Nonviolent Method #9: Leaflets, Pamphlets, & Books

Today we’re gonna look at Method number 9: Leaflets, Pamphlets, and Books.

And I know what you’re thinking, you’re thinking “Oh, leaflets are so 1700’s”.

And I’ve been there, you’re walkin’ down the street and some yahoo gives you a leaflet and you’re like “Ah, dude, no thanks,” and he’s like “Oh, come on take one”, and even if you take one, you’re like “Okay, where’s the next trashcan”, right?

Leaflets are, by and large, bullshit.  You gotta have a repressive regime or something where it’s really daring to hand out leaflets, otherwise people don’t want a leaflet.

I mean, if you’re gonna do a leaflet, it better be eye-catching, it better be funny right from the get-go.

When the Nazis invaded Poland they distributed a bunch of leaflets saying “Oh, the Germans are so great, look at all we’ve achieved.”  So the Poles took that leaflet, and using the same exact design they created a biting satire.  So the Germans thought it was their leaflets people were reading!  “Oh, look, there’s our leaflet again,” but they didn’t realize that what people were reading was “Oh, Germans are dorks!”

If I was gonna use leaflets, I would hand ‘em out to people who were walkin’ into fossil fuel companies or Koch brothers think tanks or, even the network news organizations or their local affiliates – they need to know how bad climate change could really be.  All most people have heard about climate change is “Oh, in a hundred years it could be 3 degrees warmer.”  Big whoop!  Why not try “In a hundred years it could be 18 degrees warmer.  In 20 years it could be 3, 4, 5 degrees warmer!”  No one knows, this has never happened before, people don’t know how fast it’ll unfold.  Scientists are giving their cautious best guesses.  Cautious!  And more and more evidence shows scientists have been underestimating this.  Besides, what if you were 5 degrees warmer and had a temperature of 103.6 degrees and people were all “Big whoop”, and you’d be all “YEAH, big whoop, get me to the hospital, bitch!” 

So the news organizations need to report on what’s really happening because no one knows it, people are seriously uninformed!  Therefore you hand out fliers outside news organizations, you get the oil employees to understand who they’re aiding and abetting, you get the think tank secretaries to realize they’re working for a bunch of the ideologue jerks who are essentially destroying to the world for her kids…or his kids. There are plenty of rugged guys who work as secretaries.  No disrespect.

Also, you could leaflet government bureaucrats at the Department of the Interior or the State Department, people who can green light or slow down fossil fuel requests, and leaflet state government bureaucrats who approve things like fracking permits too!  Let ‘em have it with how bad climate change could be, but always be sure point out that practically all the climate scientists got your back!

Another example is about books, which are quasi worthless because a lot of people have written a lot of books about climate change, “It’s happening!”  “It’s a hoax!”  Whatever!  Books take a long time to read so you’re basically only gonna get people who agree with you to make that time commitment.

The book example I like was in the 18th Century this Russian guy N.G. Chernyshevsky wrote this book in prison called What Is To Be Done, and the censor thought it had already been approved by other censors so he just green-lit it and it got published and then became a blueprint for how to do a revolution.  Very cool, right?

Well, just so happens that I’m hoping this blog kinda helps the climate movement that way.  I mean, in my own humble polar bear way, this is why I’m doing this! 

So, there ya go, that’s method number 9, Leaflets, Pamphlets and Books.  Tomorrow we’ll do method number 10: Newspapers and Journals.

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Nonviolent Method #5 : Declarations of Indictment and Intention

When in the course of human events it becomes necessary to save EVERYONE from untoward catastrophe, it becomes incumbent upon us to form a more perfect movement!

Most of these examples in this book are things you never even heard of, right?  You know, like the Botswana Union of Ministers Rally for Independence, or whatever. 

But here, this is something everybody’s heard of:  The American Declaration of Independence, right?  “When in the course of human events”, baby!  That gives you an idea of just how powerful nonviolent actions can be, I mean, you know that catalyzed people.  It’s like “Wohh!  A Declaration of Independence, that’s heavy duty!”

In South Africa they did this thing called a Freedom Charter, right?  It was essentially a Declaration of Intention, and it talked about how apartheid had to be abolished and then they finished with “These freedoms we will fight for, side by side, throughout our lives, until we have won our liberty.”

Wow!  I love that!  We’re gonna keep at this until we get it done!  And, you know, with climate change it’s not something where you can be like “Aw, fuck it.  I give up.  It’s not worth the effort”.  I mean you’re talkin’ about the destruction of the world, everything’s pretty much worth the effort!  Everything needs to be done, you can’t quit. 

Anyway we should have a Declaration of Intention like that, so you don’t settle with lame, weak solutions and we get the whole planet on board.  That’s how this is gonna work!  You really can’t solve climate change half-way it’s gotta be all the way.  Nature doesn’t care, they’re not gonna be like “Oh, well, you tried hard enough.  That’s fine."  You know, the pack ice won’t melt just because we made an effort.  Right?  The tundra won’t stop thawing just because some of us got it and were able to create modest emission reductions. 

You can’t reason with nature!  Right?  I mean that’s like when that tsunami hit Japan.  You know they built a sea wall that was 30 feet tall.  But they didn’t count on the whole coastline dropping 6 feet below sea level.  So the sea wall wasn’t tall enough!  But the sea didn’t care.  It just went over the wall and just destroyed everything.

That’s the thing about nature and science: it plays by hard, fast rules.  There’s no wiggle room.

So anyway, we need to make such a declaration.  Have it on my desk by Thursday morning.  Or at least, in the comments, post your suggestion of what it should be.

And let’s not forget about the Declarations of Indictment part of the equation.  I mean the fossil fuel industry and the think tanks that spew out all their misinformation, and the politicians that always vote against climate solutions – these guys are guilty of putting all of humanity at risk, right? 

These guys are putting their own ideology and personal wealth above common sense, a staggering amount of scientific evidence, and the well-being of everyone on the planet!  I mean a Declaration of Indictment of these guys is long overdue! 

Instead they get richer and richer and do everything they can to cloud the issue, make people think this isn’t such a big deal, I mean these are high crimes!  Everybody’s gonna look at them like the greatest villains that ever lived!  Climate change is gonna kill way more people than any war ever did.  They’re gonna make Stalin look like an underachiever. 

Anyway, I guess I just did my own Declaration of Indictment.  Dirtbags.

But, you know, since my pack ice is already melted it’s like I come from the future.  I know how bad this is gonna be.  I know who the bad guys are. 

And let’s not give the media a pass either, I mean they could stand a little Declaration of Indictment of their own. 

Future generations (if there are future generations) are gonna look back at today’s newscasts and think “They hardly ever talk about climate change!  What the hey?!”

I mean people tell me that reporters actually want to cover stories but it’s their editors who say “Oh, we did a story about that last year!”  So they continually ignore the biggest crisis in the history of humanity!  And, when they do talk about it, they talk about it like “It’s not gonna be that bad.  I mean, you know, maybe in a hundred years…Oh I’m sorry we have breaking news, there’s a hurricane coming our way. Not that that has anything to do with climate change.”  It’s ridiculous.  So, yeah, these guys deserve a Declaration of Indictment also. 

Students could do a Declaration of Indictment against their administrators saying “Why do you pretend to care about our futures when you’re not making any stand against the greatest threat to our futures?” 

Alright.  Clearly I could go on ad infinitum about this, but Declarations of Indictment and Intention can be effective, and should be considered. 

Alright, gotta go!

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