Campaigners- learn from Back to the Future Part II

4 min readAug 9, 2019

A few days ago I was on facebook and I saw this picture. The fear of God went through me and I have written to the organisers to ask that they don’t follow through with this. They should learn from Back to the Future Part II.

Let me explain.

In Back to the Future Part II Marty and Doc Brown go from1985 to 2015. Whilst they are there Marty gets a sports almanack with the idea of going back to 1985 and placing some sports bets. Biff overhears him.

Whilst Marty and Doc Brown are trying to retrieve Jennifer (Marty’s girlfriend) from the McFly home of 2015 Biff takes the time machine and then goes back in time and gives the book to himself in the past. He then returns to 2015.

At this stage Marty and Doc Brown get the time machine and go back to 1985 to find chaos. As this video shows.

Marty and Doc Brown meet up. Doctor Brown explains that sometime in the past the timeline skewed into an alternate future. It was the reality for everybody else but alternate for Marty, Doc Brown and Einstein (Doc’s dog.) Sometime in the past, Biff got the sports almanack, gave it to himself and he started placing those bets which made him a millionaire but he used his wealth for ill-gotten gains.

Marty then says that they have to go back to 2015 and get the almanack off Biff. Doc says that they can’t. If they do they go back to the alternate 2015 where Biff is corrupt and powerful, married to Marty’s mother and where he has been committed to a mental hospital.

Doc explains that their only choice is go to the past and find out where and when Biff got the almanack and take it off him.

That's when Marty finds out that information.

However, this is the mistake most campaigners make- they go to 2015 when they should be going to 1955.

In the 1980s well before the invention of the internet, the Friends of the Earth came up with a list of all those companies using CFCs (Chlorofluorocarbons) in their aerosols. Overnight half of them stopped. Within months the remainder stopped. It was super easy to get a ban.

The protest listed above where they are demonstrating outside a Halal certified restaurant to get Halal banned is like going to 2015. They risk getting arrested.

If you see this video you’ll see it is forbidden for Sikhs to consume any Halal certified material

Instead, they would be better doing three things.

Firstly going vegetarian or vegan themselves. How can you say you oppose animal cruelty when, by eating meat, you fund the slaughter and ill-treatment of animals?

Secondly going to every Sikh and Hindu temple in the UK and asking the priests to ask their members to sign this parliamentary petition. https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/261283

All halal and kosher certified products to be prominently labelled

It is strictly forbidden for some Sikhs, Hindus, Buddhists and Christians to consume any halal or kosher certified product or religiously slaughtered meat. Without clear prominent labelling, we could be consuming it without knowing. All we are asking for is clear labelling to make an informed choice.

Thirdly just boycotting those companies who are known to be halal certified. They are easy to find.

Can you be arrested for going vegetarian? No

Can you be arrested for asking Hindus and Sikhs to sign a petition? No

Does it help end Halal and kosher slaughter? Yes

Can you be arrested for causing a breach of the peace outside a restaurant? Yes

Does it help end Halal and kosher slaughter? No.

Another example

In the past there was a campaign group called Reclaim the Streets. They didn’t do anything constructive. All they did was block the traffic for hours and some people got beaten up in the process. This was like going to 2015.

The walking bus

Why not go to 1955 and set up walking buses?
Have you ever noticed how much the traffic dips when the school kids go on holiday? Why not make reduce the traffic like this all year round?

According to official figures (5) there are 1241221 kindergarten children in London.

Now when you look at the walking bus (6) (7) and (8) you can see an obvious solution.

Two adults go to the first kids house pick the kid up and then walk to the 2nd kid’s house. The process is continued until they get to school. The kids talk to one another, they are under supervision, they get some exercise and it cuts down traffic. There are mobile phone apps where you can track your children!

If we got all kindergarten schoolkids going to school by walking bus we’d cut down the traffic enormously.

Can you get arrested for setting up a walking bus? No.

Does it put you at risk? No.

Does it help solve the problem? Yes

Can you get arrested for the chaos a Reclaim the Streets march? Yes.

Does it put you at risk? Yes.

Does it help solve the problem? No.

Conclusion

So in conclusion, if you are a campaigner on anything do the 1955 thing and not the 2015 thing.

Resources

FREE online vegetarian recipe guide http://jamesbondhealthandfitness.fitpromag.com/8/1/2019/Recipes/Vegetarian/

Bibliography