Remembering Fox by Danae Ave, founder of XR Greece
I cannot even begin to tell you how much of an impact Fox had on me. Individuals like him drive the wheels of civilisation forward and for that you need a formidable spirit and a magnetic personality. I sensed that a lot of people I met from XR felt completely lost after his passing, so I know I’m certainly not the only one. Fox was XR for me. I could not see XR the same way after his passing. It was his energy and his passion that drove all of us to him it was the fact that he saw our potential before we even recognized it in ourselves. He believed in what was not yet possible, but he believed in it as if it had already happened. As if it was already there. The way he believed in each every one of us was the same way he believed he could change the world. And he could. He was one of the very few people on this planet that drive the wheels of civilization forward. He was a complete human being, a visionary. Courageous, charismatic, self-sacrificing… All those virtues he embodied from such a young age. In many ways he achieved what others never will in their whole lifetime. He did so much and he was so young and he inspired so many, so early.
I met Fox in London a few weeks before the protests of 2018 in April. I remember walking into the XR offices and no one was really talking to me. I did not look like a typical XR person – whatever that meant. Fox was the first one to approach me. He didn’t care about how I looked. He only cared about that small flame of hope I had inside me, the belief that I can be brave enough to make a change. I don’t know how he saw it before I did. But that’s how he was. He saw the potential and the best in ourselves before we ourselves recognized we had it. Seeing him seeing that potential in me, I felt so empowered. Suddenly I realized I could also be a bit like him. He was a very intelligent and committed person who saw beyond the labels that we so often put on ourselves.
Every time I saw him there was a lesson to be taught for me and for others. A few weeks before the rebellion, a lot of preparations were happening and Fox was helping people post posters around, explaining a bit of the process. There were six of us and we were terrified. It felt like breaking the law, because posting posters in the UK from what I recall was not legal. There was a process to it. But Fox was unafraid and committed.
At some point he said he had to go because the police were chasing him. He told us not to worry and just make sure to post the posters. We lost him for a couple of hours and then he came back and then we lost him again. I was so worried. In many ways that day stayed with me. Now that I think about it, it was a foreshadow of his absence and the future loss we would all feel. When he left, we all felt like there was no guidance. We were alone. Leadership was his natural state. So when he left us there that night, we were all terrified and felt lost as to what we needed to do. But we said we now had to proceed with the posters on our own, and so we did.
A few days later I saw him back at XR. He had this almost carefree attitude. I asked him if he was doing okay and I remember he said: “Don’t worry about me. Did you guys manage to post them?” Meanwhile it was circulating that he was into some trouble with the police. But he did not tell me a thing.
That’s when I realized his commitment to what he saw as a better future was not a theoretical promise. He had become the promise. How can we change anything around us if we ourselves do not carry change within us? Fox embodied the highest ideals. It was amazing to witness a true revolutionary in the flesh. When the rebellion happened we had a lot of exchanges but one in particular stayed with me.
I remember I asked him about his commitment and his response to me back then was inspiring and terrifying at the same time. He looked at me and said that there were people he knew, activists who lost their lives for this. I felt like there was an unspoken conversation that took place and in that moment I understood that he feared nothing of what was to come. We have this saying in Greek by the writer Nikos Kazantzakis: ” I do not fear anything. I do not expect anything. I am free”. Fox was free. He freed himself from the burden of deciding between a comfortable life and a moral life because as much as we hate to admit it particularly in times like these, those two don’t go hand in hand. He was set in his vision, committed and unafraid, He did not expect anything. He acted to create it.
Fox was not at war with himself. He made peace with how he wanted to be and what he wanted to accomplish. So peace was his natural state. When I learned about his death I was devastated. I was in the Netherlands, in Maastricht and I leaved far away from the city. It was on the countryside. I still remember running along the river with my bike and crying. I felt all this pain and I felt empty. I could hear birds passing by and suddenly I felt like he was there with me. He was in the birds, the river, the trees, the wind. Now becoming one with the source. I always think of him in nature the most and I do strongly believe he is out there. Nature was the place he called home and now he is residing there…
He definitely was and still is my moral compass. He was the light inviting us to imagine a new life that if we dare is ours to create. Fox was a fiery spirit. His energy has been stored in all of us who remember him and honor him through our actions. In that way we will pass it down to others. He is present within us and present around us. I have felt his presence as well. In a dream I had, he was leading a group of people. I don’t remember them but he was as passionate as he always was, and he was talking. We also talked briefly. He was in a good place. I haven’t seen him since.
Fox was special. It’s these rare individuals touch us the most: I strongly believe that they have something almost karmic about their existence… They have a destiny to fulfil. Hence the clear moral compass that they so firmly hold from such an early age… Throughout our human collective history the hero gets cast as the villain because people cannot bear to witness the reflection of what they could have been, and what they could have created. People like Fox are brave reminders of our highest possible form but often these individuals do not stay long with us.
Despite the sadness I feel lucky, very lucky to have met him. He gave me the courage to be something better. Now I have to find the courage to stand on my own and let his absence and the pain it has caused me to move me forward with the same passion that he had… I know that he would have wanted all of us to keep on going.
I have channelled his ideas, what he stood for, and his vision for a better society into my future plans. I hope to honour them as best as I can. I want to turn the shock and sadness that his departure left in so many of us into something. Fox loved life and all life around us. He wanted to remind each and every one of us how precious it was. That is why people like him never truly die. Because they represent life and in their death, those beliefs carry on in all the living forms around us. So yes, he is and always will be surrounding us. In my opinion Raphael made a philosophical realisation about the essence of life and his part on this planet that most people who have reached old age never do. You see them trying to reach for something but the older they get the more abstract and unreal it seems: an illusion that they built their whole lives around. Values and goals that were built out of fear of death instead of out of love for life. This is a result of a sick society and this is why we are where we are, and why so many of us fear death so much. But Fox never did. That’s why he was a free man. Free from the fear and vanity that many of us unconsciously carry.
When he passed away, I made a promise to carry his legacy at a time when it is needed the most. It is a promise that many others who’ve met him I am sure feel compelled to uphold with his passing. I am sure all that he stood for will unfold in the actions of many of us in the near future, and despite how grim that future looks, we will not go down without a good fight. He would have done the same so no matter the circumstances people like Fox give us the strength and courage to fight for what is right and we will keep doing that till we pass the torch to others.
