Capitalism, Oligarchy, and Ecocide

Let's Connect the Dots

Five Mondays starting June 2nd at 8:00 PM EDT, 5:00 PM PDT, on Zoom.

I tried to do this a few months ago but got bogged down by the news of the day and the winter sickness. Then I tried again a few weeks ago and ran into technical difficulties. I had no good way for people to sign up. That has been solved.

The news is still wretched, but we knew this was going to be a slog. Now summer is near. It is time to look at the underpinnings of the troubles. Understanding is a powerful thing. When we come to understand the systemic issues that lie beneath the day to day events, it helps eliminate distraction and false narratives.

Class one will be an overview of where we stand and a short history of capitalism and corporatocracy. Capitalism was a natural development coming out of a Europe run by monarchs, but it was flawed from the start. And late capitalism is literally driving the current ecocide, including the climate crisis.

Class two will explore the global commons, and various alternatives to what we have now, such as the gift economy.

Class three will be about the effect of consumerism on the natural world. I am getting ahold of the film “Advertising and the End of the World” by Sut Jhally and everyone who signs up will get a link to watch it. The ecocide has been accelerating for a few generations. It is hard to take in. You will be disturbed. But knowledge is the first step to active participation in another path.

Class four will tie the capitalists system used by the oligarchs to enrich themselves and control our politics on a global level directly to the ecocide.

Class five will explore solutions, both at the institutional level and the personal level, with the understanding that institutions have largely failed up till now.

It will be on Zoom. 45 minute presentation, 25 minutes Q&A, 20 minutes of discussion. The entire series is free with an option to donate a few bucks. I use the Buy Me a Coffee App for that. This is one of the ways I keep the lights on.

For the last year, or more like last decade, the oligarchical forces have gotten so powerful that we have been reduced to spending all our energy putting out fires. I have come to the conclusion that we must come to terms with the underlying causes of this mess while simultaneously continuing to fight the fires that spring on a daily basis.

Understanding the forces that have shaped our world for the past several centuries and that are driving the looming ecological and social collapse is essential to finding solutions.

I have been thinking about this problem and studying it for around three decades. It’s time to have a broad public conversation. This is my contribution to that discussion.

The dates in full are as follows: June 2, June 9, June 16, June 23, June 30. I will try to set up the record feature. I picked that time because it is not to bad on either coast. I am trying to get five people for this pilot version. Because any fewer in a zoom room seems lonely.

All donations help me to keep doing what I do, but are completely voluntary. You are welcome either way.

Please join me!