howtosavetheworld | I have, of late, had a falling out with many of my fellow ‘progressives’, similar I suppose to that of Paul Kingsnorth, who is being savaged by
Naomi Klein and others for giving up on the environmental movement and
non-local activism, and by humanists for losing faith in our species’
capacity for innovation and change.
I should say at the outset that I agree that our political and
economic and legal and educational and social systems are dreadful,
unfair, teetering, and totally inadequate to our needs. I agree that
this is a world of horrific inequality, inequitable and unjust
privilege, massive suffering, and outrageous patriarchy. I agree that
corporatism and corruption and propagandist media are rampant and
destructive and destabilizing. I agree that militarized police and
torture prisons and drone killing and massive global surveillance are
repugnant and a fundamental threat to our personal safety and security
and the very principles upon which our nations are founded.
And I fully acknowledge that the fact I’m white, male, boomer
generation and relatively wealthy provides me with enormous privilege
compared to others, including relative freedom of movement, freedom from
fear of harrassment and assault, and greater social, political and
economic opportunity.
But when I hear arguments that “we need” to stand up for our
‘inherent’ rights and freedoms, and wrest ‘control’ of the levers of
power from the obscenely wealthy elite, and denounce and protest
injustice and inequality, and acknowledge and renounce our role as
privileged oppressors, as the first steps to a true social revolution in
and political and economic reform, leading, somehow, to a radical
redistribution of wealth and power, and a more just society, I am
reduced to despair.
I used to believe people, and perhaps some other creatures, had
‘rights’ and ‘freedoms’. I believed that someone was in control. I
believed there were answers to the predicaments we face.
But now I realize that there are no rights or freedoms. The concept
of rights and freedoms is a sop that the rich and powerful of this world
use to appease the fury and frustration of the poor and
disenfranchised. The ‘granting’ of rights and freedoms means nothing,
because they can be and are taken away whenever those in power choose to
do so, and are simply ignored when they interfere with the exercise of
power or accumulation of wealth by those who allowed them to be granted.
