes a few degrees of separation before we’re all being sentenced. I just hope all those activists biked to the protest.
But does it work? Well it does a bit. The glue usually holds them down for a while and makes it harder for them to be removed, it’s more of a delay strategy than a permanent concept. Oh does the activism work? Well it does a bit. It gets people talking (clearly), but does it get anyone on their side? Maybe not, but it does increase exposure and that can lead to more conversations about these things. Protests do ~sort of~ work, which offers a darwinian explanation for why they still exist. Saying that i’m not actually sure what any of the protests were about. They’ve made a great advert but it’s not about the product so nobody remembers to buy. That along with a lack of solutions, any marketer worth their salt will tell you there needs to be a CTA, or at least some semblance of an ask. It’s fine to point out problems in the world, but when you don’t offer a solution it’s not much use. If doctors merely diagnosed patients then sent you packing, you wouldn't be best pleased. In fact we’d probably be protesting about that, gluing our hands to things, then meekly turning up to the hospital for a diagnosis, and the wheel spins again.
The other issue with activism is it has a class problem. Taking time out of your day/week to glue yourself to some companies front desk isn’t a luxury provided to people who need money (from actually going to their jobs) the most. These problems are luxury problems. It smacks of rich celebrities calling to ‘defund the police’ from their gated communities, with all the skin in the game of a briss. Global warming is a problem facing us all, but so are rising fuel costs. Banning oil is easy to call for when you’ve got money (ironically) to burn. Choosing the eve of a massive fuel cost jump to hijack petrol stations and shout about (effectively) making oil more expensive has all the sensitivity of promoting cheap flights on 9/12.
People are welcome to protest and make themselves heard about whatever they want - there’s no disputing that. Often however, activism for a cause fails to address the nuance of the issues at hand, resulting in single cause problem/solution narratives. Like proposing to fix the problem of dogs fouling in the park by going on a puppy murdering spree1. Like the man with the hammer, to the activist with the PVC hand, the world’s a sticky place.
Obviously the answer is to shoot the owners, not the dogs
Glue is kinda amateur. There was a guy who nailed his scrotum to the Red Square. Few.
How does one pick a favorite line? I read " I just hope all those activists biked to the protest." and had a good laugh. Surely this is the best joke in this piece. Nay! The briss joke was also stellar. Lovely as usual.