Hi, my name is Pat. In the 1990s I used to drive around Sydney with the Big Turd on top of the car. A sign said “S . . . – The Stuff of Politics”.

It made a lot of people laugh. Although there were a few frowns and some puzzled looks, I think most people appreciated the thought.

It was a big hit with primary school kids. They probably didn’t get the politics part, instead just enjoying the subversive silliness.

The last outing for the Turd was a trip to Melbourne in 1999. Since then it has been sitting quietly in my garage, but now it’s time to get the Turd back on the road.

Recent years have been difficult: fires, floods, Covid, interest rate rises and the list goes on. And with more of our lives lived on-line, it seems our social horizons are actually shrinking. So, we need a good laugh, and one we can share in public. It is a benefit to our common wellbeing. If you saw the Turd the first time round then I hope it brings a special smile to see it again.

More importantly though, I want to talk to you about the problem of shit.

The problem of shit

The problem of shit is that pretty much whatever we do creates some sort of shit in the process. Of course, by shit I mean it in the broadest sense of waste, mess, disorder, trouble, valuelessness etc. Shit is the waste product of our actions.

Most days we will complain about some shit that we have to deal with. The reason we complain about shit is that it hinders our actions, it makes them difficult.

Although we recognise individual instances of shit because they hinder our actions, we don’t properly recognise shit as a general phenomenon. Shit is a real thing, it is not just a way of talking. The dots are there for us to join yet we refuse to do so. This is not surprising. We are very good at seeing other people’s shit, less so our own. We can be surrounded by shit and steadfastly refuse to see it. And when the situation becomes such that we can no longer not see it, we then deny it is a problem.

Shit really does happen. If we can understand in general how shit happens in general and why, then we will be better able to deal with specific instances of shit, and reduce its occurrence.

Value and shit

Shit is not the opposite of value. Instead it is the counterpoint to value because shit is not fixed. For example, something that is valuable for one person is shit for another. Or, what is useless old shit one day is a valuable antique the next.

As human beings we act to create value and meaning. Action requires resources, both physical and human. Consuming resources creates shit.

We can make better decisions about our actions and the resources we consume by looking at things in terms of value and shit. We can never eradicate shit so it is always a question of what value and how much, for what shit and how much.

Climate change & shit

Climate change is the biggest and most pressing example of the problem of shit.

Our efforts to do anything meaningful about climate change have floundered for years because we see it as a singular and unique problem instead of just one example of a more general problem, the problem of shit.

This lack of conceptual context has not only hindered our efforts, it has also facilitated greater traction for climate misinformation.

To devise and implement effective measures requires us to first own up to the problem of shit generally so that we can place climate change in its proper conceptual context. We can then use the criteria of value and shit to make better decisions about our actions and our use of resources.

Failing to do so raises the prospect that we will suffer the ignominious end of either choking on, or drowning in our own shit.