Making a Whale of a Difference

On many a #FuckCapitalism walk (or should I say #FuckYachts walks?) through the stolen streets of Tio’tia:ke/Montreal, I’ve chanced on small, multicolored, clearly hand-crafted stickers—some torn and others faded from long exposure to the urban elements. I’ve always been drawn to them, both for their block-print style and #ArtOfResistance (or should I say #PodsOfResistance). And I’ve no idea if they preceded the now-famous orcas who are increasingly emboldened—as we ecological anarchists like to imagine—in their direct actions in defense of the earth.

Yet when I spy one of these stickers nowadays, I delight not only in what’s right in front of me. I feel deep, pure, utter, unabashed joy in conjuring up images in my mind’s eye of all the many, many anarchic artworks being made and shared on social media of rebellious orcas rising up to #MakeTotalDestroy, as it were, luxury boats. The orca memes, in fact, haven’t yet once failed to make me smile, make me laugh, and make me proud. (It is, after all, “pride month,” with pride being a riot.)

I say “proud” not because the orcas know that I and many others appreciate their (seeming) resistance. Rather, I feel proud of us humans—or at least those of us who are taking vicarious pleasure in the orcas’ self-organizing—because we’re able to break through our own sense of despair, our own increasing sense that nothing we do can stop the tsunamis of fascism and ecocide, and via our dreamy-humorous-playful memes, swim toward possibilities side by side, metaphorically, with the whales.

If some scientist finds out that the orcas’ aren’t proactively and strategically engaging in direct action, and thereby aspiring toward social and ecological transformation, who the hell and high water cares?! We’ll still have a boatload of anarchistic illustrations that can buoy us when needed—that is, when we feel the immense heaviness of these impossible times wash over us again and our hopes start to sink anew.

For now, I don’t know about you, but I’m going to keep riding the uplifting wave, thanks to the orca black bloc!

#WaterIsLife #OceansOfResistance #MakingAWhaleOfADifference