Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Beyond Individual Solutions

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Thursday, June 13, 2019

Beyond Individual Solutions

Click here to access article by David Swanson from Rebel (Republic of Ireland).

While praising the rising concern about the planet's environmental health, or the ability to accept unlimited growth in a finite planet, he warns:

Consider, for example, the predominance of focus on the individual solutions to climate change. This is not an accidental occurrence. More and more is being publicised about the environment. Of this there is no doubt. But much of this coverage, and the discussion that takes place around it, is mediated and distorted by the way that capitalism frames debates about society.