- Re: Why Just (sic) Stop Oil will win Archived Message
Posted by Ian M
on June 8, 2023, 8:33 pm, in reply to "Re: Why Just (sic) Stop Oil will win"
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I can't remember where I read it, maybe Klein's 'This Changes Everything' but there were polls done suggesting people were willing to make sacrifices to deal with climate change as long as other sectors and social classes were sharing the burden proportional to their wealth. The eruption of the gilets jaunes protests over a fuel tax that would predominantly affect those dependent on car use for commuting in & out of small towns shows what happens when an underprivileged class sees that they're being singled out to pay a price others aren't paying. I think there are ways of lowering carbon emissions that target mainly the wealthy, eg: banning private jets and taxing frequent fliers, but yes ultimately there's no escaping the pain that withdrawal from the fossil fuel drug will involve and the way capitalist society is set up practically guarantees that those who bear the brunt will be the poor & working class. Again. That's why there will need to be revolutionary shake-ups in society as we start to bump down the other side of the peak in oil/gas/coal/etc. production. But for all the talk about suffering and privation, it should be noted that there are a lot of potential upsides to the 'deep green pastoral' you refer to. Yes it's unlikely to come about on a mass scale by 2030, and JSO's vision of groovy wind & solar technician jobs for all isn't one I find inspiring, or even sustainable in the long term. But if the govt ever decided (more likely: was forced) to facilitate a back-to-the-land movement, it would start to solve innumerable chronic problems both for society and for individuals starved of contact with nature and the psycho-spiritual benefits of meaningful employment. As one who's on that journey already (admittedly leveraging privileges not available to most) I can vouch for the enjoyment & satisfaction possible from a neo-peasant way of life  Nearly all of the things that make it hard come as a result of obstruction - often passive, sometimes active - from the dominant culture which doesn't want autonomous communities of people outside of its control. As those institutions continue to unravel alternatives outside of the system will start to become possible (at first illegal) then eventually inevitable. As forest activist George Draffan once put it to Derrick Jensen: 'Years ago I was riding in a car with friend and fellow activist George Draffan. He has influenced my thinking as much as any other one person. It was a hot day in Spokane. Traffic was slow. A long line waited at a stoplight. I asked, “If you could live at any level of technology, what would it be?” As well as being a friend and an activist, George can be a curmudgeon. He was in one of those moods. He said, “That’s a stupid question. We can fantasize about living however we want, but the only sustainable level of technology is the Stone Age. What we have now is the merest blip—we’re one of only six or seven generations who ever have to hear the awful sound of internal combustion engines (especially two-cycle)—and in time we’ll return to the way humans have lived for most of their existence. Within a few hundred years at most. The only question will be what’s left of the world when we get there.”Years ago I was riding in a car with friend and fellow activist George Draffan. He has influenced my thinking as much as any other one person. It was a hot day in Spokane. Traffic was slow. A long line waited at a stoplight. I asked, “If you could live at any level of technology, what would it be?” As well as being a friend and an activist, George can be a curmudgeon. He was in one of those moods. He said, “That’s a stupid question. We can fantasize about living however we want, but the only sustainable level of technology is the Stone Age. What we have now is the merest blip—we’re one of only six or seven generations who ever have to hear the awful sound of internal combustion engines (especially two-cycle)—and in time we’ll return to the way humans have lived for most of their existence. Within a few hundred years at most. The only question will be what’s left of the world when we get there.”' - https://derrickjensen.org/endgame/history/ Also: cheers, I |