Wanted prime Movers: No Previous Experience Necessary

I’m afraid some of my regular readers may have noticed I whinge on a bit. This is not a symptom of age, it’s just me. However, I have always felt that if you are in a position to do something about the subject of your whinge, you have not earned the right to whinge unless you try to do something about it. If this rather untidy life has taught me anything the low art of whinging is no more than throwing paint in the air. Whinging needs something more to elevate it to the heights of grand art. The real art lies in the development of arguments which show that the whinge is not only justified, that it is perfectly sensible to do something about it, and that other ‘no action whingers’ should either shut up, or roll their sleeves up. When I hear someone declare, ‘Well, we didn’t have a safe footpath to the school, so we decided to do something about it’, I am filled with admiration. If someone says they like moaning in the absence of action I put them down on the list somewhere in the region of the Nihilists and politely point out that their attitude is not only negative but is proving to be rather irritating.

On a very minor scale Sian and I have taken up a few issues over the years, usually on points of fairness, and dare I say Justice, and given the objects of our attention a good run for their money. This can sometimes be a worrying process but what is the point of just existing if you do nothing? These little campaigns have often failed but the small successes remind us that something can always be done, even thought it may lead to nothing. We have found that there is no need to go looking for trouble and when there is none about, we go about our lives in a perfectly normal manner. Others may disagree. Why should the bullies have the best advocates, or claim the victory because there is no one to take them on. The famous McDonalds libel case should remind us that every so often, a few individuals, two in that case, can have enormous strength to keep on going against all the odds, and serve as a great beacon to us lesser mortals that sometimes we can have an effect.

In my well spent youth as an enthusiastic unilateralist, syndicalist, vegetarian and drifter, I used to be, and continue to be, very amused by people who think there must be a person in charge who can command the unruly mob and remove the problem for the sometimes unruly representative of authority who wishes to tidy things up. Or more prosaically, who will be in charge of the refreshments?

Should we ever be asked who is in charge Sian and I would now encourage all present to recite, the words of the Clown protesters at the G 8 summit at St. Andrews a few years back. Asked by a bemused police Superintendent, ‘Whose in charge? ’ the Clown Collective, after muttering nonsense in a huddle, burst forth with the reply, ‘We are!'.

In my more verbose moments, and these are difficult to ascertain, as most of my moments are verbose, I can scale the heights of condemnation, assisted by exaggeration, hyperbole and sarcasm, none of which talents, if talents they be, I admire. I like to think I still recognise them however. But, I will never respect ignorance, albeit coming from a great height, especially when seasoned by the salt of patronisation, although I will pity it when it comes from those who know no better. I will listen to objective reason seasoned by humanity, and I will attempt to expose fallacies and untruths. In all of these I will fail, but once in a while the power of the spoken or written word, and sometimes the forces of embarrassment, will succeed in some small measure and I feel that for once we have had a glimpse of whatever that notion of Justice might be. Those who moan and do nothing should try it. It might do them some good. Why not become a prime mover?