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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsGet Apocalyptic: Why Radical is the New Normal
from YES! Magazine:
Get Apocalyptic: Why Radical is the New Normal
Feeling anxious about life in a broken economy on a strained planet? Turn despair into action.
by Robert Jensen
posted May 24, 2013
Feeling anxious about life in a broken-down society on a stressed-out planet? Thats hardly surprising: Life as we know it is almost over. While the dominant culture encourages dysfunctional denialpop a pill, go shopping, find your blisstheres a more sensible approach: Accept the anxiety, embrace the deeper anguishand then get apocalyptic.
We are staring down multiple cascading ecological crises, struggling with political and economic institutions that are unable even to acknowledge, let alone cope with, the threats to the human family and the larger living world. We are intensifying an assault on the ecosystems in which we live, undermining the ability of that living world to sustain a large-scale human presence into the future. When all the world darkens, looking on the bright side is not a virtue but a sign of irrationality.
........(snip)........
But toughest to dislodge may be the central illusion of the industrial worlds extractive economy: that we can maintain indefinitely a large-scale human presence on the earth at something like current First-World levels of consumption. The task for those with critical sensibilities is not just to resist oppressive social norms and illegitimate authority, but to speak a simple truth that almost no one wants to acknowledge: The high-energy/high-technology life of affluent societies is a dead end. We cant predict with precision how resource competition and ecological degradation will play out in the coming decades, but it is ecocidal to treat the planet as nothing more than a mine from which we extract and a landfill into which we dump.
We cannot know for sure what time the party will end, but the partys over.
Does that seem histrionic? Excessively alarmist? Look at any crucial measure of the health of the ecosphere in which we livegroundwater depletion, topsoil loss, chemical contamination, increased toxicity in our own bodies, the number and size of dead zones in the oceans, accelerating extinction of species, and reduction of biodiversityand ask a simple question: Where are we heading? .................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/love-and-the-apocalypse/radical-is-the-new-normal
marions ghost
(19,841 posts)...signs not of weakness but of courage. A deep grief over what we are losing is appropriate...once we've sorted through those reactions we can get apocalyptic and get down to real work."
---from the article
Thanks for posting.
Kath1
(4,309 posts)She identifies herself as a socialist. Says socialism is the only hope for this planet. Her friends feel the same. That's kind of extreme for a 55 year old like me and I sort of dismissed it. I'm starting to think, more and more, she is right.
Maybe radical should be the new normal.
socialist_n_TN
(11,481 posts)Now, my youngest? Her high point in socialist thought was an on line test she took when she was 12 or so. It said she was a socialist. That was a funny story that I still tell. Of her coming to me asking what a socialist was and me finding out WHY she was asking that question.
As Trotsky put it paraphrasing, the choice is socialism or barbarism.
Kath1
(4,309 posts)Yeah, they're very cool and I love having conversations with them. They were not raised up with the rah-rah American capitalism like I was so they see through the BS much sooner. Your kids seem like great people. Let's hope they all make a difference.
socialist_n_TN
(11,481 posts)Agreed.
The funny thing is that I never even talked politics with them (much anyway) until they were almost grown and they still turned out to be lefties.
Kath1
(4,309 posts)A major step for me as I had been pretty apolitical and apathetic before that. I was going through a divorce and went at the urging of some friends. She just loved it and has been a very vocal Progressive ever since.
calimary
(81,508 posts)I hadn't heard that before. Seems to make total sense though.
Especially considering that what the other side seems to want IS barbarism. The kind of dream society they advocate: no government-regulations-laws-rules; every man for himself; all the free, unfettered, wanton access to guns & ammo you can eat; let the rich run amok; millions of fuck'-em-who-gives-a-shit = the poor, disadvantaged, homeless, hungry, sick, uninsured; a few ultra-rich pirates and warlords controlling everything (the infamous 1%); in other words, TOTAL ANARCHY, sounds a bit like barbarism to me. Sounds like what they really want this country to become is the Disjointed States of Somalia.
Franky, my dear, I'd rather be a socialist. 'Cause I CANNOT go for that barbaric fantasy.
The funny thing is - they on that side really can't go for that, either - IF they REALLY-And-TRULY consider themselves followers of Christ. But they do anyway. Wonder who it is they think they're worshipping, then?
Lunacee_2013
(529 posts)most of my friends and siblings (and me) are starting to think this whole capitalism thing is rigged. Between the cost of raising very young children, student loans, housing, car loans and the fact that jobs are a little hard to come by, how are we suppose to get ahead, let alone come up with a way to have some life savings? And God help you if you're like me and have an illness. I don't think there will ever be a time in my life when I feel ok when it comes to money and health care. Maybe some of us should be radical...
Kath1
(4,309 posts)And some of us older people are as well.
Lunacee_2013
(529 posts)who have followed the rules all their lives face one illness or accident and then suddenly lose everything. Some even lost their life savings because of someone else's (wall street) greed. It's not just young ppl who have to move back in with their parents after college, or grandma moving in with her son/daughter after a stroke, it's ppl in their 40's or 50's who have no money and no job aspects (because companies want young workers who somehow also have experience, which is just too bad for some of us) who have to choose between homelessness or moving in with their adult children.
It's like what's the point of going to college and buying a house if you're just gonna wind up living back at home and in deep debt?
socialist_n_TN
(11,481 posts)It's just the way it is. Check out our web site:
www.workerspower.net
We're NOT Stalinists, we are Trotskyists. Who knows you might like it! A few of the articles there are mine, the latest being the one on the budget.
calimary
(81,508 posts)Glad you're here! It's fascinating to watch this evolution. I think we SHOULD be questioning unfettered, runaway capitalism. And I think we should start doing something about it. It's a system that is PROVING itself not to work for society at large.
Egalitarian Thug
(12,448 posts)AverageJoe90
(10,745 posts)Just look at the insane rantings of men like Hitler, or your average '60s radical Southern reactionary, for example. (Yeah, so I broke Godwin's Law. Big deal, it had to be said.)
My point is, there are plenty of people who choose to inhabit planes of cognition that are far, far scarier than reality ever could be, just as there are many people who put on rose-colored glasses.
RobertEarl
(13,685 posts)My inner hippie is screaming feed me.
But, no pills for me, man. Kill the pusher, man.
Realize that it is only small battles that can be won. The war was over in the Reagan days. They won. The best one can do is teach the children well, and live on the road.
The world has been set in motion, meaning the consequences are set in stone. One day it will shake out and calm down, but it won't be the same.
Read 'The End of Nature' by Bill Mckibben, to get a glimpse of the next act in this play.
GliderGuider
(21,088 posts)Who knew? We really are clever tool-monkeys, aren't we?
http://paulchefurka.ca/TF.html
http://paulchefurka.ca/Sustainability.html
Our level of screwed started out being funny, shot right through despair, and all the way back out to funny again. We are so far from being un-screwed that it fair takes your breath away.
RobertEarl
(13,685 posts)""...the dominant culture encourages dysfunctional denialpop a pill,..."
Where you come up with the thermodynamics law stuff is beyond me.
Maybe you are bored and just wanted to get your name out there?
GliderGuider
(21,088 posts)No actually, I wanted to kick the thread without looking too presumptuous.
Thanks for the help.
felix_numinous
(5,198 posts)--I have been thinking along the same lines recently--that we have to convert our frustration and fear into action. Really it has become obvious that the best results will arise from the grassroots.
A toast to all the radicals here!
raouldukelives
(5,178 posts)bhikkhu
(10,724 posts)your grandchildren might be asking you what you did back in the grand old days of comfort and ease? I hope to have some good stories to tell, and I know my answer won't be "well, mostly I stressed out and complained about things". I know my kids won't have it as easy as I did, though I also know I won't have as secure a life overall as my mother, but we can still enjoy what we do have without being greedy or destructive. An attitude which is, I think, most respectful of the earth and its resources.
AverageJoe90
(10,745 posts)"What was this guy smoking?", is all I ask.
RobertEarl
(13,685 posts)And if you were a student of environmentalism, as the author is, you would not be posting such drivel, would you?
AverageJoe90
(10,745 posts)Open your eyes, man! All it does for most people is it just causes them to tune out, even for some who are quite aware of AGW and other issues. Why else do you think that we've had such a hard time waking up people who might otherwise been receptive to our message?
RobertEarl
(13,685 posts)People have been tuned out for decades. People have not been receptive to any message that doesn't says go shopping. Take your pills.
Now the ecological crises (you may need to look that up to grok it) are here. It is too late to keep doing what we have been doing, which has been being nice. Nice has not cut it. Either America begins a 180 degree turn, or we will suffer greatly.
It's the ecology that is on the verge of going over the cliff. All the nice gentle scientists agree. And hardly anyone heard them.
Talk of the apocalypse is all there is left for any meaningful message.
AverageJoe90
(10,745 posts)Agree that AGW is a problem, and it should be dealt with? Yes, that has certainly been agreed upon. But that AGW is going to (inevitably) totally destroy civilization, or cause a risk of human extinction, or that it is somehow so much worse than what the IPCC has predicted over the years, and that the IPCC isn't being totally honest with us, as some doomers have claimed? Not even close.
Talk of the apocalypse is all there is left for any meaningful message.
I'm sorry, but you are seriously deluded if you think that.....open your eyes, man, it hasn't ever worked so far, and it never will!
RobertEarl
(13,685 posts)I did not mention GW.
It is the ecological crises that is happening independent of GW. The scientists call it a "Great Extinction Event".
Probably the first you ever heard of it? That's why I implored you to look it up. It's over, man. Done, fini. All we can do is adapt, since we sure ain't gonna change our ways.
Will humans survive - not go extinct? Sure, humans will survive. But about 90$ of the rest of the living creatures won't. Ecological crises, look it up.
AverageJoe90
(10,745 posts)It's just that, as impossible as it may sound, some people ARE exaggerating this to a degree. Yes, it's bad. Yes, we have many challenges ahead. But no, society is not at risk of collapse due to global warming alone, at least not in the long ter(I'll give you credit for at least not buying into the "inevitable human extinction" stuff, though).
GliderGuider
(21,088 posts)Unfortunately, Jensen's bright-eyed, roll-up-the-sleeves enthusiasm is still a form of denial - especially in the face of what he already knows. Here's the situation and the prognosis as I see it:
1. There are currently 7 billion human organisms on the planet. We use the equivalent of 12 billion tonnes of oil a year to do what we do, maintain what we've built in the past and provide a (small and shrinking) margin for growth. That's the energy equivalent of four cubic miles of oil. Every year.
2. A truly sustainable human population is one that would be able to live here in perpetuity without damaging the non-human portion of the biosphere. Even on a pristine planet (which this is manifestly not, any more) such a human population could not safely exceed 35 million people - but ONLY if they don't ever grow beyond that number or use any fossil fuels whatsoever. Given that our actions have already severely damaged the biosphere (as Jensen notes) the upper limit for true sustainability is possibly no more than 20 million humans.
As far as I can tell, getting from Point 1 (ecocidal species) to Point 2 (safe planetary citizens) within a couple of hundred years just isn't something that can be done voluntarily, or without enormous coercion, resistance and pain.
The most probable outcome is going to be that we'll all do our best, but nothing will really change our trajectory until we hit some limits to growth. Those limits will likely be a combination of rapid climate change and energy or food shortages of different degrees around the globe.
I used to think that a vast monolithic global crash would be the likely outcome. I don't think that any more. As I say in the linked article above,
Still, there are those physical limits I mentioned above. They are looming ever closer, and it seems a foregone conclusion that we will begin to encounter them for real within the next decade or two. In order to draw a slightly more realistic picture of what might happen at that point, I created the following thought experiment on involuntary population decline. It's based on the idea that our population will not simply crash, but will oscillate (tumble) down a series of stair-steps: first dropping as we puncture the limits to growth; then falling below them; then partially recovering; only to fall again; partially recover; fall; recover...
[center][/center]
Even this rather dire scenario takes 2000 years to get us close to "true sustainability", and still leaves plenty of room during the next few hundred years for further degradation of the planet's carrying capacity.
Human intelligence is the very best limit-avoidance mechanism that has ever evolved on this planet, by many orders of magnitude. Unfortunately, humans overall appear to see opportunities far more clearly than consequences. As a result, even on the down-slope we will continue to chew away at the essential support systems in nature. That means that by the time we get to a population and consumption level that was previously sustainable, the planet's carrying capacity will have been eroded to below that level:
[center][/center]
We have no way of telling where the equilibrium point will be. All we can tell from here is that it will be at a population level that is drastically lower than it is today.
To be absolutely clear, after ten years of investigating what I affectionately call "The Global Clusterfuck", I do not think it can be prevented, mitigated or managed in any way. If and when it happens, it will follow its own dynamic, and the force of events could easily make the Japanese and Andaman tsunamis seem like pleasant days at the beach.
The most effective preparations that we can make will all be done by individuals and small groups. It will be up to each of us to decide what our skills, resources and motivations call us to do. It will be different for each of us - even for people in the same neighborhood, let alone people on opposite sides of the world.
I've been saying for a couple of years that each of us will each do whatever we think is appropriate to the circumstances, in whatever part of the world we can influence. The outcome of our actions is ultimately unforeseeable, because it depends on how the efforts of all 7 billion of us converge, co-operate and compete. The end result will be quite different from place to place - climate change impacts will vary, resources vary, social structures vary, values and belief systems are different all over the world.The best we can do is to do our best.
Here is my advice:
- Stay awake to what's happening around us.
- Don't get hung up by other peoples "shoulds and shouldn'ts".
- Occasionally re-examine our personal values. If they aren't in alignment with what we think the world needs, change them.
- Stop blaming people. Others are as much victims of the times as we are - even the CEOs and politicians.
- Blame, anger and outrage is pointless. It wastes precious energy that we will need for more useful work.
- Laugh a lot, at everything - including ourselves.
- Hold all the world's various beliefs and "isms" lightly, including our own.
- Forgive others. Forgive ourselves. For everything.
- Love everything just as deeply as you can.
Good luck to us. We're going to need it.