Sophie Walker - Five Rules for Rebellion: Lets Change the World Ourselves

Its six thirty in the morning. The sky is clear blue, and the air is cool on my face.

I stretch up and down; check my laces; swing my arms once twice and set off running. Down the street, around the corner, through the park.

It is a beautiful July morning in London. In my ears, BBC Radio 4 broadcasts news from around the world.

In Helsinki, US President Donald Trump has declared in a news conference with Vladimir Putin that he believes the Russian president over his own intelligence agencies on the issue of Russian interference in the US presidential election.

From Geneva, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees is calling for access for aid workers to almost a quarter of a million Syrians stranded with no shelter or food in the desert near Jordan after fleeing a Russian-backed offensive in Deraa, the birthplace of protests in 2011 that sparked this ongoing civil war.

In London, it is announced that the architects of Brexit will be fined for irregularities in financing their part of the campaign that broke Britain in two. The police watchdog meanwhile says the Forces response to rising hate crimes in the wake of the referendum has been inadequate.

British Prime Minister Theresa May, still trying to work out what to do, staggers through Westminster clutching votes to herself like straws. Members of Parliament are to vote on whether to go home early for summer break.

In California, blazes have erupted and are spreading across thousands of acres of land every day, putting the lives of locals and emergency service providers at risk.

It feels as though the whole world is on fire and theres no one to put it out.

Through a series of unexpected events that well get to in a bit, on this morning, as I run, Im the leader of a national political party. Its a new party, with new ideas and a whole lot of brilliant, thoughtful and inspiring campaigns and campaigners. Yet, as I pace past tidy houses on my street, turn right towards the park and cross over still-quiet roads past parked cars, with this dreadful state of affairs ringing in my ears, I feel desperate about my capacity to do anything about any of it. Theres just so much of it. I wonder how I can keep going in the face of such enormous barriers to a fair and peaceful world. I wonder how I can persuade other people to keep going. I wonder how many people listened to the news this morning and thought that any attempt to change the world was pointless. I wonder how many simply switched it off, or turned to a different station or channel. I wonder how many caring people quailed at that catalogue of sadness and outrage. And I wonder whether anyone, anywhere in the world, has figured out how to keep firefighting when the fires keep breaking out in new places with flames that seem ever hotter and more destructive and smoke that feels like it might choke you.

I inhale lungfuls of fresh air and consider. We need a movement of millions to tackle all of this stuff. We need a plan thats simple and effective and also sustainable, because were going to have to fight these fires in shifts, over a long period of time. I wonder, what kind of plan would work for that? Wouldnt it need to be vast and involved? Or should it be short and to the point? Would it need to detail practical measures for activism? A strategic approach? Offer powerful inspiration? Or do we essentially need philosophical comforts? And where would I find all of the answers to this? Who should I ask?

I finished that run sure of one thing. We have to make sure the destructive blazes are snuffed out. We have to sow a better world for all of us. We can only do this together. Saving the world has to involve you. Our plan to save the world has to ensure that you can keep going when Im flagging, and that I can keep going when youre flagging.

At this point you might be undecided about joining the rebellion or about the need for activism altogether. Perhaps it doesnt seem worth it, given the scale of the problems. Perhaps it seems as though you individually cant make a difference. Maybe you think the change shouldnt start with you but with people in other countries, ones that are doing far worse than us on carbon emissions, or access to education, or human rights. Look, bear with me. Bear with my vision that there can be something better. Consider this suggestion that there is something you can do about the state of the world.

Dont laugh it off.

Dont put this book down!

Whatever you do dont decide not to care.

Not caring is no way to live.

Not caring leaves the way free for billionaires to bend entire countries to their will. Not caring leaves politics to people whose primary consideration is the desire to protect their own interests. Not caring leaves decision-making to people who lack compassion and imagination. On 8 November 2016 the US election day that ushered in the pussy-grabbing, immigrant-denouncing apologist for white nationalism, President Trump British journalist George Monbiot sent this tweet:

The choices before the American people are:

1. The same old shit

2. An entire vat of shit, in which you will drown Vote 1. Its all there is.

George was clearly flagging that day. Its a shame, because a lot of people were listening to him. We have to cheer George up. And we have to not be like him in that moment. Because dismissing everything as shit makes you complicit.

Lets instead build something new.

Come with me.

At this point Id like to take a moment to set out what help this book aims to offer. Key to this activist message is practical support and encouragement: a resource of information for developing the talent you might not yet know you have. But to be clear: this is not a message about fixing yourself first. Because if youre a curious or contemplative person, youve probably tried that, at the urging of other books. Youve probably read the ones that say you need to improve yourself before you can improve anything else, and that you need to do that work alone. The guilt and cynicism that those books can foster is stifling. Perhaps youre feeling sceptical now because you feel like youve tried everything already and youre tired of it. Thats understandable: a walk into the self-help section of the average bookshop shows tables piled high with lessons for women that theyre not good enough while the philosophy and business sections encourage men to be thoughtful about life without suggesting such levels of inadequacy.