Revolution with a Cause, Just Stop Oil and Gen Z
By Nikolas Markoulis
Following the groups recent action of breaking the glass of the historic Rokeby Venus, greater questions form as to what this group really wants and how they plan on achieving it.
If you have been on TikTok, Instagram or any other form of social media you might have seen teenagers spilling tomato soup on Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, stopping the legendary Les Misérables or closing down the M25.
As you are reading this then you might wonder:
“Has the youth lost its mind? This miserable world is coming to an end!”
Well funnily enough both you and Just Stop Oil agree, but let’s say…for different reasons.
What is Just Stop Oil?
The organisation is British based, and it describes itself as an environmental activist group which was formed around February 2022. Specifically, the organisation attempts to ensure that the UK government commits to ending new fossil fuel projects, and the issuance of their licenses. The reason for the above is the opinion and indisputable fact that fossil fuel deteriorates climate change even further.
Interestingly, Just Stop is receiving increasing funding from particular organisations such as the Climate Emergency Fund a big US based climate activist organisation, supported by several significant philanthropists. This funding has been useful for the organisation which gained exponential media coverage during the last months after engaging in what one could describe as particularly “high-profile” protests and actions.
Tactics of the group
“How can an environmentally related activist group be so infamous though?”
Well, great question. In order to provide an answer however, we would need to dive into the organisation’s tactics and actions.
Civil resistance, vandalism and traffic obstruction are the main, eye-catching practices of the controversial activist group.
As you can see, the organisation targets to disrupt the everyday actions of the everyday life, either by making people late to work or violating art people love and feel comfort with. Therefore, their actions are something which surely causes imminent frustration and a constant puzzlement as to why do these people do this or even how does disrupting our day correlate to stopping fossil fuels?
In other words, they attack and question the fundamentals of Western Civilization to draw attention to their cause; where they find that society’s funds and attention should be going.
Well, if we are to be fair, it has got them somewhere, and this is evidence that they know very well what their target group is.
Arguably, the tactics of Just Stop Oil are really what has gained increasing attention and support for them amongst the youth. A Western youth, which must be noted, that has not grown up with being used to large popular unrest like the ones in 1968 in Bastille or the 1989 Berlin ones in Alexander Platz, which were historic and fundamental catalysts for the shape of history.
Instead Gen Z has been creating online content on numerous platforms and has instigated rebellion by disagreeing and initiating arguments online. That of course is a tactic for rebellion and it is quite useful too, as nowadays social media is at an ever-increasing influential point in history, and the trend looks to be positively exponential.
All in all, Just Stop Oil has not trapped itself online but also has not relied on immense popular unrests like the Yellow Vests in France for example. Instead, it chose the pathway of particular action.
This is what makes Just Stop Oil so influential: Action and specifically? “Ridiculous” action. While outrageous the philosophy behind the actions is to make people wonder: “who are these people who destroy and disrupt the finest art that Western civilization has given birth to?”.
Ultimately, that is what the group activists outlined as their target after being asked why they threw tomato soup on Van Gogh’s masterpiece in the National Gallery in London:
“ To grab people's attention — it hasn't been done before, and it was something new ”
Moreover, it would also be wrong to assume that the particular activist does not consider the Dutch painter’s “Sunflowers” a wonderful piece of art, since they added.
“ it's a beautiful work of art and I think a lot of people, when they saw us, had feelings of shock or horror or outrage because they saw something beautiful and valuable ”
Therefore, it is quite comprehendible that the members of the organisation know that they are hurting the society, however for particular instances they might believe that the immediate damage will bring about positive and vital long-term changes.
So, if one attempts to illustrate the theorizing of Just Stop Oil they might end up with the above scale. On the one side, the damage they implement on society imminently and on the other one they seem to weigh the future long-term, positive this damage of their action may bring about. Well by viewing the organisation’s actions, it seems that they trusted that the positive impact on society exceeds the immediate damage implemented. For example, according to the organisation, the risk for Van Gogh’s painting to receive significant damage, and thereby inflicting outrage in the art world and anxiety about the possibility of losing such a masterpiece, was justified as raising awareness about the group and its targets would have an immense positive social impact. For the record, the painting received little damage as it was protected with a layer of glass.
Rebel with a Cause
What could be difficult for the group would be to justify that their cause could only be achieved through this sort of vandalism and social distortion.
That they for example were left no other option than to revert to this sort of action, as the wider social community has not been listening to them.
Well let’s take a look at the UK government’s plan on fossil fuels…and of course Mr. Rishi Sunak could not miss out on this discussion.
While under severe criticism under the last few months, Rishi Sunak has taken some action in order to attempt and stabilize things in Britain. Whether he succeeded or not is of course food for thought for another article.
Recently however, his allowance of 100 new North Sea oil and gas licenses has raised eyebrows particularly by the Just Stop Oil faithful. Moreover, his basic defence to the approval of the above licenses was that by 2050, when the UK would reach net zero emissions, there would still need to be about a quarter of the energy of the country being derived by fossil fuels and oil. In extent, environmental specialists have met the government actions with despair and described Sunak’s green politics actions as a U-turn which could threaten the UK’s global leadership stance in the field.
Therefore, one could say that the UK government has not exactly held the best stance for facing fossil fuel and non-renewable sources issues.
Alright, and does this ethically justify Just Stop Oil’s activity and moreover, does the wrong-doing of a government ethically allow for vandalism?
Well, if that had been the case then anyone could rise up against anything they disliked and considered justifiable to rebel against, causing havoc and complete chaos. Therefore, even if the cause of Just Stop Oil is a universally accepted cause which most reasonable people share sympathy about their methodology of getting it across could be described as reckless and harmful to society.
The next generation of people, which includes Gen Z has to see Les Mis, and empathize with the cost of living and unfair persecution of John Valjean, cry with the death of revolutionary Enjolras and realize the remedy that Victor Hugo viewed and experienced. Alike, the next generation deserves phenomenal paintings and an unbiased passion for art.
However, Gen Z also deserves the right to breathe the fresh air of nature and connect with nature like the other generations before it. It also deserves to have a future free of fossil fuel tycoons and immense businesspeople who through their profit-driven “philosophy” ruin our environment. Revolution on the above is also a part of Just Stop Oil’s manifesto.
The tragic irony is that both Just Stop Oil, as well as, reactionary art and literature are forms of revolution against oppression; may that be of expression, of equality or of environmental context.
So, after all, Victor Hugo, Van Gogh and Just Stop Oil do have something in common.
They are all entities that act against a sick and even rotten status quo. However, it is not mandatory that the promotion of one revolutionary cause such as that of Just Stop Oil, requires the destruction of any other, older, and more traditional cause. The real challenge is for Just Stop Oil, which simply exists due to the failure of the capitalist system to sustain green policies, to find common ground with predecessor revolutionized entities such as Van Gogh and Hugo, instead of damaging and risking the future of their yet to be formed legacy.
The aforementioned could potentially give it enough historical and empirical power to really hit the cause of the real problem – those who hinder the much-needed revolution.
Gen Z might therefore have just reached the point where it needs to conduct an assessed critic of past and present catalysts for change, and unavoidably this will allow it to foster a cause for sustainable change and evolution.
Bibliography
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