The sheer amount of horror coming out of Palestine is now so great that I find I'm pretty much unable to consume it all. The videos of the destruction of Al-Shifa hospital are so sickening that there aren't even words to describe it. I cannot physically get my head around how any human being is capable of this level of cruelty.
This isn't the first time horrors as great as these have occurred in the world - however, I think it is probably the first time that they've occurred on such a public scale. I've seen this situation described as 'the world's first live-streamed genocide', and I think that's pretty accurate. Astonishingly, the Israeli forces aren't even pretending to be following international law (or maybe they are, and there are things happening that are even worse than what we know about, but if that's the case it makes me wonder how bad it's actually possible for things to be). The reasons they're so brazen about it I'm not entirely clear on - they're either so strongly preconditioned that they truly believe that what they're doing is right and they aren't ashamed of it, or they've become so accustomed to the world's tendency to let them off the hook that they simply can't even be bothered to keep up any semblance of respectability.
I find myself in quite a difficult moral position over all of this. Here in the UK, I've been really heartened to see so many people prepared to stand up to Israel - I've been involved in Free Palestine campaigns for ten years, and I haven't seen widespread anger on this scale in the past. For the first time, it feels as though we're getting somewhere - at any rate, our Government and opposition have had no choice but to row back on their reluctance to call for a ceasefire, even though they still aren't even close to doing what is needed. I am optimistic that in the near future, Israel will be held account for its appalling and disgusting actions. However, I know that this is only the case because of how bad it is, and how much it's becoming public knowledge. Further activism will occur only when it gets worse. And if things start to improve, I'm concerned that public action will dip back down again, when it needs to be consistent and sustained.
This is something I've been wondering about in a more general sense recently. I've just finished Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, which is set in what is arguably a dystopia (although some may present it as a utopia); where people are kept so content by being given superficial things that they never have the motivation to create any kind of social progress. Our own world is far closer to George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four - everything is in a terrible state, everyone knows that and many people are quite rightly deeply unhappy and cynical. Personally I think this is a preferable state of affairs because dissatisfaction is part of the key to having a movement; but the downside to that is the amount of suffering that takes place in the meantime. Is any amount of suffering worth it if it makes people prepared to stand up for what is right?
The answer isn't yes and it isn't no. I do believe we're moving in the right direction with Israel and Palestine, but I could easily be wrong about that - we may be moving in no positive direction at all, and even if we are it shouldn't be like this in the first place. There is nothing positive whatsoever about great suffering, not even if good things are created out of it - but that does not mean that we should shy away from creating good things out of suffering.
The same is true the other way around. I was reading an article the other day (I can't remember where it was) where someone lamented the fact that climate activism in the United States is nowhere near as strong and powerful as it was a couple of years ago. The reason for this, the person argued, is that Joe Biden has been stronger on climate policy than Donald Trump was, meaning that there's a perception that the war is being won and therefore that the pressure can be reduced a little. This is intensely dangerous, because although Joe Biden is a bit better than Donald Trump, that really isn't saying very much and withdrawing upon making a few minor victories could result in a worse state of affairs in the long run. The person who wrote that article was arguing that eventually, taking into account the amount of political activism each set of circumstances are likely to entail, climate policy might end up being better if Donald Trump ends up winning the Presidency again later this year than if Joe Biden gets a second term. As an activist, this creates an absolutely impossible situation. It means there's nothing you can reliably campaign for.
I can't give a creditable solution to this dilemma - all I can say is that there is a balance to be struck somewhere, and the worse things are the more likely it is that people are going to be motivated to change them. But the opposite is also true. I believe that hope and momentum are also essential for good activism. I think everyone has experienced the feeling of wanting to change something but feeling so dejected by the state of things that they don't see the point. I know I've felt like that myself - every progressively-minded person has. But I hope it creates some kind of optimism to remember that everyone in history who has ever achieved something had their days when they thought, 'Is this really worth it?' I'm not a religious person, but I do think that a big part of the appeal of religious texts is that it's reassuring to remember that people thousands of years ago felt the same emotions, hopes and fears as we do. They're a universal part of the human experience, and they aren't going to change.
So get out there, and change the world. Clean up rivers and beaches. Write articles bemoaning our descent into fascism. Donate to charities campaigning for a ceasefire in Palestine. Look into who your local parliamentary candidates are, and support the ones who don't just go along with their party status quo. And if things just feel like they're turning to shit, remember - the worse things get, the more likely it will be that there are loads of other people who feel the same way you do. I don't think there's ever been a period of time since I've been born that has quite as much of a window of opportunity as we have right now - a time when people are unhappy enough to want things to change, but we're still having enough success to have momentum. That moment will not last forever, but we have it right now. Let's utilise it.
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