Energy-generating

1097: 

          

If energy is a problem, it’s only a problem if there’s not enough of it. Maybe we have to start considering energy not as a finite resource, like having so much petrol in the tank, but more like a self-perpetuating substance. It’s the way in which it’s used that determines whether it can generate any replacement energy, this being based on the idea that the more you put out, the more of it comes back.

Shall we say, this energy, used for the greater good, is the sort that can stimulate the making of energy. As soon as we’re doing what we consider to be meaningful work we unconsciously expand our energy. Or, to be brief, this energy expands as it expends.

         

Let’s say that acts of usefulness or kindness, where there’s a fairly big energy investment on our part, show less overall energy depletion than expected. Perhaps well-intentioned activism uses the sort of energy where the more of it we use the more is replaced.

In our line of work this would need to be so, because we can’t forget the conditions animal activists have to work under. There’s an in-built drain on our motivational energy simply because of the sheer weight of opposition we face, by the denigration of our values, being ignored and probably even being thought stupid for having these values in the first place.

         

But ultimately these are only the small drawbacks of the ‘job’. As activists, we’re operating on several fronts at the same time, holding ourselves together whilst carrying on doing what we are doing without being put-off.

One important part of our ‘job’, as activists, is to learn how to handle the minority-ness of our work. And part of that is learning how to handle people with the mentality of doing what they want to, without any hindrance. Should we hinder? Should we observe? It’s still open to question which approach to take.

On the plus side, for us, there’s a surprise-energy, which pops up from time to time. I think it comes from self regard, nothing more - who better to be motivating us but our very selves, when we’re tingling with something we’ve done that we’re proud of. We say to ourselves, “Okay, good-one”. The reason this energy seems to appears from nowhere is down to us letting go of self interest.  Could it be that when energy is released for the ‘greater-good’ that we set off a chain reaction?  For instance, as soon as we begin to take an interest in a forest, an animal, a human or any important issue, the energy we need will appear from nowhere? The opposite can happen too, where self-interest drains energy, as we see when there’s an insatiable thirst for more, and the harder one tries to pick up energy the more it drains away and slows things up. 

If energy works like this, (for example, harmful energy sources like meat eventually depleting our energy, whereas harmless, life-giving sources of energy, like plants, building energy) it puts a new spin on things - that however hard pressed we feel there’s always enough energy left over for meaningful activities.