“Although precise predictions are not possible, it is clear that the Earth is on an unsustainable trajectory. Something will have to change at some point if the human race is going to survive.”
- JP Morgan Report to Investors, 2020
Even the bankers are saying it. There is no second act. The survival of the human race is at stake in this election. It’s not about removing Trump. That’s a baseline amount of change, and the baseline’s not enough. We need to move the needle. We need immediate, radical changes to our fossil-fuel dependent economy. We need a Green New Deal, in one form or another.
BIDEN IS NOT ENOUGH
You can like Joe Biden and his folksy charm. But do not be confused into thinking that he has any plan of action for creating the amount of change in U.S. policy necessary to address global climate change. He is the worst of our Democratic candidates (especially after everyone dropping out). In December, 350 Action made clear the bare minimum that Biden needs to do:
- Oppose all new federal permits and leases for fossil fuel infrastructure and extraction, from pipelines to LNG export terminals and coal mining leases;
- Commit to investigating the fossil fuel industry's role in causing the climate crisis and misleading the public about it;
- Support a national end to fracking for oil and gas; and
- Respect his commitment to the spirit of the No Fossil Fuel Money pledge by rejecting campaign funds and campaign advice from fossil fuel executives and lobbyists and their corporate PACs.
But we need far more then the bare minimum. We need political support for real action on climate change. We need a policy with the size and scope of the Green New Deal. Without it, we are on a path that JP Morgan identifies as “an unsustainable trajectory” that could lead to human extinction.
But Joe Biden won’t even commit to banning fracking. In fact, he thinks if you support banning fracking, you should vote for someone else.
If you care about the future of the human race, you should vote for someone else!
WARREN OR BERNIE?
Both of these candidates might JUST be capable of pushing our politics toward addressing climate change. However, Elizabeth Warren will not be President. There is no avenue for her being selected as the nominee. She will not get the nod during a brokered convention, and I doubt she’ll be selected as a VP. Her political power (and her potential for achieving real policy change) is at its zenith right now, but only if she endorses Bernie. Otherwise, her role in this election is to siphon off support for Bernie’s policies. The right-wing of the Dem Party (and the big corporate donors that lurk behind them) have masterfully united behind the candidate that will protect their interests. The Left is, unfortunately, far less organized. There will be no strategic moves to unite the Bernie and Warren campaigns. I doubt there has even been a conversation about it.
WHAT HAPPENS IF REAL POLICY CHANGE IS TAKEN OFF THE TABLE?
The Right Wing Democrats are taking a calculated risk. They are assuming that Bernie (and Warren) voters and the supporters of their policies will see the transitive nature of U.S. elections and transfer their support over to the eventual nominee, regardless of what policies that nominee supports. They make this assumption because of “not-Trump” syndrome. They assume that people are so fed up with Trump that turnout will be pushed higher across the country among moderates and Republicans just because Trump needs to be defeated.
They really don’t care about Bernie supporters because they assume his supporters are so far left that their warmed-over centrist candidate will compensate for lower turnout on the left with higher turnout among wealthy suburbanites. They are fighting to win a low turn-out election. It’s their only strategy, and they’ll gamble, just like they did in 2016, that it will work.
But, what will happen to Bernie (and some Warren) supporters? I don’t really have a clue. THERE’S NO PLAN B. A popular candidate who supports policies that will address our climate crisis, who can raise more money than corporate candidates by tapping into the passion of working and middle class Americans, and who organized a massive grassroots volunteer network to phone bank, canvass, and generally work their asses off cannot win the Democratic Party nomination. Normally I’d say, wait four years and try again. However, we don’t have four years. There’s no waiting anymore.
UN-POLITICS
Personally, I’ll likely adopt a different philosophical outlook. I’ve always been an idealist about our political system, raised on the stories of my parents’ generation who protested Vietnam, marched in Selma, and warned us of our Silent Spring. The lesson I learned from them was that with enough elbow grease and hard work, politics can transform. However, the increasing personal despair I’ve felt while witnessing our steady march toward self-destruction has left me hollow.
I stumbled across the Dark Mountain Project back in 2009 when a similar existential dread struck after the 2008 financial crisis. In particular, the manifesto penned by Paul Kingsnorth and Dougald Hine titled “Uncivilisation” felt both prescient and terrifying. I was actually too terrified about the concept to give it credence. How could all the good intentions of my friends, family, loved ones, acquaintances, and the politicians that were leading our country not result in positive change? How could we all be part of the “dream-led masses” dancing down the dark mountain?
But I’ll likely revisit it now, regardless of how this election turns out. I’m less terrified of its message. The book ends with these general principles, oriented to an audience of writers and creators, but applicable to everyone.
THE EIGHT PRINCIPLES OF UNCIVILISATION
‘We must unhumanise our views a little, and become confident
As the rock and ocean that we were made from.’
- We live in a time of social, economic and ecological unravelling. All around us are signs that our whole way of living is already passing into history. We will face this reality honestly and learn how to live with it.
- We reject the faith which holds that the converging crises of our times can be reduced to a set of ‘problems’ in need of technological or political ‘solutions’.
- We believe that the roots of these crises lie in the stories we have been telling ourselves. We intend to challenge the stories which underpin our civilisation: the myth of progress, the myth of human centrality, and the myth of our separation from ‘nature’. These myths are more dangerous for the fact that we have forgotten they are myths.
- We will reassert the role of storytelling as more than mere entertainment. It is through stories that we weave reality.
- Humans are not the point and purpose of the planet. Our art will begin with the attempt to step outside the human bubble. By careful attention, we will reengage with the non-human world.
- We will celebrate writing and art which is grounded in a sense of place and of time. Our literature has been dominated for too long by those who inhabit the cosmopolitan citadels.
- We will not lose ourselves in the elaboration of theories or ideologies. Our words will be elemental. We write with dirt under our fingernails.
- The end of the world as we know it is not the end of the world full stop. Together, we will find the hope beyond hope, the paths which lead to the unknown world ahead of us.
I am adding another principle. Unpolitics. I will place compassion at the heart of a personal politics. I will not be a Democrat or a Republican. I will not withdraw, but I also will not be a supporter. I will be a fellow traveler as we dance down the dark mountain together.