From The Mind of Merc - Extinction Rebellion

Sometimes I find my mind wandering over various eclectic topics and occasionally I am inspired to write some of them down. Today I was thinking about Extinction Rebellion.

Let me just say that I have no objection to what they are trying to achieve – I am all for it. The planet is doomed if we don’t stop destroying it – absolutely.
What I don’t understand is the method they have chosen – namely to inconvenience the everyday man in the street.

Yes – I get that they are trying to cause a disturbance in order to be noticed but surely they are causing a disturbance to the wrong people.
Is it the everyday man in the street who is obstructing change and working to actively prevent the necessary ruled and regulation changes that the group is campaigning for? No. So why on earth does it even to the slightest degree compute that the best thing to do is annoy those people? All that will do is cause antagonism, resentment and even greater opposition to what they are trying to achieve.
It’s like saying you want to stop people chopping down trees so you go and inconvenience Greenpeace.
Or saying you want to put an end to veganism and annoying meat eaters. 

Above all, it is fundamentally contradictory to their desired outcome.
What is the key thing they need to make change happen? Support
How do you get support? By winning people over to your side
How do you not get support? By annoying the people you need to support you. And yet what are they doing?

Please can the movement make the decision to turn their efforts towards disrupting the lives of those in power who have the influence and authority to make the change they want to see happen.
If they’re going to inconvenience someone, it should at least be the people to blame for the inaction. These are the people they should be aiming for and not the other people around them - their fellow victims.
Also, given the current catastrophic state of the government and the increasing antipathy being directed towards this would be a practically guaranteed way to garner support – win-win.
They have the drive, they have the method, all they need now is the direction.

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Gridlock - !!!NEW!!!

Inspired to write this while looking out of my window between Christmas and New Year. Still applicable given the work commute is now resuming.

It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas Gridlock not by Meredith Wilson

It’s beginning to look a lot like gridlock

Everywhere you go

Take a look at the M-2-5 – it's been clogged up since 5

With closed down lanes and no spare trains - oh no

It's beginning to look a lot like gridlock
Cars and trucks galore
And the one thing you want to see, is the roadway that will lead
To your own front door

A job that for you it pays at home just to stay
Is the wish you make now and then
You know that it’s silly but as it’s so chilly

You wish it again and again

‘Cause then you wouldn’t have to leave the house at oh-four-ten (04:10)

It's beginning to look a lot like gridlock
Everywhere you go
There's a queue on the next slip road, (‘cause) someone needed a tow
The pick-up truck’s caused this back-up, you know

It's beginning to look a lot like gridlock
Soon the honkings starts
And the thing that makes it complete, is the feeling it will repeat
When tomorrow starts

It's beginning to look a lot like gridlock
Soon the honkings starts
And the thing that makes it complete, is the feeling/knowing it will repeat
When tomorrow starts

It's beginning to look a lot like gridlock, gridlock, gridlock, gridlock, gridlock.

Ironic - !!!NEW!!!

Has anybody else been driven mad by the song 'Ironic' by Alanis Morisette? I have nothing against Ms. Morisette but she clearly doesn't seem to know what irony actually is (which, in a way, is kind of ironic). And so I've decided to rectify this by penning a 'parody' of her song staying as true as was possible to the original to show how with just a few tweaks it would make so much more sense.

Ironic (with corrections) not by Alanis Morisette
Hey yeah yeah

Yeah yea yea
Hey yeah

An old man turned ninety-eight
Folks thought him immortal then he died the next day
It's a black fly in your Chardonnay
You asked for body but now say to throw it away
Isn't it ironic
Don't you think?

It's like rain when you gave your umbrella away
Saying I won’t need it – doesn’t look cloudy today
Of all the times you choose - it must be fate
And who would've thought, it figures 

Mr. Play It Safe was afraid to try

All sorts of new things - thought the risk was too high
Yet it’s this fear of his that caused him to die
Wouldn’t alter his course that day
He couldn’t see why
And isn’t it ironic
Don't you think?

It's like rain when you gave your umbrella away
Saying I won’t need it – doesn’t look cloudy today
Of all the times you choose - it must be fate
And who would've thought, it figures

Well life has a funny way of turning round on you
When you think everything's makes sense and everything's going right, right
And life has a funny way sometimes of tripping you up when
You think the everything's gone right and then everything blows up
In your face

A traffic jam when you're already late
Told the roads would be clear by that reporter you hate
It's like ten thousand spoons when you think you need a knife
Then you find a spoon would have done
Ooh yeah the irony is rife, mmm
And isn't it ironic
Don't you think?
A little too ironic
And yeah, I really do think

It's like rain when you gave your umbrella away
Saying I won’t need it – doesn’t look cloudy today
Of all the times you choose - it must be fate
And who would've thought, it figures

And well, life has a funny way of turning round on you
And life has a funny, funny way of tripping you up
Tripping you up