<\/p>
\u26a1\ufe0f<\/u><\/strong>That ecological collapse is the result of historical errors including: <\/p> \u26a1\ufe0f<\/u><\/strong>That industrialised civilisation is now so deeply mired in these mistakes it\u2019s easier for leaders to persist in denial, invest in technological fantasy or embrace doomerism than address the complex, methodical, task of radical harm-reduction. <\/p> \u26a1\ufe0f<\/u><\/strong>That only a political and cultural revolution against this status quo can safeguard what\u2019s still salvageable of life on Earth. <\/p> <\/p> \u26a1\ufe0f<\/u><\/strong>That the refusal of ecological activists to discuss what a post-revolutionary world might look like is itself counter-revolutionary, sapping potential allies of hope, energy and a willingness to invest in change while creating an ideological vacuum too easily filled by the far-right, commercial and other predatory interests.\u00a0<\/p> <\/p> <\/p> \u26a1\ufe0f<\/u><\/strong>That revolutionary success matters. \u26a1\ufe0f<\/u><\/strong>That success depends upon the inclusion and leadership of those living at the sharp end of existential and ecological crises including indigenous, working class, rural and pagan communities that have retained symbiotic relationships with nature alongside low-impact, sustainable resource use and enduring traditional crafts as well as sympathetic new technologies. \u26a1\ufe0f<\/u><\/strong>That personal freedom and \u2018market\u2019 freedom are mutually incompatible. \u26a1\ufe0f<\/u><\/strong>That shifting from a culture of normalised over-consumption to one of social and ecological responsibility requires a parallel revolution across philosophical and aesthetic cultures firmly based in the realignment of words with action, cause with effect and individual responsibility with collective change. <\/p> \u26a1\ufe0f<\/u><\/strong>That humanity\u2019s future will remain hardwired to the errors of its past without a revolutionary transformation in the way industrialised societies consider the natural world and our place in it.
i) A failure to rationalise industrialised modernity around net gains for humanity and the natural world.
ii) The promotion of consumer-capitalism as inevitable, desirable and analogous with freedom.
iii) The pursuit of technological proliferation and digitalisation for profit and the illusion of \u2018progress\u2019, leading to systemic over-complexity and specialisation, accelerating social alienation and a loss of enchantment with natural phenomena and the pleasures of daily life.
iv) Geo-political competition, rather than co-operation, over power and resources.
v) The elevation of dumbed down, shallow cultural values, leading to low intellectual engagement, a hollowing of meaning and passive acceptance of points i to iv.
<\/p>
<\/p>
Essential measures:
i) A hard, inter-disciplinary rationalisation of industry around humanitarianism and the restoration of ecosystems, prioritising existential necessities including food production, clean water, housing, clothing and medical care.
ii) <\/em>A rejection of the profit motive and reclamation of intrinsic purpose, truth, journalistic integrity, lifelong education, visionary imagination and skilled crafts across all socio-economic classes and forms of popular culture.
iii) Co-operation between global, national, indigenous and community organisations to fairly re-distribute power and resources, ensuring the survival and stability of those in greatest need while eliminating false parameters of geo-political and cultural competition.
<\/p>
\u26a1\ufe0f<\/u><\/strong>That democratic societies require strong, independent journalism, intellectual rigour and a moral centre grounded in universal common interests to function. Societies in which the media, public intellectualism and morality have been compromised by lies, commerce, plutocracy, pollsters and dogma cannot be considered democratic or working to defend the existential interests of the people.
Telling the truth is essential to all<\/em> public interests. No problem can be confronted, mitigated or solved so long as lies, obfuscation and corruption are tolerated in government or the public realm.<\/p>
It\u2019s not enough to say, \u2018We protest to feel better about ourselves and success is immaterial\u2019 when the future of life on Earth and civilisational stability depends upon it.\u00a0
Nothing could be more important than saving billions of human lives and averting the loss of countless animals including thousands upon thousands of entire species.
<\/p>
<\/p>
Personal freedoms require regulatory protection from exploitation, oppression and corruption while \u2018free markets\u2019 are inherently sociopathic, respecting only those rights necessary to extract the greatest achievable profit from the smallest possible investment while corrupting the free flow of public information via media control, marketing, data manipulation and other forms of propaganda.
Any society that prioritises market interests over the existential rights and personal freedoms of its population will rapidly devolve down into plutocracy, feudalism and collapse since the profit motive contains no moral arbiters, stabilising forces or security measures of its own and must cannibalise the personal rights and freedoms of both workers and \u2018consumers\u2019 in order to hoard wealth and undermine the principle of fair exchange.
<\/p>
<\/p>
An outstanding feature of high GDP societies has been the consumerist capture of public intellectual life and the arts, creating a jet-setting, nominally \u2018left wing\u2019 and \u2018progressive\u2019 elite that\u2019s as performative and detached from the consequences of its actions as its right-wing, conservative counterparts.
The bitter irony of intellectuals and \u2018activists\u2019 touring the world to preach about the horror of oil wars and cultural colonialism will not be lost on the 80% of humanity that will never set foot aboard a plane, let alone millions caught in the crossfire of resource wars that not only enable but are required to exist<\/em> by the commercial and consumer exchange mechanisms of the other 20%.
\u2018Solidarity\u2019 has to mean more than revelling in the bloodiest spoils of capitalism while decrying its existence.
Boycotting cars, aviation, cruises, plastic and other petrochemicals won\u2019t fix everything, but it\u2019d certainly get the ball rolling.
<\/p>
That is, not as a playpen of resources to plunder and abuse at will, but as a complex and mysterious body of overwhelming forces and living entities as entitled to enjoy their interconnected existences as members of the human race.
If the 18th and 19th century Sublime movement sought astonishment and beauty in the most terrifying qualities of nature, countless 20th and 21st century movements across both the arts and sciences seem to have abandoned that project to the god complexes and imaginations of those more interested in their own ingenuity and reflections than the great oceans, plagues and fires that will soon swallow cities whole.
Reclaiming an aesthetic \u2018New Sublime\u2019, directed outwardly, away from post-modern solipsism and towards the unknowable great \u2018otherness\u2019 of nature, is as essential to rewiring cultural humility and respect for the elements and other species as the knowledge we must do all this to save our own and one another\u2019s lives.
Given the value of art across industrialised nations, maybe more so.
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