getting to yes

YES MEN. On the 25th anniversary of the Bhopal chemical disaster, a member of the Yes Men appeared on the BBC, posing as a Dow Chemical spokesperson and offering an unconditional apology and billions in compensation for victims of the Bhopal chemical plant's environmental apocalypse in 1984 (18,000 people were killed; unnumbered suffered terrible injuries and continue to due to the poisoning of the environment). Dow stocks plummeted by $2 billion US before the story was revealed as a hoax. Some say the actions of the Yes Men are sophmoric. Yes, there is an irrepressible frat-boy prank-ness about what they do. But, in the best tradition of religious imagination, the Yes Men also behave as if what we say we believe is actually true. By acting as if the goal has been reached, we reach the goal. Think about how the Woolworths lunch counter became a place of racial integration.

At the Copenhagen convention on climate change, the Yes Men struck forcefully at Canada's expense. i only wish their fake press release (on a very real looking Environment Canada website) was even half-way true. Setting out Canada's "Agenda 2020" goal of a 40% reduction in emmissions (a vast improvement from our current goal of a piddly 3%), the online statement also pledged a fabulously generous $13 billion in 2010 to help developing nations deal with climate change. In the fake release, Canada's environment minister Jim Prentice was made to say: "Nobody benefits from a world in peril. Contributing to the development of other nations and taking full responsibilities for our emissions is simple Canadian good sense." If only. When revealed as a hoax, another hoax took place; this time, Prentice was made to say, "It is the height of cruelty, hypocrisy, and immorality to infuse with false hopes the spirit of people who are already, and will additionally, bear the brunt of climate change's terrible human effects. Canada deplores this moral misfire."

Well, a girl can dream! Let's say yes to the Yes Men's bold agenda for Canada. Let's say yes to the Yes Men's visionary tactics. Let's allow ourselves to take into our hearts the late Tommy Douglas' words: "Courage, my friends! It's not too late to build a better world!" Let's behave as if the better world has already arrived, and we are living in it - choosing wisely the vehicles we drive (or better yet, taking the People's Taxi, also known as Public Transit), the packaging of the goods we buy, the food we eat, the ways we work, the composting and recycling we do. Our Jewish friends might call this Tikkun Olam (mending the world). We christians might call this living as if the kin-dom of God is already real. The planet we live on might call it sanity, and breathe a tiny sigh of relief.