Not supervillains. Images from Wikipedia.

Just a bunch of ordinary fools who think they’re special

FDR famously said that the only thing we need to fear is fear itself. I think he was right about that. Right now, millions of us — maybe billions — are afraid that a group of powerful demonic evil-doers are engaging in a dastardly plot to cook the planet for profit. They are rampaging and we are unable to stop them.

The schemers are people like Charles Koch and Joe Manchin. And oil executives and billionaire tycoons. They are fearsome opponents and there is no way ordinary people like us can defeat these malevolent geniuses. We need a superhero. We keep looking for one. But our hero never arrives.As the wildfires flare up, as temperatures skyrocket, as we see death and destruction and our world literally ending before our eyes, we wonder: what went wrong?

Fantasy Land

What went wrong is we succumbed to a fantasy. We saw towering shadows of small weak men — and they looked like brilliant giants. What we actually saw were old morons pissing in the pool in which they and their children were swimming — and they thought they were getting away with something. Really, really stupid. These are no Brainiacs. Or Lex Luthors.

These are small men living in a fantasy world. They were born to wealth or acquired it through scheming or luck. And then they decided to pursue some petty lifetime goals — like getting more money and more power and perhaps fame and respect. Only our fear of them, our respect for their “power”, and a system that glorifies these doofuses allows them to live out their ridiculous fantasies.

They’re living in a fantasy land. The problem is, we too are living in a fantasy land. We believe in their genius, their power and their invincibility. But their “power” is 100% dependent on our willing participation in their fantasies.

Joe Manchin can’t operate a coal mine. Hell, he’d be horrified if he got dirt under his fingernails. Charles Koch? He doesn’t produce anything at all. He issues orders. Koch probably can’t walk confidently without a cane. Most of these “supervillains” are rather old, too. Many are very old. Many will be dead soon. Why are we letting these lame idiots destroy our Earth forever when they are only a couple of years from the grave?

Seeing Clearly

All we need to do is see reality clearly. We can choose NOT to participate in their fantasies. We can say no. We can remove them from their positions. In fact, sometimes we do remove despots and thugs. When we choose to do it, it’s easier than we would have guessed. We simply stand in the streets. We tell them to leave. We say we aren’t going away. We simply refuse to cooperate. We don’t fire a shot.

And the “powerful” run away. They flee from the Soviet Union, from the Middle East, from Eastern Europe. And a few weeks ago, from Sri Lanka. And it’s not super heroes who make them flee. It’s ordinary people like you and me. It’s people who don’t want to put up with their shit. It’s people who love this beautiful planet. It’s people who care for and protect their children from old child abusers.

It’s me. It’s you. It’s us.

All we need to do is raise awareness and make the decision to act. It takes some vision and some stubbornness. But no more than that.

We have a framework for making this happen. It’s called A Climate Declaration. Download it. Read it. Share it. Live it.