Saturday, July 30, 2016

Naomi Klein: The Task Is Clear


It is our great collective misfortune that the scientific community made its decisive diagnosis of the climate threat at the precise moment when an elite minority was enjoying more unfettered political, cultural, and intellectual power than at any point since the 1920s.

The powerful feed ideology to the masses like fast food while they dine on that most rarefied delicacy: impunity.

Our economy is at war with many forms of life on earth, including human life. What the climate needs to avoid collapse is a contraction of humanity's use of resources; what our economic model demands to avoid collapse is unfettered expansion. Only one of these sets of rules can be changed, and it's not the laws of nature.

Our enslavement to oil has required the repression of millions of Arab people. As they shake off their bonds, so must we.

We can save ourselves, but only if we let go of the myth of dominance and mastery and learn to work with nature. 

The task is clear: to create a culture of caretaking in which no one and nowhere is thrown away, in which the inherent value of people and all life is foundational. 

- Naomi Klein


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