When you look at the state of the natural world how do you feel? I feel a grief beyond words and an unquenchable rage. A few greedy humans are destroying everything. I want to DO something! And perhaps you do too.
If you have read a few of my posts here you already have read about the plutocrats and how they are committing ecocide.
We know the nature of the damage done by what Teddy Roosevelt called “malefactors of great wealth” to humans and their communities, to the biosphere itself, and to the natural systems that all life depends upon. They do it for profit, out of greed and the lust to maintain power.
Some of these families and individuals have had their position in the “upper” economic class for centuries. Others are newly minted. What they have in common is character and behavior. They actually believe that they are better than the rest of humanity and that they have the right to do what they do.
One of their most dangerous characteristics is their appetite. They consume everything in their path, like a plague of locusts.
They are now, in the 21st century, more powerful than they were in medieval times.
How did this come to be? In the United States, it began when the Supreme Court, already corrupted by that day’s “robber barons” declared, in a footnote, that corporations were legal persons. And it was taken as gospel.
As capitalism has become, unsurprisingly, the dominant economic system in the world, it has empowered a new set of plutocrats, who look very like the aristocrats of old.
Patriarchy is an ancient plague on the world. It exists only in the arena of raw power and dominance. It goes beyond just privileging men to privileging a certain type of man. White European descent, and rich.
The corporatocracy is the spawn of capitalism and its doctrine of the divine right of capital. Unrestrained capitalism gets its philosophical underpinnings and a good part of its power from the patriarchy. Meet the new boss.
I say they are more powerful than the medieval monarchs and aristocrats because the reach is now global. And that combined with huge leaps in technology, are what enable them to literally threaten life on earth.
You don’t get to see this very often. Nobody in the public eye talks about it. No surprise, since all mass media belongs to the capitalist class.
A few weeks ago, the American show, 60 Minutes, did a segment on the 6th Mass Extinction. It was chilling.
It also failed to connect the dots between the plutocrats and the mass extinction. Nothing about the oil industry or the proliferation of pollutant chemicals. The climate disruption was mentioned but only as an inevitable factor in these events.
That is how they are spinning this. As inevitable. But it is not true. The few that are driving this could, in theory, be stopped by the billions being harmed.
But How?
The first step, as I see it, is to take the blinders off. To do that we must bypass the corporate news and the corporate story about the world and talk directly to each other, citizen to citizen.
I know that these subjects are depressing. Heart rending. But you and I and everyone else is already being harmed. We can SENSE what is happening. Maybe it is avoiding the reality that is depressing us and talking about it is the cure.
It is certainly the only way to make a dent in resistance. All of creation is at risk due to a few arrogant greedy people. Is that not important enough to risk anything to stop it?
There are several important topics that need a public global airing. The partial list is as follows:
A look at our global economic system, with particular attention to late capitalism, which, though dominant, is causing ecological collapse and human misery.
A look at the global plutocrats. What place do they hold in the modern world? What use are they?
A look at human energy use balancing our need with the needs of the natural systems that make life possible and balancing the wants of the rich world with the needs of the poor.
A look at our food and water systems. Which methods are best for the natural environment and the needs of all of us to eat good wholesome food and have access to clean wholesome water. Is factory farming EVER viable, and if not, what is?
Weapons of war and every day violence? Under what circumstances should these weapons even exist? And who should be allowed to wield them?
AI— How do we stop this technology, currently merely troubling but potentially disastrous, from gaining anymore traction without a thorough airing?
How do citizens around the world confront the reemergence of fascism?
Whose values will determine our future?
This is a sampling of topics that must be addressed as a world community.
There are a few considerations. The first is about being complicit. If you are not a member of the plutocratic class, but use the infrastructure they built, are you complicit in ecocide? The only one that can answer that on a personal level is you. But there are guidelines. Do you have disposable income? If so, do you spend it on consumer goods that harm the environment? Do you try to make sane choices? How much do you buy in to the story put forth by the capitalists?
If you are poor and barely surviving than no, you are not complicit. You are a victim of abuse.
Another consideration is the question of other drivers of the ecocide. I am sure the ecocide is over-determined. But the behavior of the plutocracy and its corporate servants is key. Remove it from the equation and the rest will emerge as things we can handle.
The last consideration is the danger involved in calling these people out. It can be dangerous. Depending on how good you are at mobilizing opposition to their desires it can be deadly. That is why we need to all rise up at once.
And that is why this can’t be about the partisan politics of any given place. It can’t be about our identities beyond being dwellers on Earth. So we have to get beyond identities except being human and not a member of the plutocratic class.
That is how broad the coalition must be.
I have done a lot of things in my 66 years. I was born at a time when they sprayed kids in DDT and all gasoline was leaded.
I have lived a storied life, but this is the most important thing I have ever done. The most important writing.
Extinction is a deep gaping hole. For all species, but for us as well. We live in a miracle and we are walking miracles.
If we go, nothing like us will ever come again. Nothing will recall us or know us. And nobody will tell the story or hear it.
We can do better. I should have ended up in a dumpster as a teenage street waif. But I did not. I slogged through midlife but survived. And now I am here, and imbued with a terrible resolve.
If you feel this, join me. If you have been harmed by this system, join me. If you understand what we are about to lose, join me.
I have a group on Facebook going over the details. We will meet on Zoom and discuss. But in the end, it comes down to this: person to person direct conversation.
We will never overcome them until we name them and their crimes against nature.
Please comment if you want to participate.