Weird Ideological Mash Ups

Above is one of the most curiously mixed mash ups of political causes I have come across.  It is a graphic for an event simultaneously protesting about "wrecking the climate, Israeli apartheid and the arms industry." I can't think of any natural links between those three topics.

Climate change is a vastly complex issue with so many different aspects you could (and many have) write a book just outlining the problems.  Getting solutions to those problems doesn't really involve shouting through a megaphone so much as developing technologies, policy tools, better regulations and so on.  It doesn't really require convincing policy makers that there is a problem, because, in the UK anyway, there is a political consensus that there is.

Israel and Palestine is one of the world's most intractable political problems that needs to be solved via a political agreement between the Palestinians and Israelis.  In my view that means a two state solution, and frankly shouting insults at Israel (which rather than being an apartheid regime is actually a democracy, albeit an imperfect one) is unhelpful.  Palestinians really deserve better than to have their national cause and flag hijacked by western activists.

The arms industry is another sprawling global problem linked to corruption, wars and underdevelopment.  Contrary to the implication of the event it is not particularly focused on Israel, and the people at this event might do better to think about how to influence much bigger arms exporters such as the UK.

But then influencing anyone doesn't really appear to be the agenda here.  It really seems to be more about telling yourself how virtuous you are.  That seems to be the real connecting thread between the themes which have no intellectual connection at all. 

In fact I think an event like this is worse than useless since it distracts from  any real solution to what are crucial and pressing problems.  It really is a pity that any the energy being put into this sort of thing isn't put to use producing solutions that might actually help.