Focus on Arts and Ecology

A couple weeks ago, I went to a talk at UCLA by the author Kim Stanley Robinson, whose most recent novel, The Ministry for the Future, is an optimistic look at the ways humanity might tackle the climate crisis. Speaking to a small room of environmentally conscientious listeners, Robinson admitted that the book, written six years ago, was missing something: a discussion on the difference between violence against people and sabotage against property. “If you break a pipeline or you slash the tires of an SUV, that isn’t even violence,” he said. “That’s just breaking stuff.”

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately while watching Teslas go up in flames on the news, a clear protest against Elon Musk, whose Nazi salutes and reckless firings of federal employees have raised a lot of ire. Musk, who is not an elected official but leads the new the Department of Government Efficiency, seems a bit bumfuzzled by this response, as he watches Tesla stocks and sales plummet. (On the other hand, as Paul Koberstein reports this week in the Journal, his SpaceX and other enterprises are poised for a great windfall, in what appear to be clear, brazen conflicts of interest.)

The Trump administration, in its Orwellian way, would like to characterize these fiery Tesla protests, which haven’t resulted in any injuries, as acts as terrorism. The FBI defines domestic terrorism as “violent, criminal acts committed by individuals and/or groups to further ideological goals.” (This is why so many allegations of eco-terrorism are equally absurd, but I digress). What’s happening to Teslas looks more to me like vandalism than violence.

At the same time, the administration is overlooking the great amount of terror Musk’s own actions have caused: The abrupt dismantling of USAID, denying life-saving drugs, including HIV medication, to many in need around the world; deregulation at the Environmental Protection Agency, which ought to be working toward clean air and water, not the profits of the fossil fuel industry; and the defunding of the National Institutes for Public Health, the last of which, Robinson reminded his listeners, does calculable harm. Public health and science, after all, are responsible for increased life expectancy around the world, which means the Trump administration is stealing life from us — billions of us.

It seems clear to me who the real terrorists and tyrants are. And there’s certainly no harm in continuing to call them out.