Reduce, Reuse and... Resist?

I'm continually inspired by some of the really great writers out there in the blogosphere and Jon Barrett's blog, the brilliantly titled "Resistance is Fertile" is one of my favourites.

In a recent article, he talks about an extension to the conventional "three Rs" of Reduce, Reuse and Recycle:

some additional ‘Rs’ – such as to Refuse (social pressure and the temptations of advertising), to ‘Repair’ (rather than renew or replace) and ultimately to ‘Return’ (our waste to the earth as ‘food’).

These three are so core to some of the things we've been talking about on the blog - Helen and I fighting in our own ways the lure of the shopping culture with Easter presents, and Stuff.   Kerry and Mark on Repairing bicycles and shoes.  Erik eloquent on Waste.  And these are just some of the many, many posts on these subjects.

Jon Barrett goes on to talk about a new "R" to add to these six:

Repeated incongruities between the rhetoric and actions of our leaders and manipulative disinformation campaigns by powerful oil and coal interests have undermined such meagre top-down efforts to engender public engagement as have been attempted, let alone the prospects for a widespread public mobilisation anytime soon. If we are ever to achieve the necessary scale of social change, then those of us who have comprehended the enormity of our predicament must do much more now than simply seek to inform and persuade. We must be willing to actively ‘Resist’ the intractable forces that are marshalled against us.

Powerful stuff in uncertain times.