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Kevin's Reviews > On Fire: The Burning Case for a Green New Deal
On Fire: The Burning Case for a Green New Deal
by
by
Beyond “No!� protests: building a future not on fire.
The Good:
--(2022 Update) Accessibility: unlike social science textbook hieroglyphs, I take the time to read Klein’s works to experience how she engages with the wider public.
--This book is a collection of her articles/lectures on one of the great ideas in the age of runaway capitalist climate destruction.
1) Beyond denial: the greater threats of hopelessness and climate barbarism:
--US fossil fuel companies have been planning for climate change for over 40 years now. For the past decade, the US military has been (openly) planning too. Those in power only use denialism as a tool, as they fortify their own properties with higher walls and contingency plans:
-Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming
-Tropic of Chaos: Climate Change and the New Geography of Violence
--Let us not get bogged down by the manufactured "debates" with denialists who conveniently imagine an alternate universe with inverse power structures. Reactionary "populist" politics try to parody leftism/revolutionary critiques such as “follow the money�, “propaganda�, “science�, etc. to divide the masses: The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Donald Trump
--Once we bypass this, we can focus on the greater threats of:
a) Hopelessness: as Klein emphasizes, climate change became an issue at a catastrophic time, during the peak of "Neoliberalism" where governments gave way to the divine right of capital (and austerity for the rest), and social imagination for collective action dissipated into there-is-no-alternative individualism.
b) Climate barbarism: societies gutted of solidarity and empathy breed monsters during crises. Thus, the rise of the far-right (including Eco-fascism) as a backlash to domestic austerity, triggered and diverted by more visible scapegoat threats like immigrants (in part climate refugees). Vijay Prashad on the rise of the Right:
-Too Many People?: Population, Immigration, and the Environmental Crisis
2) The Necessity of the Green New Deal:
--Hopelessness (with the #1 concern of “jDz�) is directly tackled by the Green New Deal, which is at its core a jobs program directed at social needs rather than bullshit jobs. The “New Deal� part revives and builds on the social imagination of previous New Deals government programs to combat the Great Depression, as well as the Marshall Plan to reconstruct Western Europe after WWII.
--Climate barbarism is directly tackled by providing domestic relief as we ready for more crises: Corona, Climate, Chronic Emergency: War Communism in the Twenty-First Century. Centrist plans to narrowly focus on climate change without addressing inequality fail especially during economic downturns; this was made vivid by France's Yellow Vests protests against the economic inequality of centrist president Macron's regressive taxes hitting the masses rather than corporate producers and elite consumers most responsible for ecological destruction. Meanwhile, far-right Le Pen eagerly waits in the wings (Alt Right parody of "populism" amidst crises). Economic justice slays monsters before they can fester.
3) Deeper maladies: capitalism’s colonialism:
--Klein considers how national narratives influence social values when analyzing why countries like the US, Canada, and Australia are behind Europe in climate action. Settler colonialism was built on narratives of the endlessness of the "New World", as Europe was exhausted by its capitalist industrialization. For more:
-Degrowth as decolonization! (capitalist markets generate artificial scarcity by enclosing the "Commons", esp. markets for land/natural resources/finance/intellectual property): Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World
-The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America
-Fossil Capital: The Rise of Steam Power and the Roots of Global Warming
The Missing:
--While this book is a compelling intro for the general public and a useful refresher for activists, the next steps require synthesizing:
1) The immediate needs of shifting to renewables, where Green New Deal is an excellent fit: The Climate Crisis and the Global Green New Deal: The Political Economy of Saving the Planet
2) Given the Green New Deal's raw material needs and Global North focus, how do we address the needs of the Global South (esp. petty producers) without falling for imperialist technocratic schemes leading to mass displacements: A People’s Green New Deal.
3) Fitting the Green New Deal with an overall downscaling of capitalism's cancerous profit-seeking (rather than directly fulfilling social needs) production and manufactured mass consumerist addiction, which threaten not just climate change but the other 9 planetary boundaries and beyond:
-Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World
-Gone Tomorrow: The Hidden Life of Garbage
-Captains Of Consciousness: Advertising And The Social Roots Of The Consumer Culture
The Good:
--(2022 Update) Accessibility: unlike social science textbook hieroglyphs, I take the time to read Klein’s works to experience how she engages with the wider public.
--This book is a collection of her articles/lectures on one of the great ideas in the age of runaway capitalist climate destruction.
1) Beyond denial: the greater threats of hopelessness and climate barbarism:
--US fossil fuel companies have been planning for climate change for over 40 years now. For the past decade, the US military has been (openly) planning too. Those in power only use denialism as a tool, as they fortify their own properties with higher walls and contingency plans:
-Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming
-Tropic of Chaos: Climate Change and the New Geography of Violence
--Let us not get bogged down by the manufactured "debates" with denialists who conveniently imagine an alternate universe with inverse power structures. Reactionary "populist" politics try to parody leftism/revolutionary critiques such as “follow the money�, “propaganda�, “science�, etc. to divide the masses: The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Donald Trump
--Once we bypass this, we can focus on the greater threats of:
a) Hopelessness: as Klein emphasizes, climate change became an issue at a catastrophic time, during the peak of "Neoliberalism" where governments gave way to the divine right of capital (and austerity for the rest), and social imagination for collective action dissipated into there-is-no-alternative individualism.
b) Climate barbarism: societies gutted of solidarity and empathy breed monsters during crises. Thus, the rise of the far-right (including Eco-fascism) as a backlash to domestic austerity, triggered and diverted by more visible scapegoat threats like immigrants (in part climate refugees). Vijay Prashad on the rise of the Right:
-Too Many People?: Population, Immigration, and the Environmental Crisis
2) The Necessity of the Green New Deal:
--Hopelessness (with the #1 concern of “jDz�) is directly tackled by the Green New Deal, which is at its core a jobs program directed at social needs rather than bullshit jobs. The “New Deal� part revives and builds on the social imagination of previous New Deals government programs to combat the Great Depression, as well as the Marshall Plan to reconstruct Western Europe after WWII.
--Climate barbarism is directly tackled by providing domestic relief as we ready for more crises: Corona, Climate, Chronic Emergency: War Communism in the Twenty-First Century. Centrist plans to narrowly focus on climate change without addressing inequality fail especially during economic downturns; this was made vivid by France's Yellow Vests protests against the economic inequality of centrist president Macron's regressive taxes hitting the masses rather than corporate producers and elite consumers most responsible for ecological destruction. Meanwhile, far-right Le Pen eagerly waits in the wings (Alt Right parody of "populism" amidst crises). Economic justice slays monsters before they can fester.
3) Deeper maladies: capitalism’s colonialism:
--Klein considers how national narratives influence social values when analyzing why countries like the US, Canada, and Australia are behind Europe in climate action. Settler colonialism was built on narratives of the endlessness of the "New World", as Europe was exhausted by its capitalist industrialization. For more:
-Degrowth as decolonization! (capitalist markets generate artificial scarcity by enclosing the "Commons", esp. markets for land/natural resources/finance/intellectual property): Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World
-The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America
-Fossil Capital: The Rise of Steam Power and the Roots of Global Warming
The Missing:
--While this book is a compelling intro for the general public and a useful refresher for activists, the next steps require synthesizing:
1) The immediate needs of shifting to renewables, where Green New Deal is an excellent fit: The Climate Crisis and the Global Green New Deal: The Political Economy of Saving the Planet
2) Given the Green New Deal's raw material needs and Global North focus, how do we address the needs of the Global South (esp. petty producers) without falling for imperialist technocratic schemes leading to mass displacements: A People’s Green New Deal.
3) Fitting the Green New Deal with an overall downscaling of capitalism's cancerous profit-seeking (rather than directly fulfilling social needs) production and manufactured mass consumerist addiction, which threaten not just climate change but the other 9 planetary boundaries and beyond:
-Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World
-Gone Tomorrow: The Hidden Life of Garbage
-Captains Of Consciousness: Advertising And The Social Roots Of The Consumer Culture
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Reading Progress
September 29, 2019
– Shelved
February 9, 2020
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Started Reading
February 16, 2020
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Finished Reading
Comments Showing 1-4 of 4 (4 new)
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R.J.Cicisly Jr. wrote: "I read Shock Doctrine awhile back. Then when she joined The Intercept, the jig was up. The “GND�( what else had those initials?) is about saving Capitalism.Please go to “The Wrong Kind of Green � ..."
I share the "reform vs. revolution" concerns that radicals have of the GND, Bernie/Progressives, etc. However, unlike the last capitalist crisis where there was strong class consciousness in the West + USSR + Third World decolonization to counter growing fascism (and even so, fascism spread into another world war), I also share the concern over what resistance there will be to the growing Right as the twin crises of capitalism and climate change worsens.
I haven't read through the book-length article pieces. I will say the NGO social engineering aspects are an expected evolution of corporate media + monopolization of IT. My greater concern is the creation of new markets (i.e. natural capital). No doubt the Al Gore types will push the GND towards this. However, I see no strong arguments against the fact that much of existing capitalism (i.e. fossil fuels) will be greatly disrupted as new infrastructure is built, and there is potential to build decentralized energy (community/worker ownership) here. This will be new grounds for struggle.
Constant critique is crucial, as clearly Progressives can only open up space and do not have long-term solutions. However, until radicals can put forth convincing alternatives (suggestions?), we take the space given and build from there.
Cory Morningstar's exposé serves the same purpose as Antony Sutton's work on the CPSU did in his time. He pointed to all the loans and dealings US bankers had with the Bolsheviks, and thus concluded that the latter were actually 100% controlled by the former, which is of course absurd.That the eco movement has significant parts that are opportunist (the green capitalists Morningstar describes) and muddled in perspective (many who took to the streets) does not take away from the fact that it has been a massive practical exercise in political education. Hundreds of thousands who had never engaged in politics beyond voting suddenly _demanded_ rights and participation and, importantly, learned that while it is a step up (elections in my country were dominated by green themes & skepticism towards big industry, which the radical left made good use of), the government ultimately does not give a shit.
People like Morningstar see the movement as a priori 'betrayed' and irredeemable, but that's not marxist. No capitalist has ever raised class consciousness deliberately; they only make compromises once forced to. Activists who see mass political movements and go "They're misguided, I'm better off sitting at home", drive me up the walls - go to the protests and show _in practice_ how you want to transcend the current project. People are never more open to political ideas than when they're in the streets.
� wrote: "Cory Morningstar's exposé serves the same purpose as Antony Sutton's work on the CPSU did in his time. He pointed to all the loans and dealings US bankers had with the Bolsheviks, and thus conclude..."Well said!
In terms of strategy for North America/Eurozone, while places vary in context and volatility, let's consider 1) what we have, 2) what we are up against, and 3) what we can build.
What we have looks meager, and we are up against looks like a lot (capitalist ideology + capitalist control of capital and violence + rising Far Right). How much social imagination can we build in an accelerationist strategy of pushing the collapse of capitalism/climate seems questionable.
Allying with Progressives (and of course staying critical and pushing them further) looks more fruitful for (re)building social imagination.
Now, maybe more are capable of rioting like in France, building their social imagination from this process, and then actually seizing control and building from there. If that's the alternative, let's hear the plan...
Please go to “The Wrong Kind of Green � and strive through,”The Manufacturing if Greta Thunburg-For Consent: The Political Economy of The Non-Profit Industrial Complex� by Cory Morningstar. In Six Parts.