Forum:How to go beyond politics-as-usual

How to go beyond politics-as-usual?

This question is to be put at the launch of Climate Safety (Nov 27 2008). But is it the right question?

If we're serious about finding a way to go beyond politics-as-usual, don't we first need to discover a way to go beyond civil-society-as-usual? Of course it's true that civil society is extraordinarily diverse, but are we as effective as we could be on climate change?

The tag line for Climate Safety - "No screaming, no panic, no doom, no gloom" perhaps hints at previous ineffective approaches?

Similarly from a recently launched campaign: "Get Fair is not Make Poverty History UK. It is not aiming to get millions of people wearing wrist bands, or fill Edinburgh, Birmingham or Westminster with 150,000 banner-waving activists, and it doesn't have Bob Geldof in the wings to organise another Hyde Park extravaganza."

Many commentators have noted how Barack Obama used the power of the internet, but was this less about the technology and more about giving supporters a genuine sense of involvement?

So, can civil society action on climate change find ways to fully involve ordinary citizens? Can we go beyond treating ordinary citizens as rally fodder? Can we go beyond suggesting useful but essentially small, limited and purely personal actions? And can we go beyond (worst of all) giving the impression that ordinary citizens only matter if they stump up some cash? Isn't it true that within civil society the many rather than the few are capable of much much more than just putting their hand in their pocket, changing light bulbs or flag waving?

Philralph @ sca21 11:46, 8 November 2008 (UTC)

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