Earth Liberation Front - You Know… Morons!!

I found this worrying article over one www.weearth.com. The genius’s over at E.L.F. are at it again. ‘”Built Green? Nope black!” read a spray-painted sign bearing the ELF initials at the now devastated site.’ Cute. Some new recruit definitely got the day off for that one. As he walked home, he probably spent most of the time trying to not walk on any insects or bump into any flies. He or she probably liberated a dog from the cruel hand that feeds it. Or maybe he burnt to the ground every pet shop on his route, punishing the ‘animal’ who owned it.

You can loose focus in this game. For those of us who truly believe in this great earth that we are a part of, the work of the ELF is disturbing, distracting and counter-productive. It is hard enough trying to imagine a world where earth’s population entire is not living in a way that is killing the earth (let alone trying to make that a reality) without this kind of angry, childish behavior making a mockery of everyone’s hard work.

I am not even going to say, ‘well, we agree with their opinions but…’. Why forgive them because they have some moral basis for their actions. I think most of the time this argument is used simply because people are happy at least someone is making a stand. Well let me tell you something brothers and sisters, we don’t need these fools. We already have the high moral ground, and if we hold onto that and act in ways that allow us to keep that, then progress can be made. I am saying this quite bluntly - the actions of these guys are picking away at that day by day.

It’s like watching Paul Greengrass’ ‘Bloody Sunday’. You are faced with a scene where terrible injustices are being done. Anger rages at the powerful elite who are behind it. Those who choose to speak out against them have the high moral ground. They campaign peacefully, despite the fact that their oppressors play dirty. They appeal to peoples hearts. Slow progress is made as the atrocities continue.

But these are desperate times and many in the community can only see one way to fight back. They see themselves as ‘liberators’ and/or revolutionaries. The strong dedicated knights in shining armor who won’t be walked over, who won’t pussy-foot their way through the system. They will take down the system. They will make a stand. (Or die in the process???).

But what happens? Their shock tactics hand the moral ground back to the oppressors and distract everyone from the moral fight at the centre of the argument. The violence becomes the story rather than the original sin that inspired it. It is pretty obvious when you think about it. It’s just a pity no-one in ELF got the memo.

Many orgnisations like this were borne from movements against ‘the man’ rising from the massive changes globally in the late 50’s and early 60’s. These were all necessary movements that inspired generations. They were great things. They provided us with icons and a mythology we could believe in.

The angry side of the ‘environmental movement’ evolved out of this mythology. It’s understandable. And its admirable. There is a lot to be angry about. There are a lot of people and orgnisations who need to have the finger pointed at them. But this topic is no longer in the same vain as human rights, global economic injustices or the anti-war movement. It’s not about toppling dictators, bringing down bankers, burying industrialists, or ousting generals.

It does not, nor should it, have ‘the need to fight the man’ at its core. These guys and gals aren’t in the sewers of Paris fighting the Nazis. They aren’t crawling through the killing fields under the noses of the Khmer Rouge. They aren’t in the campuses of America protesting the Vietnam War. And they sure as shit aren’t fighting for survival on the Gaza strip.

What they are in is a situation where every government official, every corporate spokesman, every blogger, every farmer, every industrialist, every politician, every housewife and every man woman and child on this great living rock of ours needs to take stock and ask themselves what they believe in, what they respect; and live accordingly. And if they don’t well then they are not realists. And those not in touch with reality, when the stakes are so high, should be fired or asked to leave - not burned at the stake.

In a situation like this, the ‘work’ of the ELF just seems like the mindless acts of childish aggravators. All they are really aggravating is the work of good people with true vision. They are damaging everything most people who respect the earth believe in, and doing it in the name of those same people. They make a man like myself with only revolution on his mind sound like a conservative. But I know that there are acts that lead to revolution in how people live and perceive the world around them, and there are acts in the name of revolution, that lead nowhere, at least nowhere good.

You can check out Wikipedia for the dramatic, clandestine tale of what they have done over the years and the personalities that have inspired their actions. Actually don’t bother, because I can tell you what they have really done and what they will continue to do if allowed.

1 - They have caused a lot of damage (they are arsonists after all).

2 - They have threatened to hand the moral authority over to the perpetrators.

3 - They have given ammunition to those who would castigate and look down on the movement.

4 - They have associated in the minds of ordinary people the idea that the environmental movement can be bullish, violent, out of the mainstream and destructive. For ill informed people who get this news, it becomes something to be feared.

5 - They have distracted people away from the core of this issue - that we are all in this together, that we all play our part, that we all belong, and that we all have to work hard to kill this addiction.

6 - They have caused (and will continue to do so) an immediate split in the global community trying to combat the problem.

This movement needs to be mainstream. Everybody has their part to play. We need to get everyone on the same team. It is all very well to battle the ‘man’ when he is sitting up in his tower dictating to the masses. But the enemy here is not a corporation or a government. The enemy is the system that has evolved over generations under which we live our lives; a system that necessitates the destruction of the planet for its own survival; a system that we all rely on; a system that we all need to change.

Why does it need to be mainstream? Because people need to believe in it and be inspired by it. We are so disconnected from the earth in our daily lives it is clear why its health does not form part of our basic value system. If ordinary people value it, they will live their lives by it, they will make sacrifices for it, and they will feel fulfilled because of that. This will help evolve a new system. This is only one part of what needs to be done but it is a very important part. So people need to be educated and inspired by the environmental movement, not live in fear of it.

Their manifesto sounds like it came from a bunch of students sitting around a flat arguing against ‘the man’, disconnected from the everyday realities of the real contemporary systems around them. The ideas they were throwing around eventually engineered an overall philosophy. In the frenzy of debate, they imagined an extreme solution to the problem, and a few decided to dedicate themselves to this idea.

I have nothing against this process overall. Some of the great movements dotted throughout the human experience came about in such ways. It is the extreme consequences and extreme stupidity of their solution that I abhor.

Number 1 = To inflict maximum economic damage on those profiting from the destruction and exploitation of the natural environment.

(How about inspiring ordinary people - the marketplace - to boycott these organisations? Surely if you hit the profit margins of those greedy people who you claim yourselves are inspired by profits alone, that should hurt a little)

Number 2 = To reveal to, and to educate the public about the atrocities committed against the earth and all species that populate it.

(Too man good people are doing this already to mention - people who abhor you’re methods. Why don’t you start an internet campaign, peacefully block the entrance to every major oil company headquarters in the world, get the people talking about it).

Number 3 = To take all necessary precautions against harming any animal - human and nonhuman.

(FYI - you don’t need to live by the above two ‘guidelines’ in order to achieve the 3^rd. I know 80 year old nuns living in convents that can do this)

In the end we can only hope their actions will amount to nothing more than an unfortunate sideline to the overall tale. Most people never heard of them so what I am saying could be scare mongering - but I fear how this madness might grow.

Unless they are prepared to fly planes into the headquarters of BP or sail a small boat with a nuclear device into a major oil refinery, I can’t see them entering the official history books in any meaningful way. What annoys me is that having read their manifesto and seen their promotional videos, my mind tells me that such a statement might only inspire some of them to take the plunge in order to make themselves heard.

They probably feel you need to hit people over the head with this stuff in order to get them to listen, like John Doe in ‘Seven’. But here’s a point. In a contest between Jesus Christ and John Doe, how many people do you think did each convince to convert to Christianity and follow ‘God’s’ word? John Doe = 0 (give or take). Jesus = (keep counting, you’ll get there eventually). In fact I could name a few people I know personally who ‘fell from the faith’ exactly because of the extremist shite spouted by the like of John Doe - and this is in Godless Ireland of today.

The usual argument against these guys is ‘get a job, pay taxes, contribute’. I am not like that. I see dedicated, passionate and angry people with a similar outlook to myself doing untold damage to the cause that both they and I believe in. Often I feel jealous that they have the balls to go out and do something about it but this goes back to my earlier point about somebody taking a stand.

So I tell you what. You with the balls to go out and do something. Inspire me. Shut me up. Put your effort into something great. You are dedicated, connected, well organised and you don’t care what people say about you. So stop fucking it up. Stop giving them ammunition. Stop making victims of those who are causing such blatant damage to our earth. Stop feeding more doubt into confused, misled and powerful conservative minds.

‘I don’t hate you. I dread you’. I fear for you. I want to talk sense into you. I want to help you use whatever passion that lies within you for good.

PROTEST. Be Gandhi. Be Martin Luther King. Be John Hume. Be David fucking Attenborough. Give us our icons; our mythology. Take the moral high ground. Inspire people. Make them look into their own hearts and act. Show them what we are fighting for. Make them believe as you do.

Here, Mr and Mrs ELF, is a little fact for you, expanded from an earlier point, and I’d like you to take it on board. All of these corporations (and I might add, poverty stricken people in places you have never been) are raping the earth for profits. They make these profits by supplying what they make to a marketplace. YOU, and everybody around YOU, are the marketplace. The marketplace (that’s YOU and everybody YOU know and many people YOU don’t yet know) supplies the profits. Why don’t YOU spend your short time on this earth ensuring that the marketplace ceases to provide such profits to such organisations. You can do this at both the supply end, and the delivery point.

Think about it. I wish you luck. In the interim, please leave the rest of us to spend what little time we have on this great planet in the pursuit of what we believe in, in the best way we know how.