Adults are full of self-importance, they’ve made a complete mess of government — everywhere — and they’re destroying the planet.
But I’m not worried because I know that kids can save us. They’re our only hope.
There is one overwhelming reason why kids are more suited to govern than we are: they’re not trapped like mice in a cage in the endless cycle of jobs and debt; they haven’t yet succumbed to a fear-based economic system.
“But they lack experience,” people would say about such a suggestion. But how has experience benefited us? What’s it done for climate change? All experience seems to do is help us adults justify ourselves better, become complacent and support governments which allow big business to rape the planet.
And if Britain’s government isn’t an advocate of big business, why can’t they get the big American tech companies like Amazon, Facebook and Google to pay taxes on their massive profits? And why can’t we stop them polluting the planet?
We need a new economic system with just one priority: to save the planet. I’ll discuss my ideas on this in my next post, but the concept is that if you ban, say the use of plastic, you immediately create a new industry in alternative packaging..
Introducing Greta Thunberg
When I heard the speech of the 15-year old Swede Greta Thunberg I thought “this is it. This is the turning point when the kids get the signal to take action — and eventually take over.”
Greta gave her speech at the UN climate summit in Katowice, Poland, in December this year, but she’d already caused a ripple effect by protesting alone outside Sweden’s Parliament. We tend to praise Sweden for its eco-credentials but Greta says they’re hypocrites as they just produce their polluting material abroad.
Her example inspired thousands of Australian schoolkids to go on strike and, when kids realise the power they have, it will spread (most recently to Switzerland). She’s calling for a global school strike every Friday.
It’s really worth watching her speech at the conference, as well as her interview with the inspiring Democracy Now online news network. The penultimate sentence in her speech is the most important — and scary for incumbent governments and big business everywhere — “The real power belongs to the people.”
Greta addressed adults in her speech and said, “you only talk about moving forward with the same bad ideas that got us into this mess, even when the only sensible thing to do is pull the emergency brake. You are not mature enough to tell it like it is. Even that burden you leave to us children.”
On behalf of adults everywhere, I would like to apologise for screwing it up so badly, for our arrogance, cowardice in not standing up to big business, failure to address climate change and our biblical-scale complacency. I’m happy to hand all power over to children and I would happily serve them. Obviously not all kids are suited for leadership, but some are.
They haven’t yet been subjugated by the system and their innate sense of hope can save us.
The one country that seems to have recognised the power of youth is Scotland, where it’s possible to vote at the age of 16.
In my next article I will propose a new economic system that takes the best elements from capitalism and socialism, is community-based and can stop climate change.
Rupert Wolfe Murray lives on a houseboat, writes books and does a bit of PR. He Tweets at @wolfemurray
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- The Shakespeare Soap Opera - 10th June 2016
- On the Road with Madame Bovary - 4th April 2016