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.