To act or not to act

Among greenies, as with almost any other activity that inspires people, you can easily find two types: the talkers and the walkers. 

The talkers often are heroes in their own head: they will easily tell you how much they've done or how much they're going to do or how great they are. They're like those drunk guys that will tell you in a pub that they're the next pop star, and they will describe their dreams in beautiful detail. They have the right attitude and the right pose, but if you manage to coax them into playing a guitar, you'll soon discover they're drippy beginners with no musical ear. Or like the girl that believes honestly she's a great poet, and proudly shows you her trite rhymes, and if you dare to say anything slightly non-complimentary about them, she screams you don't understand her art. The same with those greenies. If you ask them what they have actually done, it amounts to almost nothing, and if you say anything to the effect that you're not impressed, they will give you a barrage of reasons why it was impossible to do more, from lack of time to the evil ways of greedy corporations.

The walkers will just try their best to do whatever it is they do. Like, in my case, an Action Plan for my city. I've been busy all week with it. I also talked with the head of the Sustainability Commision about the One Planet Living Plan, which will be coming out soon and sounds like it may be something quite good. I hope it incorporates a lot of the input we put into it, and this gives us a reason to use it as a starting point for something that is more than a report. One can always hope...

If the talkers didn't interfere with the walkers, all would be good and each would go their separate ways. Unfortunately, things don't happen like that. The talkers and the walkers are found in the same places and the same organizations, and it's in the best interests of the talkers that nothing ever gets done. Because if something got done, somebody might notice who did it, and separate the walkers from the talkers. That's unacceptable, because the talkers must remain heroes in their own head, and you can't be a hero when everybody's praising your mate! So the talkers try strenuosly to convince the walkers that they shouldn't be doing a thing: it's too soon, or it's unethical, or it will be no good unless the whole world agrees with it. The latest ploy is worrying about the decision-making. They want power to stop everything, those talkers. We'll see next week if they get their way.