I'm fascinated by the question: what determines which things that will obviously not bring about some effect strike us as idiotic, and which strike a non-negligible number of people as worthy if doomed efforts?
If you're trying to win people over to your cause by vandalizing a library, or Stonehenge, or an oil painting, you are not remotely helping your cause.
"It raises awareness!"
Yes, awareness that you're a fucking idiot. Nothing good.
If I am locked out of my house and stand in front of the door yelling "OPEN UP! DAMMIT OPEN UP!", no one will think: well, at least she TRIED to get in.
I certainly will not be able to guilt my friends into yelling with me by saying: if you're not willing to stand and yell with me, you must not care about getting back inside!
Yet there are people who think that painting Stonehenge is a way of stopping climate change.
Why? What's the difference?
PS: The idea that what's standing in the way of action on climate change is that not enough people are aware that it's occurring (at least in the UK) is absurd.
PPS: This is related to another question that baffles me, namely: what is it about some but not all manifestly ignorant people that gets other people to trust them? (Thinking of random people on YouTube, Rush Limbaugh, and of course Trump.)
One difference is that there's an obviously productive path to take (calling a locksmith). Whereas there's probably no way to motivate people to cut carbon emissions as quickly as they should; the choices are either do something ineffective (polite or otherwise) or do nothing.
True. But suppose instead that I stand in the middle of the street doing jumping jacks in order to bring about world peace. (I have no obvious means of achieving this, more's the pity.)
Phase 1: Throw Colourful Stuff On Beloved Stuff
Phase 2: ...
Phase 3: Oil is stopped, planet is saved, home for tea and medals
If it works, I'll be EXTREMELY happy to be proved wrong.
Swearing at computers/kitchen appliances/sporting teams on TV/one's own penis is clearly a venting outlet to make oneself feel better about one's hopeless frustration, because there is no feasible way in which the swearing could make the offending item behave itself. QED.
When I stopped believing in God, one of the things I missed was thinking that even though my prayers were probably misguided, and even though I did not believe that God answered prayers a lot in any case, there was at least SOME chance that I could affect things like the Red Sox' performance.
