Okay. For Rewind Wednesday, we visit a story from South African apartheid, and related truth and reconciliation processes, to reflect on the cruelty of news cycles that don't give us the tools we need to think more seriously about justice.

What would it look like?

Do we have the means to achieve the ends we desire?

Or should we be looking for a sense of liberation somewhere else, while fighting the good fight in all our unjust systems, too?

#Justice #History #Humanism
https://open.substack.com/pub/mlclark/p/what-sort-of-justice-can-we-expect

Today's piece (in progress) deals with one tiny part of South Africa's history, in relation to philosophies of activism and the truth commission, but I'm definitely going back to this regional history (SO poorly understood in the West) in future work, too.

For now, I just want to note that "necklacing" remains one of the most disturbing forms of torture we humans have come up with.

(And we've come up with a lot!)

Don't google it if you don't recognize it. Enjoy your Wednesday! More soon. 🕊️

Activism takes many forms. The Yutes are citing climate change as a reason for leaving their job (45%) or informing their choice to take a job offer (70% listing it as a consideration).

I've seen sneering commentary about how it "must be nice" for Yutes to have the "luxury" to think about what they're complict in. "In my day we did whatever it took to support our families and shut up." That anger speaks to how much we've *all* been wounded by our deeply hurting world.

https://www.infobae.com/fortune/2024/05/20/casi-la-mitad-de-jovenes-deja-su-empleo-por-preocupaciones-climaticas/

Any day when one leaps out of bed well before the alarm, all set for a solid predawn run, is gonna be a good day.

So it is written, so shall it be done.

Morning, CoSo! 💫

In perfect follow-up to my piece today: Shock! Gasp! (Oh, we're so screwed.)

“There is no evidence that big oil and gas companies are acting seriously to be part of the energy transition,” David Tong, global industry campaign manager at Oil Change International, who co-authored the analysis, said in a statement.

#ClimateCrisis #Economics #Environment
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/may/21/oil-companies-report-fossil-fuels-climate

Remember, kids... :)

☝🏻 One note I only touched on, re: Azeri journalist crackdowns, ties into Georgia's recent struggles, too.

It's unfortunately very useful to autocrats for citizens to see any foreign presence as proof of "infiltration"--because that legitimizes crackdowns on media & dissent.

I say "unfortunately" because it is also *true* that some foreign presence has an infiltration aim.

The trick is not doing the infiltrator's or autocrat's work for them, by losing democracy in the process of state defence.

In other words, like last Tuesday: another real cheerful one, folks! 🙃

Today for Tough Times Tuesday, we check in on the latest challenges for European sanctions on Russian oil and gas. If these last two years have taught us anything, it's that our global energy systems are too tightly enmeshed in the same ruinous reliance on petroleum products for us to be able to exert sufficient pressure on other states in war.

#Energy #War #Economics #UkraineRussiaWar
https://open.substack.com/pub/mlclark/p/whats-oil-got-to-do-with-it

Oh, we are at the SILLY peak of the night. Everything after this is woe and lamentation.

How YOU doin', CoSo?

Any random questions for me?

I will confess to being a little tipsy tonight. All opinions belong to the cab/sauv. It is a saucy beast.

Sometimes I wish I could change my name completely.

Think of the power I would wield as MYARLATHOTEP instead of merely ML.

Okay, I can't sleep.

Joining #CoSoAfterDark while revising a short story.

What low-level nefarious deeds is everyone else up to tonight? 👀

Just catching up on how much heat there was on CoSo today around some of the messiest global news.

I still always feel super sad at arguments from incredulity (yes, we're all in info silos, & yes, other people will draw different conclusions from their own body of relevant facts), but...

Hot dog, CoSo!

We didn't do too badly. 🎉

We might just get through this with our humanity intact after all.

Night, folks. 💛

Remember: we're all doing the best we can from the distinct positions we occupy.

All right. Fantastic workflow plans on this end today. Offline 'til evening.

Hope you're all keeping well.

We've had a lot of major global news this cycle, so it's going to be super hard for some of us to keep our eyes off the feeds, or to keep from venting elsewhere.

But it's all trauma, baby.

We're all so jacked up from weeks/months/years of strife, it's difficult to remember to put the human first in everything we do.

Have grace with others.
Have grace with yourself.
And use the tools. 👌

A brief piece to start off your week, reflecting on Civil War (2024) and the curious range of audience expectations placed on this film, leading to many viewers' disappointment over its hand-wringing about the complexity of war journalism.

What did we expect this film to do, in the middle of rising authoritarian threats? And did misguided expectations of resistance art detract from the lesson it instead advances?

#BetterWorldsTheory #CoSoFilm #Activism #War
https://open.substack.com/pub/mlclark/p/what-kind-of-resistance-art-do-we

#Mood 🙂

Off for a run at dawn. Newsletter's all written and ready to go on my return, and then my morning has an exciting editing project in store - because it's work for a CoSonaut. (Woo hoo!)

Happy Monday, all.

All right, I am LEAVING for the day. No phone, no laptop, no nada. 🍃

Have a good one, CoSo!

I will say hello to a bee for you.

(And only relay the reply if it's a nice one. You know how they bee sometimes. 🙃)