On The Soapbox: Symptoms & Disease

It has been a pretty life-changing 10 months since I took a tent and became part of the Occupy movement in London. Following eviction, I came home to Blackpool in Lancashire and found the mining company, Cuadrilla, breezing through plans for shale gas exploration and exploitation of the Bowland Shale in the region known as The Fylde; a well-populated area of prime agriculture and tourism. Having been part of tackling the primary cause of society’s ailments with others in the Occupy movement, I now find myself among equally determined others, dealing with a symptom – an urgent one that must be tackled now, before any further harm is allowed to be done both here and in the rest of the UK.

Despite this, I sense a futility in easing symptoms, whilst the disease rages on damaging so many aspects of society I am torn as to how to divide my time and energy. It’s as if involvement with single-issue (symptom) fights, entangle us in something that is all-consuming and leave little left for ‘cause-of-the-disease’ fighting. I haven’t found a balance or a solution. I just keep counting on winning the battle against fracking.

I wonder if this is what always happens? Do people become so wrapped up in curing the symptoms rather than tackling the true cause? Maybe that’s why protest groups continue to exist – because the causes of a sick society continue unabated? I see the Occupy Movement as a potential solution, however its ability to unify pockets of resistance and focus on the cause rather than the symptoms, must be more effective. Whether it’s fracking, the LIBOR scandal, dodgy expenses, huge bonuses, or wars in foreign countries, all of these symptoms are the result of a system which is riddled with disease.

By Tina Louise