In this article I am going to go after some sacred cows. Please read with an open mind. When I attack politicians in general and parliament in particular it is from a place of critical and spiritual reflection. Not an attack on F/friends who disagree. It may feel that way, for, as the mystic monk Thomas Merton famously said, “When I criticise a system, they think I criticise them… they fully accept the system and identify with it.”

In a recent survey by the Quaker Peace and Legislative Committee (QPLC), there is a statement made in the document: “Friends believe Quakers Australia should engage with parliamentarians.” I had to sit with some sadness and upset with this. I identify as a Friend, but no, I do not believe we should engage with parliamentarians.

There are some amazing parliamentarians out there. Watching Lidia Thorpe and Sarah Hanson-Young speak truth to power over the years certainly inspires me. The guts Fatima Payman showed in breaking with the Labor Party caucus is nothing short of amazing. I do not believe though that Thorpe, Hanson-Young or Payman have any actual power. For that matter, I do not believe any politician has any real power.

In the words of Noam Chomsky, “The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of public opinion, but allow very lively debate within that opinion.”

In my forty-two-year lifetime we’ve seen the quality of life degrade in many areas.

I’ve watched the worst predictions of the climate crisis come to pass. A deepening alliance with a war hungry United States and an increase in homelessness and wealth inequality. From the frontlines of nonviolent civil disobedience and sharing my life with “streeties” (people experiencing homelessness) I’ve seen an increase in desperation and grief, and violence from police and the State. All while the richest continue to greatly increase their wealth.

I have experienced several police raids and acts of state violence that are acceptable to the mainstream. Allies in the activist movement have been held in remand for weeks on end or jailed. All for demanding a right to a safe future. Oppression increases.

Pick any one of those big issues (I’ll do it for you, because you’re reading this and I’m writing it on a google doc. Yes I’m using google, file this under hypocrite.doc).

Anyway, the issue I picked is a big one – increasing fossil fuels consumption, speeding up the climate crisis.

For my whole life governments have known about this threat. When governments do anything about it, they are crucified in the media by the fossil fuel owned corporations. A mild carbon tax saw a successful and vicious campaign on Julia Gillard. An even milder mining tax saw Rudd dethroned by the same powers that be.

We are told that power lies in the hands of our elected officials. We become caught up in debates about small changes to our constitution. If we can change the minds of our politicians, we believe, we can change the world. Yet in almost every example, on the actual life issues, all governments are restricted by their corporate bosses.  If this was not true we would be drawing down emissions and be well beyond a zero-emission nation state right now.

Polling suggests over half of Australians want action on climate change. Some polls have said even liberal voters would accept lower standards of living in return for a safe climate. The reason most voters are not getting their will met on this issue is they do not have the power to enforce it. Their elected representatives do not have the power to enact the needed change either. The power to change at this moment lies with the group of corporate executives who force governments to bend to their will on fossil fuel projects. In other ways as well, such as city layouts and car technology. All are designed to maximise fossil fuel consumption, creating demand, driving up prices. Even in negotiations such as the United Nations Conference of Parties, the largest emitters of fossil fuels, national military forces are exempt from emission counts. One fighter jet flying for a single hour creates more emissions than an average family car does in seven years. The democratic process many of us seek to influence has no power. It is only there to give the illusion it has power. So we spend time and resources lobbying them for change, instead of building power together where we really can.

There are a few reasons we struggle with the idea that parliamentarians hold no real power.  We are conditioned from a young age to believe the system we live under is the best system in the world. The peak of civilisation and morality.

As Merton pointed to, the parliament is the system that we identify with. It makes us feel like we are civilised, good, free, people, and that other civilised good people, like us, have power and are working in our best interests in the halls of Canberra.  We feel this, even as hunger increases around the world, one hundred species go extinct each day and we walk steadily along the road to total earth extinction (a very real possibility according to climate science).

Importantly, on some level we know we are rich and powerful. You don’t need to travel to a nation stripped of its wealth by global corporations like West Papua or Nigeria to know we have a good life. Even if we struggle by Australian standards, we have it good. It is human and natural to want to keep our high standard of living, and to try to improve it. Our parliamentary system with its regular elections and respectable looking politicians convinces us of its worth. Our whole culture and media system is designed to make us feel that way.

As an example, Elizabeth Windsor was celebrated by many when she died, even by F/friends. She was a woman who awarded medals to people who committed war crimes in Kenya and Ireland, a queen who oversaw the concentration camps and internment of Kenyan rebels, that had Britain lost the war, would have seen her tried for crimes against humanity. None of this was visible when she died. She was constantly presented as a great and noble woman, someone with whom we could identify and on a subconscious level, tie ourselves to, so that we can feel good about our culture and justify the wealth we have, no matter the cost.

“We feel free because we lack the very language to describe our unfreedom.”- Slavoj Zizesk

Bit by bit, we gobble up the earth and turn it into worthless money. More and more wild earth is lost to the economy every year.  Our affluence, as Merton continued in his quote, has another side to it: there is the physical destruction of our homes, the bodies in West Papua, the slowing ocean currents.

The spiritual aspect though, of believing that anyone who wants to challenge the power of those profiteering from this crisis must wear a suit and speak in front of cameras in Canberra is a big part of our spiritual lethargy. This is a malignancy that has confused our worldly wealth with our spiritual health.

For the last sixteen days, Blockade Australia has conducted over one hundred hours of disruption to the world’s largest coal port. “This is just a few of us” one activist said from atop a coal train. “Imagine if there were a thousand of us. Or a hundred thousand of us.”

These actions demonstrate the power of collective direct action. We know from court statements that coal loads were cancelled, ships were delayed. For a very brief respite the port moving 1% of the world’s coal had to slow down.

Blockade Australia demonstrated real power. Physically slowing down the emissions of the nation state of Australia. Conducting their politics at the point of violence and exploitation. Rather than relying on trust in a system that works only on the deception that it has our interest at heart. A system that deep in our heart is merely a veneer for real power. A system that speaks to our pride, respectability and sense of decency. Never to our testimonies of peace, integrity, community, earthcare, simplicity and equality.

The resulting sacrifice of Blockade Australia, to personal wealth, state oppression and status, for me, aligns with the sacrifice of the early Society. The early Friends who died in gaol rather than swear an oath in a court. I know some people regard me as radical or out there, but I could never contemplate that. I swear affirmations in court all of the time!

Blockade Australia make real sacrifices. They live in crowded squats (abandoned homes) and houses and sleep in cars. Sharing funds and meals amongst themselves. I am guilty here of glorifying poverty and I apologise. I just wanted to paint a picture perhaps what real politics looks like. Like James Parnell striking out to preach where Quakers had been whipped, my Blockade Australia friends consider the most loving thing they can do with their energy is to set aside their self-interest.

I see Parliament as our temple of self-interest with highly paid politicians and lobbyists bending to the will of higher paid corporate entities, while we stare at our screens and get emotional over what is happening. As if we have some sway in their halls.  I know many people died for voting rights, but this is a game of power. Our ancestors wrested power one way; those in authority always find back doors. In the world of money, power and parliaments, it is an amoral vacuum. I feel my calling is not for that. My calling is to try (badly) to live with integrity, to work for the good in earth and the people.

I do not think a small organisation like the Society should be lobbying parliamentarians. Many larger organisations with so much money do that already. Whereas cheap direct action, be it Blockade Australia, or sitting in the driveways of shonky real estate developers or weapons manufacturers doesn’t require many resources by comparison.  We should be using our resources to conduct politics where our spirits lead us. I think that is where our money and emotional support should go. To the politics at the places of violence and exploitation.

As greater climate collapse and resources wars loom, hope will be found in our faith.

Our faith will be found in our actions.

Actions we should be taking, no matter what the media, our upbringing, and even at times, our common sense tells us we shouldn’t be doing.

No, Friends do not think the Society should be lobbying politicians. Not me anyway.