Deer in Headlights

What do 9/11, a tsunami in Southeast Asia and the 2007 financial crisis have in common, investigates Naomi Klein in her book ‘The Shock Doctrine’. And the answer is simple: the after-effect that they produce, i.e. shock and awe.

Populist world leaders, natural disasters due to exacerbating climate change, failed political negotiations with severe social and environmental implications; it proves hard to connect to this hyper reality and hold on.

And this weakened, disoriented state that this hyperstream of information leaves us in only produces numbness. There is just too much happening to keep up with. Maybe this is why there was absolutely no social uprising following the release of the Paradise Papers.

But what happens when political figures take advantage of this numbness and add to it with diversion techniques, only to aggressively push through their political agendas while no one is paying attention?

Trump bickers with TIME magazine and makes international headlines, while he undermines conservation goals and dismantles the Environmental Protection Agency.

On the other side of the Atlantic, closer to home, the uncertainty of the Brexit negotiations has created a permanent state of confusion for the public. Building on this, members of parliament recently voted that animals do not feel pain in a Brexit bill vote (despite overwhelming scientific evidence contradicting this). This was met with justified outrage and protest by the British public. What has received less scrutiny however is how the conservative government is now rolling back key environmental regulations enshrined in European law, like:

--> The Precautionary Principle

--> The Preventative Action Principle

--> The Polluter Pays Principle

All of these ensure that policy makers, corporations or stakeholders act with due responsibility so as to not compromise public health or damage the environment. If damage is ensued, the polluter is fined appropriately.

Much like plastic debris facilitates species invasions globally, humans are constantly forming new creative pathways to connect. This phenomenon is novel, daunting, amazing, terrifying. It is imperative to not only stay informed (to our best extent), but also stay involved.

This blog has consistently asked for the reader to stay alert, attentive, focused, to question more and to stay with the trouble. One of the slogans used in the climate march in London, leading up to the COP21 negotiations in Paris, was ‘to change everything we need everyone’. Don’t let the shock overtake you, don’t get addicted to its recurrence and monstrous regularity. We need you.

Don’t stress, get out there and express. 



Photo credits: Tassos Vrettos