This week we contemplated the content of two absolutely smashing articles, "You probably know to ask yourself, “What do I want?” Here’s a better question", and "Blockadia: The New Climate Warriors". These two articles work together to start a narrative on identity, hope, and determination. Naomi Kleins’ conversation about Blockadia grapples with the popular notions that economically fueled overexploitation of the global environment is an unstoppable phenomenon of the modern age. She counters this doom-and-gloom yarn with a shotgun-strategy of stories regarding unlikely allies and unforeseen champions standing up against a common threat - Fossil Fuel extraction.
Cowboys & Indians, Greek Youth, French villagers, Nigerian Ogoni, Canadian First Nations, and working-class Richmond residents are all players on Kleins stage, working with varying degrees of awareness of each others’ struggles to fight back against the unrestrained interests of an industry with no regard for human health. Sure, we’ve all heard success-stories of small pockets of social justice here and there across the globe, but Kleins’ article forces us to look a little closer to see the big picture.
As fossil fuels become a scarcer resource, fossil fuel finders must work harder and use more extreme measures to acquire their next payload. This helps explain the rise of Hydraulic Fracturing AKA “Fracking” as a global conversation piece. While the new technology enables this industry to extract oil from places never before considered economically viable, it has not enabled them to roll right over the peoples who live on top of their product. Naomi Klein is showing us that this uncanny mix of resistant communities from across the globe have become entrenched in an issue that could soon become everyone’s issue - if I don’t want devastatingly pollutive oil facilities in my backyard, then where will they go? Well, as the French residents of Saint-Tropez said, “Not Here, Not Anywhere”.
Blockadia’s current track record shows us that as the struggle to keep oil in the ground continues, the spread of oil-extraction industries is being stamped out while the established drilling “homelands” of the Midwest, Canada, Europe, and Africa have for the most part maintained their grip. However, Klein is showing us that where fracking attempts have been squashed by local resistance, the momentum spreads out to other communities, serving to hedge the exploitative industry in. Each new addition to Blockadia caused by an overzealous fracking is another straw on the metaphorical camels’ back for the fossil fuel industry.
This is where Mark Manson’s article comes in. His short and sweet article asks the reader to ask themselves a hard question; What are you willing to struggle for in life? This question is delivered as an alternative to the flabby, generic soul-searcher default question of “what makes you happy?”. In short, this article demands you reframe the way you look at happiness to recognize the steps needed to take to live a fulfilling life. For people like me who struggle with the subjective dichotomy between pursuing a “happy” life and contributing my part to the betterment of the world, this article was a much needed kick in the pants. Both of these articles serve the same conceptual dish, albeit with different garnish. They offer the reader an unadulterated viewpoint on how the power of one’s attitude can make the difference between making something impossible or possible. I encourage everyone to read these two articles and ask yourself, “what are you going to do when they come for the oil in your back yard?”. Just don't forget, we're all in this together.
No comments:
Post a Comment