Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Climate Bill, R.I.P.

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Friday, July 23, 2010

Climate Bill, R.I.P.

by Tim Dickinson from Rolling Stone.

This Rolling Stone article is very good at providing the details of the usual Congressional charade of dealing with issues that the public wants, but that the ruling class opposes. Thus Congress and the President must go through the motions of appearing to support something the public wants, but somehow things just don't turn out right, and then comes the blame game.

Liberal environmental bloggers are all over the internet commenting on this article and "wringing their hands", and looking for some kind of positive spin on it. Most of these bloggers and the environmental movement as a whole are comprised of middle class people who mean well, but are tied to the coattails of the ruling class and the system that supports them both--capitalism. They will rarely, if ever, question the system that produces this kind of theater in Washington. Some even go so far as to blame the public for the political disaster. See this.

Then they make all kinds of excuses or lame explanations as to why a climate bill is dead. See this, in which the blogger makes the following statements:

Since Obama ignored the call for direct personal involvement on comprehensive climate and energy action, one can only assume he is just not that into it.

Since team Obama sucks at messaging so badly, it's impossible to know whether any strategy would have worked.

Fundamentally, Rahm and Axelrod simply don't get global warming.

What the bloggers and much of the environmental movement don't get is that capitalism is the engine that is driving us off the cliffs of climate change, resource exhaustion, and environmental degradation.