As long as we’re on the topic (for the last time, at least for a good long while) I decided to move this post up (and several others still to appear).
The context is this video by Katie Goodman of Broad Comedy. It’s a little ditty that uses “f**ked” as a hook and to entertain, but that nonetheless touches on some important points relevant to mobilizing the public.
For most of the points I am going to do no more than note them in the expectation of returning to them at some later time. You may argue that I read too much into a comedic song, but I think that the lyrics resonate with the audience because they touch on truths regardless of the light nature of this particular context.
OK, that’s understated. In a microcosm it pretty much sums up where we are and why we are stuck here. Kudos to Katie for raising those points, but the really scary interesting scary thing about this video is the comments people made about it.
First watch the video if you care to (and are not too offended by the F-word) and then we can get to my points.
.
When I first saw the video my immediate thought was that it should be the anthem for the youth climate justice movement. Let’s take a quick walk through some of the lyrics:
There’s never been a time
as fucked up as this
No argument there, not for humans anyway. Maybe the Toba eruption, and I understand the PETM was pretty nasty for most species, but that’s pedantic quibbling.
I didn’t fuck it up
You probably didn’t fuck it up
Pretty much true if the audience is under 25 (plus or minus) or not from the privileged 20% of the global population. Other than that, not so true. However, I am willing to bet that virtually everyone feels that it applies to them. That’s a key point and a difficult one for us. No one wants to feel responsible, yet in the privileged industrialized world pretty much all of us are.
That’s right, shift the blame
The lyrics resonate as they both avoid responsibility for the mess, with the added bonus of implying that one is also unable to do anything about it. This is probably as important as not being culpable. After all, even if one is not responsible for creating the mess some might argue that you should help clean it up if you are able to do so.
I can’t unfuck it up
You probably can’t unfuck it up
Trivially true as it applies to individuals, blatantly false if referring to individuals organizing themselves. Here again most will take it as a more or less 100% exoneration of responsibility to act. The cultural assumption is that all we can do is try to “elect the right people” and hope for the best.
“If we’re counting on them to unfuck it up
then we’re all fucked“
Speaks for itself, but note the contradiction. If I can’t, and you can’t, and they can’t or won’t, then who will? Does no one wonder about this? and if so, what do they conclude? Too often I suspect that the conclusion is that it is hopeless.
You just can’t help feeling bitter that it’s fucked up to begin with,
you just go round and round
A lot of people, particularly younger people, are understandably already pretty angry 
about the bleak future that will be inflicted on them, particularly because it was totally avoidable. That as a society we care more about inconsequential conveniences and self-indulgence than the well being of other people, most particularly our own children, would sure have me wicked off if I was 18.
Directing that anger into positive actions that may do something to change that future is going to be one of the greatest challenges we face. The default is the anger manifesting itself as violence and adding social chaos, a more entrenched opposition, and a Balkanized progressive movement to the the considerable obstacles we already face.
The problem is deep down inside you’re feeling depressed and hopeless, right?
Continue reading at News Junkie Post
Image Credits:
Anti-Chen Protest Day 32 – Million Men March by My Hourglass [Cloud]
Protest in front of Georgian Embassy against arrests of Armenians in Javakhk by 517design
We give our consent every moment that we do not resist.
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Greenfyre's 
Awesome song. Thanks.
Hey, she’s a Bozeman local! Love it.