He’s right: the chance won’t come again

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 26/08/2022 (1458 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Nearly 60 years ago, Bob Dylan wrote an instantly iconic song that caught the wave of change that marked the 1960s in the United States. But The Times They Are A-Changin’ has become an even more powerful anthem for what is happening right now.

I found myself humming it when news that the climate bill would, after all, pass the U.S. Senate hit the small screen. Hacked down and battered compared to the initial version, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is still potentially a momentous move toward energy independence.

It means at least half of the U.S. Congress has finally confronted the fossil-fuel lobby, even bringing West Virginia Sen. “Despicable Joe” Manchin reluctantly (if only momentarily) onside with the rest of his Democratic colleagues. (That the Republican half of Congress would vote for extinction rather than change is evocative of why Dylan wrote his song in the first place.)

Copyright laws (and space restrictions here) prevent me from lining out the whole song, but find the lyrics for yourself or listen to it. Think about how well it captures the trajectory of events today — ecological, social and political — and how, literally, the times are a-changing.

We can’t help admitting the waters around us have grown — whether sea levels rising, more storms or unpredictable weather causing both unusual floods and historic droughts. We have to start swimming, or like he says, we will sink like a stone.

I wonder if Manchin remembered Dylan’s words as he tried to stand in the doorway and block up the halls one more time. “He who gets hurt will be he who has stalled” fits him only too well, along with other legislators whose personal interests are more aligned with Big Money than with Big Responsibility.

The older generations still need to be reminded not to criticize what they don’t understand, as we watch the generational divide widen between those who had it all and now want to retire, and those (even their own children) who will never have that luxury.

Throughout Dylan’s song, however, he refers to the inversion of order, how the old world is being turned upside down. The biblical reference to the first being last (and the last being first) strikes fear into those who have enjoyed massive privilege, thanks to race, gender and the geographical accident of where and when they were born.

Being, as I am, as a white North American male dragging the tail end of the boomer generation, Dylan’s song irrevocably makes me part of the problem — part of the order that is rapidly fading, and that bothers me.

Appearances aside, I hope there is something I can contribute to what will be the defining struggle, not only of our time, but of all human time. After all, if we don’t get this right, there is no plan B – and no Planet B, either.

So, I bounced from Bob Dylan’s song to climate activist Bill McKibbin’s Twitter feed, and then to the website of the new organization he helped to found: Third Act (https://thirdact.org):

“Third Act is people over the age of 60 — “experienced Americans” — determined to change the world for the better. We muster political and economic power to move Washington and Wall Street in the name of a fairer, more sustainable society and planet. We back up the great work of younger people, and we make good trouble of our own.”

Funded by individual donations, with minimal staff, Third Act relies on the increasing number of aging Americans – and Canadians – who are worried about the future and what kind of world we are leaving to all of the children, not just to our own.

Third Act is structured like McKibbin’s other brainchild, 350.org. Essentially, Third Act isn’t organized at all – an open hierarchy, grass-roots effort focused on local initiatives (whether created by geography or some affinity), with an advisory group of prominent activists pitching in wherever needed.

We are only powerless when we choose to be. There is no “retirement” option for our humanity – and we need to stop pretending otherwise. As Third Act’s Google tagline wryly puts it, “Don’t Die Til You’re Dead.”

We oldsters could be scary as activists. Our generation knows where all the bodies are buried, because we helped put them there. We aren’t easily fooled by the propaganda, the spin campaigns, the advertising slogans and political misdirection – because we helped create them in the first place.

We need to join the knowledge and wisdom we have gained over a lifetime to the energy and passion of the younger generations, and so create an unstoppable force for justice.

Dylan reminds us that our old road is rapidly aging, and so are we. But old hands are better than none — and we have a lot less to lose.

Those who can’t lend a hand to build the new road we need had better just get out of our way.

Peter Denton is an activist, writer and scholar based in rural Manitoba.