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

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

The Planetary Emergency

Click here to access article by John Bellamy Foster and Brett Clark from Monthly Review

The two scholars provide many comprehensive arguments to support their thesis that a capitalist organized economy produces huge amounts of waste, and much of this is in the form of planet destroying pollution which now poses a threat to humanity. They make many references to other scholars throughout the past two hundred years who foresaw many of the dysfunctional aspects of capitalism. Alternatively, they make this claim:
There is no doubt that the social-technological potential already exists to address our most chronic environmental problems and to improve human existence—if we were to use present human capacities and natural resources in a rational and planned way. Yet, this existing potential is simply discarded: as all such rational solutions necessarily cross swords with the “antisocial [and anti-ecological] results of private ownership of the means of production.”
While comprehensive and scholarly, it seems to me that in our present state of crisis, much of this is like beating a dead horse. Still, many people need convincing. The internet is filled with people who, under the influence of "there is no alternative" view, continue to argue that the capitalist system just needs to be reformed or fixed. What is really needed at this late date is a number of people dedicated to the replacement of this destructive system by a life-affirming, equitable, rational, and sustainable system.