Divestment from peace

Left-wing people want to put principles and moral values above opportunity and power-games. I speak out of my own experience and don't aim to bash the left here. When I was younger and more naive than I am now (I am still no old lady and naive sometimes) I made lists of all kinds of companies that were involved in dirty politics, and drove my parents crazy by insisting to not buy anything from them. The lists became longer and longer and I found out that it became quite impossible to go shopping or simply buy food, and convenience won out over my noble principles. But there was more. I found out that boycotts only make sense if you do them in an organized way and a large number of people join in, so the company really suffers from it. Also it is important to make clear to the company why you boycott them and put forward demands about what they have to change. As one can't do that for all firms that are involved in dirty things, we targeted some 'symbols' of the policy and morality we despised so much, like MacDonald's and Shell. Insofar that we were successful, people went to Burger King or Kentucky Fried Chicken instead, and fuelled at Texaco instead. One can seriously question if that is a big achievement for our goals, namely a better and more just world and less environmental pollution. Lees verder...