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Climate activists throw mashed potatoes at a Monet painting in Germany [1]

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Date: 2022-10-23

I am a liberal. And I believe that anthropomorphic global warming is an existential threat to the human race — not the planet, mind you. Earth has been on fire, and it has been a snowball - it has no opinion on what it should be. The planet will be fine while we commit suicide by climate. But having said that, allow me to add this. Throwing food at art masterpieces is bullshit.

The latest effort at “publicity” was by two German activists from Letzte Generation (Last Generation), who entered the Museum Barberini in Potsdam and doused Monet’s Les Meules (Haystacks) with potato before gluing their hands to the wall. The protesters said they designed the stunt as a wake-up call in the face of a climate catastrophe. They claimed,

“People are starving, people are freezing, and people are dying. We are in a climate catastrophe, and all you are afraid of is tomato soup or mashed potatoes on a painting. You know what I’m afraid of? I’m afraid because science tells us that we won’t be able to feed our families in 2050. Does it take mashed potatoes on a painting to make you listen? This painting is not going to be worth anything if we have to fight over food. When will you finally start to listen? When will you finally start to listen and stop business as usual?”

I will play along. Do these people believe that their actions will stop business as usual? If they do, they are deluded. The political reality is that some people are at the extremes of the political spectrum. However, many tend to the middle. And these people decide elections and, therefore, which laws the winners enact.

This kind of protest is not going to win them over. By all means, let climate activists glue themselves to walls and chain themselves to railings. Let them take to the streets and block traffic. Let them yell at politicians and (non-violently) disturb legislatures if they can. It has been done before with positive results.

I agree with Martin Luther King Jr’s rationales in “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”. This essay was directed at white liberal church leaders to explain why — although he was from Georgia — it was his duty to protest in Alabama. And that the street protests were the only thing the white power structure would listen to. As he explained,

“You deplore the demonstrations taking place in Birmingham. But your statement, I am sorry to say, fails to express a similar concern for the conditions that brought about the demonstrations. I am sure that none of you would want to rest content with the superficial kind of social analysis that deals merely with effects and does not grapple with underlying causes. It is unfortunate that demonstrations are taking place in Birmingham, but it is even more unfortunate that the city's white power structure left the Negro community with no alternative.”

I believe people have a right — even a duty — to rise up against social ills. But it is pointless to use a strategy that does not work.

The suffragettes won the franchise because they marched, protested, and chained themselves to things. The tactics used in the fights for women’s equality and minority rights were noble, needed, and time-honored. And the average centrist citizen had little issue with them and came to see the need for them.

The most important thing was that they were successful. And, in time, won the support of people who might not have otherwise paid much attention. And now that the right is fighting back with anti-choice laws and back-door Jim Crow legislation, the time is ripe for more of the same. But let us acknowledge that burning down gas stations and looting small businesses is not a good look.

The first question climate activists should ask themselves is, “what can I do that will bring about a solution to global warming? And the answer is not art attacks. I realize that these protestors use food for its symbolic value. It speaks to the potential lack of nutrition if climate change continues.

Fine. Shove potatoes up tails pipes and egg gas-powered cars (that is putting your symbol up the fossil fuel companies’ symbol). How about dumping a truckload of rotten fish outside the Bundestag? Use your imagination.

I suspect these protestors have chosen art because of its connection to the monied class. And see it as symbolic of the excesses of corporatists who do not give a shit about the planet. And who put profit over people.

But this art is hung in public museums to be enjoyed by millions. And if they keep up their assaults, they will damage some of this irreplaceable legacy of humanity. And worse than that, stepped-up security will inconvenience museum visitors. And the money to pay for it will have to come from somewhere. Can you imagine going through the equivalent of the TSA to get into an exhibition and paying more for the privilege?

As anyone who has recently been to Europe knows, it is already hard enough to get into a museum. The uber-wealthy will not care. They have private tours. And buy all the best pieces anyway. So the victims of this food terrorism are going to be average citizens. The very people the climate activists need to buy into their cause.

As a liberal, I am frustrated by people who use ineffective methods to try and achieve liberal or progressive goals. Rather than advance the cause, they can set it back and turn off the people who might otherwise be allies in the fight.

These ineffective activists are like the people who do not vote — or vote third party in a first-past-the-post election — because they say the two political parties are the same because corporate interests have bought them both.

Really? Do they think America will be the same regardless of whether Republicans or Democrats win the House and Senate next month?

So please, no more food terrorism in art museums. Do what you have to do, but make damn sure it has a chance of working.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/10/23/2130775/-Climate-activists-throw-mashed-potatoes-at-a-Monet-painting-in-Germany

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