Why Our Group, The Saners, Doesn’t Harshly Judge People and Instead Focuses on Consequential Actions

Photo by Chris LeBoutillier on Unsplash

It’s not a gotcha game, aimed at calling people hypocrites. It’s about loving people, life, and our planet-and protecting all three.

It’s odd for an avowed climate activist to say nice things about people doing bad stuff. But why not? We all do bad stuff. We’re human. We live in the civilization into which we were born.

And this current civilization rewards and even requires a whole lot of very, very bad behavior.

Me AND Them, Not Versus Them. In Fact, US!

As it happens, I’ve never owned a car. Day-to-day, I walk nearly everywhere or take public transportation. This year, I quit eating beef. In my home, we do not have central air. We depend on three air conditioners, that we use sparingly. They are mostly new and fairly energy efficient.

That’s not merit. I still eat other animals. I take airplanes. I’ve been on two luxury cruises. There’s plenty of things I do that are not climate-friendly.

It doesn’t matter. It really doesn’t. I know that it kind of does. A little. A very little. But actually it doesn’t matter.

My individual climate-friendly actions are for my benefit-symbolic acts to keep the issue top of mind. They do not and cannot significantly affect our planet. I know that.

Do you have a lawn? Is that environmentally unfriendly? That’s okay. It’s 2024 and all of that will change. Join The Saners. Save the planet.

Do you live in a huge house with central air and a heated swimming pool? No problem. You were born into a civilization that portrays those as signs of success. Together, we will learn to value and enjoy life, not things. We’ll get there. Join The Saners. Save the planet.

Are you the CEO of a giant oil company? Do you manage a business that’s heavily responsible for ruining the biosphere and endangering everyone, and likely dooming everyone’s children to a life of post-apocalyptic struggle? Well, we are going to stop you. But we also understand: you were born into a civilization that lionizes wealth and power. This was the carrot dangled in front of you, and you took it.

Yes, it was a bad move, but an understandable one. We don’t hate you for it. We see that many of us, under the same conditions, would have behaved similarly. But make no mistake: Big Oil will be ended. Every person, including oil workers from the bottom up (ALL the way up) will lose their jobs. BUT they will not be allowed to suffer, will not be punished. Only the destructive actions, the extraction, production, sale and burning of fossil fuels, will be stopped.

We take care of people. Only deadly activities must go.

In fact, Mr. CEO, we invite you to stop what you are doing and become one of us. Join The Saners. Save the planet. The world will be stunned, but your grandchildren will adore you for it.

Consequential Actions

There will be a battle of consequential actions, not trivial personal behaviors.

It will be death versus life. Senseless premature death is in charge. Death for profit. Death for ideology. Yes, death is winning. Death doesn’t even see any credible opposition. The forces championing death (somewhat unwittingly) are already taking a victory lap.

But that’s premature.

There’s an opposition. A big opposition. It’s estimated that 6.4 billion people worldwide are worried about climate change and want something done about it. The death merchants number in the thousands.

They are badly outnumbered. But it gets worse for their scheme than that. The ultra-wealthy businessmen, the big fossil fuel profiteers, don’t actually do any of the work. They don’t run oil wells or refineries. They don’t work at gas stations. They don’t drive trucks that ship oil.

They hold meetings and issue orders. Their power is entirely dependent on people taking and acting on their orders. Once even some people stop, say no, or slow down the work, “make mistakes” or stay home-well, the house of cards starts to collapse.

And once some have the guts to start, others will follow. If we offer an alternate vision, a better world, then the trickle of noncooperators can become a raging torrent.

This is the natural dynamic of movements. With a well-executed strategy, this is simply what usually happens. This is a historic truth.

The Saners Wants To Harness People Power. And Love.

Hate and fear are powerful motivators. We can see this around the world as angry and violent people, who rage against imaginary enemies, promote fascism and fascists everywhere. Evil appears to be ascendent.

But hate and fear aren’t the only motivators. They are the most visible because there is a lot of it, and it generates a lot of publicity. It makes compelling images. And soundbites. The media are pushing it, not because they necessarily support this evil, but because they profit from it. And they consider it to be news.

We must tune all of that out. We must turn the channel and click away whenever we spot even a glimpse of any image, sound or mention of Donald Trump or Nigel Farge or whoever. These people have nothing to say to us-we know who and what they are.

These fascists are friends of fossil fuel profiteers. They are all about drill, drill, drill. They are both STUPID and unspeakably cruel.

But THIS is important: we should not hate them. They are just people. They are being foolish and what they are trying to do is dangerous and cruel. And it is what the are doing that we must stop. Never, ever harm a person. Our plan is to ignore them, make their ideas and hate less visible, and simply make the evil too weak to continue.

When we listen to, and argue with and repeat their words and keep them on center stage, under the spotlight, we keep fascism alive and flourishing. They need us to react, and desperately need us to not take charge of the conversation. When love dominates the stage, hate slithers away.

This is an opportunity we must seize. Do not listen. Just vote for the sane people. Just vote for the decent human beings who can win. Vote for Kamala Harris and all of the Democrats. Vote for the top opponents of the UK fascist parties.

We love our planet. We love our children. We love life. We even love our enemies who are, after all, simply imperfect human beings like ourselves. We reject hate, and we reject cruel and deadly actions. It’s pretty simple, actually.