Strategists and Activists
Environmentalism originates in discontent. You will not find supporters of the status quo among its ranks.
For this reason, every artist in this book advocates for reform. Norms are considered obstructions that must either be destroyed or circumvented.
Occasionally some resort to sabotage, a deliberate act aimed at obstructing or disrupting activities that are considered to be damaging to ecosystems and their populations. Eco-terrorists, for example, might spike trees to ruin the loggers' saws to prevent logging. This is not the tactic of any artist in this book.
Their environmental actions more closely resembly those that are recommended by Dr. Gene Sharp, a political scientist who has dedicated his life to the study of non-violent resistance movements. He is the STRATEGIST who recommends four ‘tasks’:
– Strengthen the oppressed population themselves in their determination, self-confidence, and resistance skills
– Strengthen the independent social groups and institutions of the oppressed people
– Create a powerful internal resistance force
– Develop a wise grand strategic plan for liberation and implement it skillfully.”
The artists in this book tend to be ACTIVISTs whose work is constructive because it induces positive change.
It seems the strategists and the activists need each other in order to motivate others to undertake environmental actions of their own.
Strategies are often too abstract to motivate real change.
Actions are too specific to inspire others to act.
Sharp provides the principles needed to generalize the artists’ actions.
The artists are needed to provide examples of how Sharp’s principles can be applied to real world situations.
Linking them seems to greatly enhance the capacity of each to induce people to protest the status quo and commit to reform. That is how ordinary people can manifest Sharp’s belief that any power structure relies upon the subjects’ obedience. If subjects do not obey, leaders have no power.