I'm not sure whether this comment fits in with this community, and I apologise if it doesn't. The other day, over lunch in the office cafeteria, one of my colleagues started talking about some anti-oil companies protests that were taking place in London that week. She was making plenty of trite statements, such as how these activists were preventing “decent people” from commuting and how displays of the sort should be banned. I asked her what the point of holding a non-disruptive protest would be, since the very spirit of a protest was to provoke the public to spread a message or highlight an issue. Fundamental changes, I told her, can only be achieved by shaking society, not by begging, not by politely asking for a favour, not by sending a letter of complaint. I reminded her that, as a woman, her right to vote was achieved precisely through violent protest, when Emmeline Pankhurst formed a group that used civil disobedience to gain the vote for women. They chained themselves to railings, smashed windows and committed arson. Many of the women, I told her, including Pankhurst, went on hunger strike and finally, in 1918 women over the age of 30 were given voting rights and the right to stand for Parliament. She said: “That is a different matter”. I looked at her and, very gently, assured to her that between the right to vote and the essential need to have a planet, I would consider the latter considerably more critical. It is easy to take everything for granted—even this tiny speck of dust drifting in the unfathomable darkness of the universe. I have witnessed in this subreddit how much pain and distress our modern laboral life is bringing upon us. If we want a four-day workweek and decent wages and respect and affordable housing, they're not going to give us these things unless we jump right down their throats with non-negotiable demands. And to do that, people need to be united.