One lesson of RAN’s history is that we CAN, in fact, change corporate behavior with well-targeted campaigns. Even the world’s largest bank, Citi, signed a policy with us a few years back. Now we’re trying for more.

The kind of deterministic resignation you describe is pretty widespread, I think, but it doesn’t reflect reality. It stems from thinking of one’s self as an isolated individual against the monolith of corporate power. But the fact is that we are not alone, and when we organize to demand change, we do have the power alter the course of history (if not dam its flow). Also, it’s important to remember that corporations, ultimately, are only groups of well-organized people — like us.

I’ll refer you to some lines by Shelley:

Rise like lions after slumber
In unvanquishable NUMBER!
Shake your chains to earth, like dew
Which in sleep had fall’n on you:
YE ARE MANY-THEY ARE FEW.

Everyone talks about stopping these huge corps from destroying the world, and Hollywood loves this concept. Revolution, rebellion, it all sells well to the public who fancies themselves somehow unique and better for recycling or doing things in a more ‘green’ manner. This while they ignore the fact that many of these things are just as harmful for the environment in different and new ways.

So many people bite wholeheartedly into the concept that we are destroying our world, however this is an illusion. I must point out that the world will not be destroyed, even if it is left uninhabitable by humans at some point, life will continue with or without us. Let us be clear: we’re not talking about the end of our world, we’re talking about the survival of our race.

Little can really be done to stop these corporations, even as we desperately try to ensure the survival of humanity. There are those who would work peacefully through diplomatic channels who will fail because the corporations will not play by their rules. There are those who would become more militant, yet they will also fail because they lack the resources to overcome more than a small part of any mega-corporation like ExxonMobil.

I think that perhaps the best solutions is to accept it. Adapt to the world as it changes around you, that is what we have always done. If you want to ensure the survival of humanity, don’t bite into Leonardo DiCaprio’s stylized idealism that Hollywood loves to sell. Instead act as an individual to prepare yourself for that day when your ability to survive will be tested.

It is impossible for one person or even a group of people to build a dam to stop this oncoming flood. Rather than waste your effort and drown in vain with the others… build a boat.