At the Risk of Sounding Controversial...

I wrote this blog the day after seeing a play about the Holocaust. I was so upset about this thought I had while watching the play that I wrote a blog entry about it on my phone while on a train ride to Wiltshire the next day. I didn't post it because I thought I'd sound like a raving mad man. I opened it and read it and decided to post it. It's not dispassionate and it might be controversial or a turn off but I stand behind it.

Written: 03/05/2007

A Disturbing Connection

I went and saw THE INVESTIGATION last night. The original script was "written" by Peter Weiss and staged in 1963. It's transcripts taken from the Frankfurt trials which was a trial just like the Nuremburg trials. The play was produced just a year after the trial. The original play is 5 hours long! This production was done by a Rwandan theatre company who are, obviously dealing with their own genocide. It was cut down to 90 minutes. The production was powerful simply because of the text and the people involved but was actually poorly acted and staged. I know the script well because I was involved in a series of stagings of it last year.

One of the maddening things about the testimony is that no one will take responsibility for what was happening. "I was following orders", "I didn't make the decisions", "I was just doing my job" and all the common reasons were endless. Meanwhile these people were collectively engaged in the destruction of their own society, the world around them and, of course, the extermination of millions of people.

I've become slightly obsessed with environmental issues lately and it occurred to me there’s a direct link between the kind of thinking that enabled the Nazis and the kind of thinking that is increasingly enabling the destruction of our societies and our planet. This planet is becoming more inhospitable to humans and other species living on it. Collectively humans (but especially those in developed nations) are directly responsible and the message has been broadcast for decades. Most maddeningly, however, the majority of the population does little to change things.

As for economic concerns I propose this: The environment IS the economy. Look around your room right now and find something not made from natural resources. Next time you go outside find something not made from natural resources. Multiply everything you see by your neighbourhood, then by your city a, then by your country and then by all the cities in the world. That's a lot of stuff that’s come out of the planet.

It's running out. It's getting harder to find resources, food and energy.

Do something. Make small changes. They'll have big effects. The encouraging thing is that the solutions already exist. They fall into categories that include Sustainable, Ethical, Environmental, Green, Eco, and Fair Trade. I'm excited and fired up because I've found it's easier than you think (or maybe I thought).

Just do something.