Two days ago, headlines about an asteroid that may impact Earth on Valentine’s Day in 2046 were published.
Like in the case of former similar headlines about an asteroid hitting earth, there was a great fuss online among animal activists, many of whom shared their hopes for it to happen. And like in the case of former similar headlines, after realizing that the chances of a hit are very small, and that the chances of a hit, if one would occur, to wipe out the human race are tiny, the wishing activists go back to their conventional activism – shouting that they want animal rights now in another demo, leafleting in the usual street corner, flipping burgers for tomorrow’s meatout, making another persuasive argument to another unpersuaded person, and other humanity alteration project activities.
But how can activists, after all the wishing and prayers that an asteroid would wipe out the earth, go back to their tiny scope of potential influence over a tiny scope of the suffering? How can they approach another human that just might consider stopping his own personal part of the greatest torture enterprise ever in history, when what they really wish for is that an asteroid would hit earth and all the suffering that all humans are causing and would ever cause, would end and for good?
Most activists are hoping for a planetary scale miracle while working on tiny changes in tiny scopes of action (obviously tiny compared with the global oppressive mechanism we all face).
The fact that the problem is so immensely huge that it’s almost impossible to really comprehend, leads too many activists to passively think big but actively work small. We want to change that so activists would think huge and act huge. Think global and act global.
Obviously animal activists wishing for the planet to be wiped out, is not new. Many activists say they would press the ‘red button’ when asked the hypothetical question, but very few are willing to dedicate their lives to create such a button. Very few are willing to stop focusing on their tiny scope of influence, to stop looking for ways to make a few more vegans and start looking for ways to stop all of the oppressors from causing all of the suffering.
Our goal in establishing the E.A.S movement is to turn this hypothetical abstract wish into an actual ideology and goal. Our aim is to upgrade this amorphous popular hope into a popular and firm ideology among many animal activists, switching from prayers for external factors to rescue everyone, to relying on ourselves and other animal activists to do it. Our vision is to form a conceptual, philosophical and substantial practical activistic agenda that doesn’t passively long for a “doomsday” event, but looks for ways to actively bring it.
Valentine’s Day in 2046 can truly be happy, but not because an asteroid would finally wipe out humanity, but because us activists have finally worked towards what we ought to do. Our responsibility is not what we consume or what the tiny fraction of humans we may potentially affect consume, but what each and every one, in each and every place on this planet is doing in every single moment, since the suffering is everywhere all of the time. So put the advocacy leaflets down and pick up a leaflet of a relevant science faculty. ‘Red buttons’ don’t come out of thin air, we need to create them.