Once we understand our role, then can we begin to accept our responsibilities and move towards an existence where it’s not all about us.
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I would like to interrupt your regularly scheduled programming of Democracy Now!, TED Talks and the Bernie Sanders political revolution to discuss the role liberals play in our global predicament. Converging catastrophes have brought us to the brink of oblivion and all we can do is continue to put our efforts into fighting the right wing, pursuing the new green economy and periodically divesting.
Liberals are the demographic and population that simply continue to reform a machine that devours lives. At least conservatives have the conviction to destroy and devour by claiming it is their God given right. Liberals want their cake, and to eat it too, as long as it’s gluten-free and made with organic ingredients.
As the clock on our way of life (and ultimately our species) inches closer to midnight, I thought this might be a good time to point out a few inconsistencies in liberal logic. I take aim from a radical point of view and as a former liberal, progressive thinker. The lunacy on the right is clear-cut but on the left it’s much more clever and ultimately insidious.
You see, the liberal left thinks of itself as righteous. Not righteous like conservative zealots but rather in regard to how they believe they understand injustice. These are people dedicated to environmental and social justice causes. They love non-profits, petitions and voting. They believe deeply in governmental reform and renewable resources. They shop locally or find chain stores with an organic flare. They drive electric cars, have clever bumper stickers and read labels.
Most importantly, they believe deeply that what they are doing is good and what they offer are solutions to our problems. What they fail to understand is that this approach is nothing other than a feel-good attitude and that our problems are actually predicaments. This approach feels great but continues perpetuating injustices on every level. It’s a very privileged way of thinking.
Privilege is something some liberals own up to but refuse to go all the way down the rabbit hole. If they did go down this hole they would quickly realize that their lives of eco-friendly consumption and social justice awareness are nothing more than a complete and utter fraud. They, like me, are living a life built upon fiction. I may be radical in thought but have miles to go in practice. What I do possess is the ability to at least admit it and the vision to see the “culture of make believe” (as laid out in Derrick Jensens’s book of the same name), as it is.
Liberals love our culture and would never abandon it. Instead, they will tweak it, remold it and reform it until every last drop of what is worthwhile is dead and gone. They will never turn their backs on the very structure which continues to import their wants and needs. I call it civilization. They mistakenly call it life. Civilization is a predicament because it’s all we know, it’s what keeps most of us alive but abandoning and dismantling it it will preserve life … just not our own.
So as we celebrate graduations (indoctrinations), prepare for political conventions (our Circus Maximus) and attend justice conferences please keep in mind that in doing so, we are all propping up – not dismantling – our own demise. Until we can, at the very least, admit our way of life (civilization) is a fairytale for some and a nightmare for many, then the very injustices we believe we are addressing will continue.
Once we understand our role, then can we begin to accept our responsibilities and move towards an existence where it’s not all about us. The root of our predicament is staring us in the face. The identity we’ve built, via the narrative we’ve been handed, is where this predicament stems. What’s the first step towards understanding?
Let go.
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Photo: Getty Images
Question….how much land is required per person to live off the grid in the simple lufestyle to which you are calling us all too? Most of us do not have the skills necessary to accomplish this. There are desoerately poor people across this planet that live off the grid, not by choice but out of necessisty in that they lack the necessary resources to purchase basic human needs such as potable water and land to cultivate or the sound bodies to complete the heavy labor rquired to transform the land to food.
Living off-grid isn’t a solution. It’s a choice but it certainly would solve the global predicament of civilization. I live on about 2/3 of an acre but I have no idea what kind of land mass it would take to sustain 1-2 people. That’s the point though…we as a dominant civilized culture became settlers and then it was game on!
I once read some writings by an indisputably intelligent and driven math professor on his analyses of industrial society and its future. Unfortunately, his name was Ted Kaczynski. I would hope there will be a way to save this global (and technological) village without burning it. When one eliminates the possibility of ‘reform’ very few options remain. ‘Revolution’ is not, after all, a proscription or a design for a strategy; it is simply a descriptor of the tone & tempo that the as-yet-forthcoming strategies of reformation should take or go- A description of how vigorously or radically we should do something, but not… Read more »
Exactly the opposite is true IMHO. Acceptance of the situation we are in replaces our fear which we create reforms that we see as solutions. We can either power down with the tranquility of Buddist monks or we can be dragged…either way accepting the truth of the situation we are in is a place most cannot go because they believe civilization is solution based when in reality it’s the very thing devouring the living world. Let go…itlle set you free.
By the way Joseph. I agree with you. Getting rid of the cultural shackles of expectations is the best way to free yourself. It’s just so damn hard for most of us to do. Yet most of us want that more than anything. Which obviously isn’t true in reality, otherwise we’d shuck it all. Reminds me of the wealthy busy executive who derides the beach bum. Get a job he says Why? So you can have a big house and a fine car. Why? To get a great wife to take care of and to raise a family and save… Read more »
I’ve left behind a job house / mortgage and have never felt better
This is what I’m talking about! Letting go of the shit we consider important and discovering what’s actually important. Thanks for the comment!
Let go? Of what? Our homes? To live where? Our jobs? Even seeds and feeds and soil are expensive these days. Do you have any solution?
I think you’re missing the point Jane. That’s exactly what Mike is saying I believe. Liberals won’t go down that rabbit hole to walk the talk. If they did, they just might show another way. But God forbid they give up their jobs, the Prius and the Edamame and give that to someone else to share with. Outrage. But they will happily ensure all you else’s do in the name of social fairness. My Prius is soo much better than your Cadillac to the environment and as a social message. I think Mike is exposing the hypocrisy of it all.… Read more »
Mark, Conservative do not want to go down the rabbit hole to see the mess that they have created and refuse to listened other alternatives.
” At least conservatives have the conviction to destroy and devour by claiming it is their God given right.”
No, the conservatives claim it is the market that determines what happens or they denied in taking any responsibility for what they have done plus they are always blaming someone else for the mess that they have created.
There are no solutions to a predicament…only choices. Letting go may look completely different than living off-grid. It’s a state of mind followed by action.
This was a good article Mike. The conservative far right is a real problem that the Republicans havenfigured out how to get away from gracefully. It started with the idea of representing solid middle class and American Midwest values, and then got ensnared by the evangelicals. The left however got snared in their own moral superiority complex and rather than rethink this continue to espouse and even embrace it. Yet in that end it would destroy their green cars and vegan meals while sipping organic coffee and waxing poetic on the elimination of social injustice. They simply wouldn’t he allowed… Read more »
Great comment Mark…thanks!
How have the left got ensnared in their own moral superiority complex. Mark? BTW, you have the conservatives like the Koch Brothers who have done everything to stop upcoming solar and wind power industries in the USA. And conservatees would rather see everyone else suffer except themselves. BTW the Republican Party brought the conservative far right on itself when it purged all its moderate Republicans in the first place and Republican like Newt Gringrich adopted the policy of win at all costs, and take no prisoners.
…and so the general response from liberals is to maintain this predicament of a living arrangement by reforming the mess both parties refuse to dismantle. Wind and solar are simply negotiations with the non-negotiable…mother nature.