ramonmercado
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A interesting letter to the editor in the Weekly Worker issue 1418 - 10 November 2022.
Paul Demarty - apart from repeatedly telling us how young the Just Stop Oil protestors were, as if these were toddlers let loose in the kitchen - actually avoids the elephant in the vacuous room of their logic (‘Art attack’, October 20).
Let me begin by saying that supporting the ‘right to protest’ doesn’t mean I have to follow the instructions, impositions or imperatives of the person protesting. I support ‘the right’ of religious freedom, but that doesn’t mean I have to pray to whatever magic pixie someone believes in, or respect a view they have that I hold to be nonsense.
I for many decades now have been a vegan - I do not believe in the exploitation or death of animals, which means I do not exploit or cause the death of animals. I was unable to have the Covid vaccine for that reason and, despite now being in a vulnerable capacity, I risked my old life for the sake of that principle. That doesn’t mean I prevent non-vegans from eating at their choice of café or meal from the menu. I didn’t stop drinking milk because some fool had glued themselves to the milkman’s float and I couldn’t get any. I decided that the ethics and principles of veganism were right, so I chose to stop using dairy products.
Now let’s look at the behaviour of the Just Stop Oil protestors. Do they in fact not use oil? Do they refuse to use any product made using oil? No, in fact they use oil every single day of their lives and make no effort whatsoever not to. Their plastic bibs, banners, trainers, mobile phones, electronic devices, and the cars and public transport they use are all made or run using oil. The renewables they advocate all operate using oil (and incidentally coal) to make the steel. Many of them drive to the protest, park their own cars then blockade everyone else’s. This is an odd ‘principle’, is it not? It would be like me not actually becoming a vegan, tucking into a full meaty and eggy English breakfast before sticking myself to McDonald’s entrance to stop everyone else eating animals.
Whether I respect a protest, and feel myself obliged to sit there and follow someone else’s agenda for the day rather than my own, will frankly be determined by how logical and productive the protest is. Just Stop Oil is neither. It’s classic ‘Do as I say and not as I do’.
David Douglass
South Shields
Paul Demarty - apart from repeatedly telling us how young the Just Stop Oil protestors were, as if these were toddlers let loose in the kitchen - actually avoids the elephant in the vacuous room of their logic (‘Art attack’, October 20).
Let me begin by saying that supporting the ‘right to protest’ doesn’t mean I have to follow the instructions, impositions or imperatives of the person protesting. I support ‘the right’ of religious freedom, but that doesn’t mean I have to pray to whatever magic pixie someone believes in, or respect a view they have that I hold to be nonsense.
I for many decades now have been a vegan - I do not believe in the exploitation or death of animals, which means I do not exploit or cause the death of animals. I was unable to have the Covid vaccine for that reason and, despite now being in a vulnerable capacity, I risked my old life for the sake of that principle. That doesn’t mean I prevent non-vegans from eating at their choice of café or meal from the menu. I didn’t stop drinking milk because some fool had glued themselves to the milkman’s float and I couldn’t get any. I decided that the ethics and principles of veganism were right, so I chose to stop using dairy products.
Now let’s look at the behaviour of the Just Stop Oil protestors. Do they in fact not use oil? Do they refuse to use any product made using oil? No, in fact they use oil every single day of their lives and make no effort whatsoever not to. Their plastic bibs, banners, trainers, mobile phones, electronic devices, and the cars and public transport they use are all made or run using oil. The renewables they advocate all operate using oil (and incidentally coal) to make the steel. Many of them drive to the protest, park their own cars then blockade everyone else’s. This is an odd ‘principle’, is it not? It would be like me not actually becoming a vegan, tucking into a full meaty and eggy English breakfast before sticking myself to McDonald’s entrance to stop everyone else eating animals.
Whether I respect a protest, and feel myself obliged to sit there and follow someone else’s agenda for the day rather than my own, will frankly be determined by how logical and productive the protest is. Just Stop Oil is neither. It’s classic ‘Do as I say and not as I do’.
David Douglass
South Shields
