'Wilful blindness' could demand running naked

A 93-year-old mother, whose family wisely fled the Nazi holocaust approaching Poland in 1937 maintains, "Nobody thought it would be that bad. Nobody wanted to believe it."

Cassandra from
Greek mythology.

This striking similarity between the evolution of the Nazi war/death machine and climate change is employed by Lyn Bender in her article “Climate change: our wilful blindness” published on On-Line Opinion on Monday, March 11.

Recently, those who gather Beneath the Wisteria in Shepparton’s Maude St, discussed the idea of civil disobedience, such as running naked down the street to create a disturbance, and Bender argues for civil disobedience in protest about the use of coal and fossil fuels.

She says: “Cassandra in ancient Greek mythology was given the gift of true prophecy, but the curse of not being believed. Many Cassandras are warning us that it is time for civil disobedience and opposition to coal and fossil fuels. But we are largely not heeding the warnings.”

Running naked, civil disobedience and climate change

Edmund Burke.

Those who gather Beneath the Wisteria in Shepparton recently discussed the idea of civil disobedience.

The tongue in cheek conversation was about running naked through the city’s Maude St Mall, but all agreed much more could yet be done to draw the public’s attention to the seriousness of climate change before resorting to such tactics.

Dr Jeremy Sammut, a research fellow at the Centre for Independent Studies, discussed civil disobedience in a recent article Melbourne Age headed: “Coal hoax fails to dig deep without a martyr to the cause”.

A “kicker headline” on the story said: “Protesters need to face legal consequences to sway public opinion”.

Alerting us to this story, supporter Terry Court said: “I wonder who the gutless ones in this argument are. Nevertheless I have to do more”.

Terry’s sentiment is understandable, but the forces ranged against accepting the realities and implications of climate change are driven by massive self-interest and so those of us who gather Beneath the Wisteria need to remember the observation of Edmund Burke.

The 18^th century statesman, author, orator, political theorist and philosopher once said in an almost prescient manner: “No one could make a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little”.

Those of us who regularly gather Beneath the Wisteria are really doing only a little, but at least we are doing something!