It gives me peace to think this: If it wasn’t climate change, I’d probably be fighting for something else. I was always like that. Fighting some sort of fight. First it was collecting money for Africa, then it was opposing injustice at school, then it was LGBT+ rights. Then climate change. I guess I just like being part of a struggle*, as a way of being in the world. *from a privileged and safe position ...
7 years later
Things I wish I could tell the people who were once the kids who made me feel like crap in school:
- You probably have no idea how much you hurt me.
- I expect you to confront this truth about yourself as you grow up: You did bad things. I think you cannot truly be mature or a good person unless you work through this.
- And be sure to let it make you better. The least you can do is draw some meaning from this sorry episode.
- You didn’t just hurt me as a kid. You did damage to me, the adult, that I’ve been working for years to undo. For things that come naturally to you, I have to work: You handicapped me. Should you ever wish to apologize, and should you care whether I accept your apology, you need to be aware of this. An apology from adult-you to adult-me, as if we were parents speaking about our silly children, will not do. Apologize to the adult you never gave a single thought to.
- I’m happy, though. So don’t worry about it too much.
Alternative forms of holidaying
Flying is terrible for the environment. And since we’re already on the topic, alternative modes of (especially long-distance) travel (train, bus, car, ship) aren’t innocent either, and not even always better than the plane. But I’ve noticed that some people think that if you don’t go far away, you’re not getting a holiday. And I find that a pretty sad way to look at life. Because of course you need holidays! And of course you should have fun during them and get a break from your everyday life! Craving these things totally doesn’t require you to fly, and alternative options really deserve more credit.
So I’m starting this list of alternative ideas for spending rewarding holidays that tick off one or many of the typical functions of tourism (e.g. relaxation, separation from home, new stimulation, the chance to explore other versions of oneself, beautiful visuals, getting to know the world and its people). These ideas have some overlap, but for the sake of explicitness are still separated.
- Live Action Role Playing
- Pretending to be someone else, somewhere else, possible in another time or even universe, with others. It’s basically a powerful form of travel without movement, with far more possibilities than corporeal travel.
- Volunteering
- Especially for young people, there are many ways to try out life-worlds that differ from your homeworld: For example through internships, or through volunteer work. The French Service Civile organizes volunteering camps for young people where you can get to know others from other countries, while doing something you wouldn’t normally do – in your own country. In this way, for example, I experienced life in a commune for two weeks – in combination with physical labour – both of which combined into a completely new experience for me that definitely fit the description of “travel” in the sense of “going away from home”. I’ve also volunteered in a circus project for poor kids in the city where I lived, which took me to a different lifeworld for a week and only cost one day of training beforehand.
- Staycation
- Nowadays the only time we’re ever home with time on our hands to do what we want to and really recharge is when we’re sick. As modern adults, I’m betting that there’s something you really would love to have in your life but can’t find the time for in your daily routine. You can address this during a holiday at home! You can turn your apartment into a luxury resort, taking baths and trading massages; you can chill with your partner and/or friends, throw a party with enough time to prepare and clean up, carry out an ambitious DIY project, improve your home, give your kids all the attention they want (and go do all the things with them that they want), read that pile of waiting books, learn something you’ve been wanting to learn …
- Educational holiday
- Intensive language classes are all the rage. But you can actually take a week off to learn a new language or a new skill … at home. Intensive language classes may exist close to you if you live in a city, or you’ll definitely be able to find someone to form an intensive language tandem with you.
- Beyond languages, there are workshops offline and online, not to mention all the books that you can learn from – knowledge or skills that you’ve always wanted to possess.
- Country holiday
- So you’re interested in a country, or you just want to get some distance from your own. Why don’t you learn about it from home? You can invite the friends you would like to take with you for a weekend at your place; you will learn to cook some local dishes and eat them together (or go to a specialized restaurant), watch documentaries about that place, watch movies playing there or vloggers from there; you can go online to chat with people from there, or maybe you’re even able to find somebody from there in your city through an ad on social media who’s willing to come by and talk to you.
- Gaming
- Of course, some people I don’t need to tell this, but video games are completely underrated by large parts of the population as means to, well, travel. They have (or can have) basically all the elements of travel mentioned above, and there is an enormous variety. For the cost of a holiday abroad, you can definitely afford even a good and expensive game and the equipment for it (if you even need anything additional to the computer you probably already have). Starting a multiplayer role-playing game, for example, together with some friends, can feel just like exploring a new country together – because basically, that’s what you’re doing. For this purpose I strongly recommend open world games. But there’s something for everybody – to learn, to relax, to become someone else, to simply revel in beautiful scenery, or to virtually experience unusual and challenging situations.
- Owning your home
- Staying where you are and getting to know/reconnecting with your immediate or mediate environment. Truly owning a place, knowing every mountain and every village in the region, has a value.
- Tourism at home
- Tourism is very much a state of mind. If you approach your city or your region with a tourist’s mindset, you will see different things, meet different people, and live differently.
- A sub-form of this could be staying for a week or any time you want at a hostel near you. Interact with the tourists from other countries who pass through. Your story of why you’re there and where you’re from and what you’re doing will probably be more interesting than most of theirs.
- The same goes for other forms of travel: There are luxury hotels in cities near you, as well as campsites in the surrounding area.
- Activism
- Sometimes, political activies require some consolidated time. I’m thinking of the environmental mass actions of civil disobedience currently happening in Europe – for example the climate camp in Germany, the year-round occupied forest nearby, the climate games in Switzerland. Being able to spare time for something like that serves a purpose, and can definitely take you to another world and lead you to meet people you otherwise wouldn’t and who live completely different lives than you.
- Subculture tourism
- In today’s cities, there are so many cultures and subcultures clustered together that you can live completely different lives that never touch even though they’re spatially in the same place. Why are we so interested in visiting other cultures abroad, but want nothing to do with the people from those cultures who live close to us? Why don’t we spend a day in Chinatown, attend a music festival of a genre we’re unfamiliar with or suspicious of? (Beware of appropriation and using other humans to be your props. Respect boundaries and ask for permission too often rather than too seldom. But the same goes in a holiday abroad.)
- How else can you experience another way of living?
- It’s really more about asking particular questions, I think, than about ticking off these (or other) suggestions. What is it that you, at this time, really crave out of your holiday? And what are some possible ways you could get this? For spiritual challenge - does it have to be Bali, or can it be a week-long meditation retreat nearby? For solitude - does it have to be Canada, or can you find isolated spots much closer to you, where you will have the chance to visit much more often if you want to return? For adventure, does it have to be Africa, or is a survival bootcamp in your country even more exciting? What works for you?
And for the sake of God, don’t shame people for not holidaying abroad. Destigmatize alternative holiday modes. Not only will that make our societies more sustainable, but also more just, inclusive, and diverse.
Isiah Lopaz is a black American college-educated artist and writer living in Berlin.
A lot of yall “allies” gonna act like yall never seen this post and keep scrolling cus yall see a shirt that has something you’ve said and still believe
Environmentalist Confessions
To anyone telling me in 2019 that they suffer from a lack of meaning or goals in life: Look. There is really no shortage of meaning to be found in this time and age. If anything, there are too many existential battles being fought at the same time to pick just one to dedicate yourself to. You want to serve something larger than yourself? Great, come help avert climate change. Stop female genital mutilation. Oppose the new wave of neofascism. Why look for the right god to follow when you could simply help save the human species? Any god worth serving would approve of that.
«Im Grossen und Ganzen sind wir alle Marxisten geblieben.» Damit umschreibt Latour die politischen Koordinaten, die in den westlichen Gesellschaften bis heute Gültigkeit beanspruchen. Marx hat die Fortschrittserzählung mit dem Materialismus und dem Internationalismus kurzgeschlossen: Die Welt wird immer besser, und das heisst: Sie wird gleichzeitig immer wohlhabender und solidarischer, wobei Wohlstand und Verbundenheit der Menschen mit dem Grad der Globalisierung wachsen. Wer die Fortschrittserzählung teilt und die grosse weite Welt sein Zuhause nennt, gilt als «progressiv» und «modern». Wer sie ignoriert und zu Hause bleibt, ist ein «Reaktionär».
René Scheu, NZZ, 04.09.2018
“Essentially, we’ve all remained Marxists.” Thus Latour outlines the political coordinates which to this day claim validity in the western societies. Marx hot-wired the narrative of progress to materialism and internationalism: The world keeps getting better, and that means: It’s getting simultaneously wealthier and more solidary, with wealth and the interconnectedness of humans growing alongside the degree of globalization. Those who share the narrative of progress and call the big wide world their home are considered “progressive” and “modern”. Those who ignore it and stay home are “reactionary”.
Archimedes spoke for a whole tradition when he exclaimed: “Give me one fixed point and I will move the Earth,” but am I not speaking for another, much less prestigious but maybe as respectable tradition, if I exclaim in turn “Give me one matter of concern and I will show you the whole earth and heavens that have to be gathered to hold it firmly in place”?
Latour, 2003, “Why Has Critique Run Out Of Steam? From Matters of Fact to Matters of Concern”
what matters is which things you take more seriously than which others
Even though Harry Potter can regrow bones in his arm overnight with a single spell, he still wears glasses
JKR explicitly addressed this: https://www.pottermore.com/writing-by-jk-rowling/illness-and-disability
(And is criticized for the way she did: https://ladygeekgirl.wordpress.com/2015/08/17/harry-potter-and-the-lack-of-true-intersectionality/ )
According to JKR, magic can cure “natural” diseases and disabilities but not “magical” ones, aka. ones that were caused by magic, magical creatures, magical artifacts etc.
Following this lore, I currently see three possible explanations:
1. Harry is oblivious to the fact that his eyesight could be fixed and no one ever told him. Possible (Harry is, after all, characteristically oblivious), but unlikely. You’d think that someone (for example, Hermione) would have brought it up at some point.
2. Harry’s eyes were screwed up by magic. For example, it could be a side effect of the Killing Curse, like his scar that also cannot be fixed for the same reason. Or - much more likely, because nobody ever mentions his eyes despite the incessant talk about his scar - something else happened to him as a baby that no one knows about because his parents are dead. Could have been anything. An encounter with a magical potted plant or magical cleaning aid, for example.
3. Harry doesn’t want his eyesight corrected. As a muggle with fucked-up eyes who also refuses to have them fixed, I like this explanation the best. While I’m not about to whip out the word “ableism” about such a small thing, you can’t just assume that every person with even slightly abnormal physical or mental functioning wants to become “normal”. Wearing glasses is fine. I don’t suffer from it, I like my glasses, maybe Harry is the same.
How do I subtly say “please do us both a favor and don’t even apply if you support [far right party] and/or deny climate change” in my free room ad
ah i know i’ll just look extra hippie and leave my green party newsletter laying on the kitchen table when they come to visit
“pet peeves: racism, fascism, climate change denial, sexism, homophobia, and people who expect me to clean all the time”
ooh! actually i have the perfect resource! “environmentalism against far right extremism: a guide”. that’ll do it. it’ll be like the only thing on the table, like i was just reading it or something
but the thing is i don’t even want to waste my time on an in-person meeting. i mean why. i could just write “this apartment is wheelchair accessible, lgbt+ safe, and only moderately clean”
“To grieve for something that many people deny is even a loss is a difficult task.”
- Rosemary Randall
They are increasingly becoming my poets, these brave and clear-headed scientists.
Yes, I feel this very deeply. It is so hard to work through these emotions of heartbreak, of guilt, of anticipated longing, and of fear, when most people around me - both strangers and close companions - do not even acknowledge the necessity of them - or even become impatient or annoyed with me for expressing them. I lack both role models and peers. What’s more, I feel responsible in my role as activist to actively withhold these emotions from “the public” - so as not to scare them off, so as not to compromise the feel-good tales we’ve been taught to tell of small steps, green growth, or post-capitalist utopian happiness.
And then on the rare occasions when I am in the company of activists - it is again hard to admit or even to feel the grief over things we collectively describe as bad. Like, yeah, single-unit housing sucks, but would I have liked to have a big house at the edge of a forest for my family? Yes.
Things I Wish Non-Environmentalists Understood: #3
I was raised in the same world as you, my body is like yours. I too enjoy hot showers and distant lands and convenience food. Much of your concern and anger I understand perfectly, and the rest I am willing to learn from you.
I don’t want to steal your lifestyle from you and replace it with “my” uptopia. I want a happy life for me and for you and your son and the daughters of other people.
Things I Wish Non-Environmentalists Understood: #2
I too am subjecting myself to change. I would never ask you to do something I have not also done. In fact, I am learning and changing every day.
If I dare say a word about the unsustainability of travel to your face, you can bet that I have spent hours and hours thinking about this.
Things I Wish Non-Environmentalists Understood: #1
I hope you’re right. I hope you’re right and I’m wrong. I hope that in fifty years you and I really will be laughing about the big scare of the early century.
This is not a normal debate in which we fight for recognition, and I won’t be smug when your basement floods. I’m not trying to win. If I am right, there is nothing to win. If anything, I am trying really hard to make sure that I lose this bet.
rainhadaalegria-deactivated2019
don’t announce things. don’t share your plans. show your progress. prove your growth. let them see your prosperity, not what steps it took to get there.
How have you arrived at this conclusion? My conclusion is to do the opposite. Not to bosses, no, but to friends and peers, always announce. Make transparent all the effort, all the steps, all the setbacks, all the failures. Guard against serving as the idol that puts somebody else under pressure.
it’s all about reverting to your embarrassing hobbies from 2009 when you realize you were actually right the whole time
Falling in love is sooooooooo wild. I mean, great that aro exists as a term to identify by but maaaaaan. Alloromantics are all over the fucking place, man. Like sometimes you talk to a friend who hasn’t fancied anyone in 5 years, or one who suddenly switched from only falling for people of 1 gender to people of another gender, and then you read a widely appraised book where the main character is literally constantly falling in love with like three thousand different women, then there’s people like me who routinely get crushes but almost never give a shit about it, and there’s people who will maintain committed relationships for years without ever admitting to being in love, and it’s like ........,... desperately obvious that we’re all talking different things a lot
The normalization of stimulant-usage as the standard method of ensuring enough energy in the day to perform labour is itself a massive sign that the economic demands placed upon humans are inhumane. I wish more people were aware that “Needing coffee just to wake up.” is a sign that your lifestyle is killing you - and that those who demand you maintain that lifestyle through economic coercion are endangering your wellbeing for profit.
if you ask someone to stop doing/saying something that makes you uncomfortable and they respond by making it all about their own hurt feelings until YOU end up apologising to THEM, that’s manipulation. shut it down.
punkfaery
“hey, this thing you do kinda makes me uncomfortable. i’d rather you didn’t do it.”
“oh, so i’m a horrible person? i’m a bad friend? is that what you’re saying? maybe i should just leave you alone for good since everything i do seems to upset you.”
no. no. stop that. stop talking go to jail.
punkfaery
“hey, this thing you do kinda makes me uncomfortable. i’d rather you didn’t do it.”
“i’m so fucking sorry, i’m sorry, oh my god, i don’t deserve to be alive, all i ever do is screw up and hurt people, i’m a terrible person, please don’t hate me - ”
nope. that’s not it either. (also, please go to therapy.)
punkfaery
“hey, this thing you do kinda makes me uncomfortable. i’d rather you didn’t do it.”
“why does it make you uncomfortable? that seems like a weird thing to be uncomfortable about. please explain in minute detail and don’t forget to excavate the entirety of your tragic backstory so i can decide if it’s bad enough to justify your discomfort.”
this is very bad. please do not do this.
punkfaery
“hey, this thing you do kinda makes me uncomfortable. i’d rather you didn’t do it.”
“i mean, sure, but free speech - “
free speech means you can’t be legally sanctioned or imprisoned for saying certain things. it is not a “get out of jail free” card for being an asshole. next!
punkfaery
“hey, this thing you do kinda makes me uncomfortable. i’d rather you didn’t do it.”
“okay, thank you for telling me. i may not fully understand why this thing is upsetting for you, but i will stop doing it because i care about your feelings.“
yes! YES!!!! this is it! well done! full marks! gold star!
also valid is ... You know ...
"hey, this thing you do kinda makes me uncomfortable. i'd rather you didn't doit"
"Okay. That sucks because this is important to me and I'm not willing to give it up. I will tone it down around you as much as I feel alright with because I care about your feelings, but other than that you have to decide whether you want to be around me anyway. I will respect that decision."
In the real world, you can't and do not have to cater to every single acquaintance's needs. Also, whether or not refusing to change makes you an "asshole" depends entirely on the thing at stake (for example, racist slurs versus saying "shit"), and your relationship with the person who asks (for example, close working relationship or friend of a friend).
Also. It is. NOT. Your job to shelter everyone around you. Yes, I'm aware that some people get severely triggered by, say, the mention of bacon. That doesn't mean bacon is now taboo. If you are not this person's close confidante, you do not have to stop mentioning bacon around them. On a completely different terrain, you do not have to avoid eating garlic before going anywhere in public. You are allowed to exist and live and you are not constantly a burden on someone. As long as people can move away from you, temporarily or permanently (e.g not on a long-distance bus, not when you employ them), and as long as you will honestly let them do so without harassment, you are fine.
Today I snapped a little bit.
I was with my family, taking a walk after the holidays, in the snow. Looking out at the sparsely white-dusted landscape, my mother, a passionate skier, said: "I'd love to have much more snow."
At which I looked over and said, "Then stop driving a car."
On the bright side, it did seem to make her think about the issue for a few minutes. And in my defense, it's been tough for me this Christmas, with people bringing up the unusually strong storms in our region this year and the gulf stream that might cease and their holiday travel plans and the receding glaciers for skiing and all of it separately, as if none of these things were related. It's been hard for me to bite my tongue, and to move along the conversation with everybody else, pretending I didn't feel like curling up in a corner every time.
But I do feel like the fucking Grinch.
In a gift book that my little sister made me, it says I was especially great when I flew on holiday with them despite hating airplanes. My boyfriend, bless him, really wants to travel the world with me. My best friend hasn't realized that I haven't driven in years, and I'm gonna invent a new word for this feeling. This is a true 21st century affliction.