Mr. Hopeless Redux

There’s place for all types, no?

The (somewhat) success of the Tar Sands movement (in which my fiancee got arrested, go her!), does show that putting bodies on the field helps. Jensen is at the extreme end of the spectrum, and we need people at that end too. It is only now, finally, with Occupy, that we are waking up from the deep consumerism-driven sleep of our political consciousness.

I think though that there is a way to inspire, like Bill Mckibben does, and unfortunately, Jensen’s humorless polemics in Orion put me off rather than energize me, as Abbey does.

On the other hand, personal choices, little by little, if done by many, can be a perhaps way more significant and sustainable way to bring about the change that earth, and humans, need. Indeed, Frances Moore Lappé argues in EcoMinds is that we need to change the framing towards the duty-cycle of our use of resources, or how much of them, do we waste. Or to stake one’s claim, no matter how small, as Dave advocates, and then defend it (ala Dan Driscoll).

Then there is the other view, made equally humorlessly, but rather provocatively by Shellenberger and Nordhaus, that we need to work within the capitalist system, and the pushing back of industrial development is a elitist view, doomed to failure: http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/6402/ .

No one way is likely to bring success in itself, and we do have only a short timeframe (25 years?) to make things sustainable, while at the same time raising the standard of living in the developing world. None of this progress is guaranteed, but we do have to try (or blow ourselves up like in the Bond movies as soon as possible), and thus we must throw the kitchen sink at it!

“80% of the rivers on this planet do not support life anymore.”almost drove me away as it’s so obviously an absurd statistic;but I do believe we need large changes,and they often come from unexpected directions, so I went.Same w/our local Occupy,I went.It’s part of paying attention,it’s certainly amazing,it’s hard to tell about.I have known a few true Communists-nothing pure or simple about them to me.Occupy here is also quite impure and complex;the contrasts shocking and the stories by turns compelling and deluded.
The last visit I took my 12 year old son Ely along,a quiet Sunday morning in downtown Atl.We parked a few blocks away and on the walk passed a variety of folk typical of off-hours downtown;alcoholics,disabled,homeless.Unlike the workday downtown folks everyone looked you in the eye,spoke and /or responded.Yes,some were panhandling but I have grown up urban-I didn’t give out money but am happy to share a word.One old man said “your son got long hair just like you”-and I laughed at the contrast with the suburban error which is so common for us of him being greeted as a girl.
There were soldiers there-an older guy with his cap from some WW2 carrier;he had a sheaf of papers he was giving out and I expected them to be some right wing rant,was surprised they were a union publication.Two young buddies in red berets and camo uniforms,unsure of where they fit in they seemed uncomfortable but interested;when they had moved on I went to the “what’s your story”fence which has a pile of markers and that open invitation to find some one-perhaps one of these two- had written “I went to Iraq and all I got was this lousy PTSD”.
There are so many deep problems on our collective plate,we have few places to come together and speak across the walls.Leonard Cohen’s line “Come with me my little one and we will find that farm and grow us grass and apples there and keep all the animals warm-and if by chance I wake at night and I ask you who I am-oh take me to the slaughter house I will wait there with the lamb.With one hand on a hexagram,and one hand on a girl,I balance on a wishing well that all men call the world”. At Occupy,and within Deep Green, there are those who are aware of the wonderful/terrible fact of the world being a wishing well;and of the hexagrams,crosses,pentagrams being clutched in our modern hands. There’s maniacs;sure-all public spaces have one at least -but there are also very committed folks who honestly seek dialog about the direction we should turn as we realize our current path is unsustainable.
Deep Green has elements that need to be called out and corrected;from the fact that 100% of all rivers do ,in fact,support myriad life forms to the restatement of commitment to tenets of non-violence (which Occupy has made a centerpiece of their message here) such as “Non violence seeks to defeat injustice,not people.”It’s a radical strategy;not new,but definitely for the heartbroken.As for not waiting anymore,well,that’s something that someone smart told me you have to do “when you don’t know what to do”. I think there is a growing consensus that we need to do certain things-tax fossil carbon,end the death penalty,repeal corporate person-hood.The realization that it’s possible to do these things in spite of the huge obstacles to them is spawning a lot of organizations who are struggling to find a way from here to there-and I think that’s a good thing,and there are a lot of them that will go off in strange directions,I find that interesting too.The frog’s eyes look a lot like those of the stoned hip-hop performer we watched at Occupy,what an amazing world we live in and how little we know of those we share it with.Every eye has a unique view;motes,logs,dilated pupils and rose-tinted glasses all can be done without but it ain’t easy .Thanks for elevating this from the “comment class”.