Posted on October 1, 2010
by Adam Ramsay |
15 Comments
So, 1010 have, it seems, attempted to gain publicity by releasing a film
which was clearly going to be controversial, waiting for people to upload
it onto youtube, then removing it and apologising.
I'm going to do exactly what they want, and post the film. It’s here:
http://brightgreenscotland.org/index.php/2010/10/that-1010-film-brave-bold-bad/
This well worn tactic for ensuring things ‘go viral’ is, of course,
pretty clever. It is also taking a big risk. They take the chance of
offending lots of people by producing something which is genuinely
different and likely to generate discussion.
So, for these reasons, they should be congratulated. Too often, NGOs
chicken out of doing anything scary because if anyone objects, then the
action is seen as ‘too controversial’.
Activists should be controversial. The opposite is being
ignored.
However, I’m afraid I’m going to line up with the ranks of lefty bloggers
saying that this really was pretty terrible.
I have no problem using images of people being blown up to make a point.
I understand the arguments around violent imagery, but if it helps
communicate a message as urgent as the need for rapid action on climate
change, then fine.
The problem is not that it was a bad way to communicate the message. The
problem is that it was a very good way to communicate a very bad message:
essentially, it says ‘climate change is your fault. You should be feeling
more liberal guilt. If you don’t, you are evil. Even if you are a
small child.’
And if you blame people for something that they don’t feel like they have
actively chosen to do, then they don’t feel guilt. They feel like they
are under attack, and so they defend. They deny. If you don’t believe
this, then look at the fact that the Act on CO2 campaign earlier this
year was one of the biggest publicity campaigns in the history of the
British Government. Yet it corresponded to one of the biggest increases
in climate denial. It’s true that the lies about the Climate Research
Unit provided a hook for this, but people were certainly very quick to
believe the story.
More to the point, not only is it counterproductive to make people feel
like they are individually to blame for climate change, it is also a
lie.
Over-consumption of fossil fuels is not something that happens because of
the individual consumer decisions we make, but because of our economic
system, our transport system, our planning system – how we organise our
society.
And yes, we are all responsible for these things. But we are responsible
not as consumers but as citizens. When 10:10 tell people that we must
reduce our carbon footprints or we are evil people, they are reinforcing
the lie that we can successfully solve a massive problem which how we
arrange our society by changing our personal consumer habits. And until
we stop reinforcing this lie, we will never avert climatic
disaster.
Now, that isn’t true of the whole 10:10 campaign. In fact, they have done
a good job of getting big businesses, and even governments, to sign up
(though whether they should be allowing some of those who have to use
their brand is quite rightly controversial). But it is true of this
film.
So, given the discussion that this film has generated (which I am guilty
of perpetuating) we can only say, hats off to 10:10. NGOs always try to
get films to ‘go viral’. We almost always fail. They have communicated
their message very effectively.
But unfortunately the message that they have reinforced in the film is
one which is massively damaging to the climate movement as a whole. 10:10
say in their apology that they will learn lessons from this. I hope that
people don't take away from this whole episode the false lesson that
shock tactics and risks and controversy are a bad idea. I hope we do
learn that if you launch an attack on the people you are trying to win
over, you will inevitably fail.