Facing the Xtremes
After seven generations of industrial Business as Usual -- burning up fossil fuels, waging war on nature and public health, and discharging greenhouse gas pollution into the atmosphere like there's no tomorrow -- we've peaked. Held hostage energy corporations, make-believe terrorist threats, and indentured politicians, we lurch from disaster to disaster. Last year the BP oil spill, this year the Fukushima meltdown.
Although billions are still asleep at the wheel or dozing in front of their TVs...
Although the majority are still brainwashed or else mentally and physically broken down, a critical mass of enrages across the world are waking up and taking action. A new Green Internationale is spreading its roots in local communities and regions across the globe.
The outlines of this new decentralized Green Commonwealth are slowly but surely becoming visible: community supported organic food and farming; open source media and communications; holistic health care, alternative schools and education; renewable energy, housing and transportation; relocalized commerce, bartering, sustainable finance, and participatory decision-making.
Damage to the Body Politic
A suicidal Business as Usual still predominates in much of the developing world, and in the industrialized nations as well, because billions of us, the underclass, are struggling with the nearly impossible task of trying to survive and support our families in a profoundly non-sustainable economy and society, often deeply in debt, living on minimum or starvation wages. Other would be rebels, indeed a large percentage of the world population, are held in check by the understanding that, if they step too far out of line, they will be brutally repressed. Another huge segment of the body politic are physically ill, drug-addicted, malnourished, or psychologically incapacitated.
Timid and Divided Single-Issue Movements
Unfortunately as we move to confront the Xtremes, more often than not, we find civil society divided and disempowered by single-issue silos and tunnel-vision identity politics; or else mystified and mislead into believing that everything will turn out all right, if we just nudge the politicians and the corporations a little bit more.
The peace movement is over here, while the alternative energy, climate, organic, and green jobs movements are over there, each marginalized in their own respective corners or silos. It's time to come together, unite our forces, and address the fundamental root causes of the Crisis. It's time to get over our fears of being called radical or utopian and offer real solutions.
The Global Uprising: Is It Already Too Late?
The urgent priority is to channel this coming collapse (think of it, hopefully, in terms of a descending stairway, rather than a plunge off a cliff) into a mass movement and a national community building process. Before collapse metastasizes into panic and martial law, we still have time to lay down the foundations for a new Commonwealth.
But before we can rise up as a subversive and creative force, a critical mass needs to be prepared, both psychologically and politically. The irreplaceable prerequisite for a democratic revolution and a sustainable society are healthy, resilient individuals with a high-degree of consciousness and self-respect, and energized resilient communities with a high degree of self-confidence and solidarity.
No Pasarán (They Shall Not Pass): Stand Up and Fight
Through decades of activism, extending from the anti-war and counter-culture movement of the 1960s, to my current role as director of a nationwide activist network, the Organic Consumers Association, and a national campaign, called Millions Against Monsanto, I've been anxiously waiting for a critical mass of Americans to stand up and fight.
But I'm sick and tired of a thousand different single-issue campaigns, identity politics, wimpy liberals, progressive infighting, armchair philanthropists, and limited-focus mobilizing. I'm sick of lobbying hopelessly corrupt politicians to be a little more humane, and pressuring corporate criminals to be a little less greedy. And finally, I'm horrified to ponder the thought that my teenage son may have to struggle for sheer survival in a brutal, ecologically devastated, martial law state.
At the risk of stating the obvious, let's keep these basics in mind:
- The Republican and Democratic parties are both totally controlled by all-powerful corporations at the national levels.
- The mainstream media is controlled by corporations that suppress real information and cynically manipulate the public.
- U.S. elections are controlled by corporations and rich donors.
- The root causes of the Great Recession are "free trade" globalization policies tax evasion by corporations and the rich, a trillion-dollar war machine, and the looting of the nation by the big banks and Wall Street speculators.
- Until we are willing to overthrow the corporate and military-industrial dictatorship, we will not be able to deal with the fundamental power imbalances, injustices, and crises of the nation.
- Climate change is real and getting worse.
- We need to create a framework for a massive local to national alliance for survival that addresses the life-or-death issues head-on and is open to all methods of action, from legislative insurgency, to direct action, to civil disobedience.
On the individual level:
- Walk your talk. Align yourself with people and organizations you can trust and rely upon.
- Stay informed. Stay in touch with the daily evidence circulating on the Internet that a global grassroots revolution has begun.
- Keep in mind that the Xtremes are likely to get worse, not better. Focus on building crash-resistant institutions: organic food and farming systems, re-localized commerce, holistic and preventive health practices, and an urban and rural green jobs infrastructure with a low carbon footprint.
- Stay inspired. Stay in touch with the fact that the technological, economic, political, and social alternatives we need to survive and prosper are already being put into practice.
- Keep the faith. Revolutions never seem possible until objective conditions ripen, until serious splits develop among the ruling class, and until a critical mass of people decide they won't take it any more.
Ready to lead the Uprising in your local community? Send me an email.
All Power to the People!