Money pollutes the system. I jokingly say there are three types of people who can run successfully for national political office in the United States: the rich, the very rich, and the obscenely rich. I am using the US as an example because, unlike a country like China, it claims to be a democracy. If you look at the way the US operates, it is "Do as we say, not as we do." People are told "Don't do torture," but then the US practices torture. The list goes on.
Concentration of power among the few leaves citizens cynical about the value of participating in democracy. Many are looking for alternative ways of expressing their outrage with the current system that is not working for them or for future generations. Young people are becoming more involved with climate activism, driven by panic over the failure of the current adult generation to act. The youth of today will be the ones to pay the price of such inaction. Current leaders govern with no sense of intergenerational solidarity.
In my 2010 book Boiling Point: Can Citizen Action Save the World?, I argued that people are reaching a figurative and a literal boiling point. Climate change and other pressures are building, and those in power ignore the ferment at their own peril. And then in December 2010, Tunisia happened. Egypt soon followed. Then Occupy. Increasing gaps between those in power and those who are not are undermining democracy, development, and equity. The emergence of such citizen movements are giving voice to the voiceless and are thus helping to create — or restore — true democracy.
Democracy should not be reduced to voting every four or five years. Participating in democracy, especially between elections, is a critical part of giving it meaning. Too many of our political leaders take a victory at the ballot box, however marginal and however corrupt, as a blank check to rule without any meaningful engagement with the people they govern.
What is the role of the formal civil society sector, such as Greenpeace, in such activism versus the more spontaneous citizen protests?
I think this question is the most critical question for organizations like Greenpeace and for all international NGOs. Unless the more conventional NGOs develop a better way to engage with these informal expressions of civil society, then I think that conventional NGOs run the risk of becoming irrelevant.
Firstly, I think formal, organized civil society needs to engage more closely with looser social movements.
Secondly, civil society organizations must do more to ensure that they are people-centered organizations, working and campaigning more closely with the citizenry. For example, Greenpeace was involved in the Occupy movement from the outset. The media truck in Zuccotti Park in New York was powered by solar panels provided by Greenpeace. But we said to our volunteers and activists, "We don't want to go there with our big brand and swamp the spontaneity and diversity of the protests. Something new and different is happening. We should be willing to be led by this movement, not seek to lead it."
In virtually all the Occupy actions around the world, Greenpeace activists were present but very low-profile.
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