Creating a world where there is no oppressor
March 1, 2021 1:22 PM Subscribe
From this, then, we can extract the three aspects of my Jewish identity which I believe shape my politics, and that of many, but of course not all, other Jews: fragile privilege and what that means for how we are to be safe; uprootedness, which can become a positive internationalism; and abhorrence of dominating power. These three ideas lead me to a deep appreciation for and belief in interdependence, which, in my view, is the beating heart of green, ecological politics.Ecology, Citizenship and Jewish Identity, a speech given to the Australian Association of Jewish Studies conference by Tim Hollo, about the experience of the Jewish diaspora and its influence on a progressive, ecologically-based politics of bottom-up democracy, interdependence, mutualism and opposition to dominating power, citing Hannah Arendt, Emma Goldman and Murray Bookchin.
Do nuclear powered electrons have balls? (Tim Hollo previously here). For non-Australians, Hollo is one of the serious thinkers of the environmental movement here, sometimes inside the political system (in the form of the Greens), sometimes outside.
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 1:42 PM on March 1, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 1:42 PM on March 1, 2021 [2 favorites]
It's beautiful work and a beautiful summary, and it holds in its sublimity my heart's desire.
I think it's gonna be Fascism, though.
Have you seen the distance from this beautiful ideal to the way the world actually works? Imagine trying to get to a bottom-up nationless municipal socialist eco-confederalism from a world where:
- the preparedness of people to take part in these kind of discussions (!) in self governance and thus of big issues is poor (see our curent response to: covid, global warming, resource allocation, to name but 3)
- the thousand lies, disinformations, anti-evidence and nonsense that pervades society and are only fragmenting and getting more chaotic
-the naked short-term, short-distance self-interest that billions of people hold in their hearts and in the consumer culture that has been baked into the world
- the number of people utterly bound to magical thinking that exists in new gods (capitalism) and the old (see: most religions)
- the unjust privileges and existing historical power gradients that would distort any adoption of such a system; and the technology that is, on average, exacerbating these gradients
- and that's before I mention all the isms/unjust discriminations that infect us.
...any transition towards this kind of governance at scale (people's councils?) at a rate that would be effective before the world goes to shit in the next century...... would cause disintegration. Not in a good way.
It wouldn't become justice - it would be chaos, and not good chaos, ultimately a brief flash in the pan just before more misery for all, and throwing away one of our last chances to co-ordinate responses to terminal threats (global warming, resource allocation, etc) that will destroy our ecosystems and society and make such discussions....moot.
Nah. Fascism - or some form of authoritarianism it is. If it has to be this way, my vote's for eco-authoritarianism, and that's if we're lucky and going to survive as a species.
posted by lalochezia at 4:46 PM on March 1, 2021 [4 favorites]
I think it's gonna be Fascism, though.
Have you seen the distance from this beautiful ideal to the way the world actually works? Imagine trying to get to a bottom-up nationless municipal socialist eco-confederalism from a world where:
- the preparedness of people to take part in these kind of discussions (!) in self governance and thus of big issues is poor (see our curent response to: covid, global warming, resource allocation, to name but 3)
- the thousand lies, disinformations, anti-evidence and nonsense that pervades society and are only fragmenting and getting more chaotic
-the naked short-term, short-distance self-interest that billions of people hold in their hearts and in the consumer culture that has been baked into the world
- the number of people utterly bound to magical thinking that exists in new gods (capitalism) and the old (see: most religions)
- the unjust privileges and existing historical power gradients that would distort any adoption of such a system; and the technology that is, on average, exacerbating these gradients
- and that's before I mention all the isms/unjust discriminations that infect us.
...any transition towards this kind of governance at scale (people's councils?) at a rate that would be effective before the world goes to shit in the next century...... would cause disintegration. Not in a good way.
It wouldn't become justice - it would be chaos, and not good chaos, ultimately a brief flash in the pan just before more misery for all, and throwing away one of our last chances to co-ordinate responses to terminal threats (global warming, resource allocation, etc) that will destroy our ecosystems and society and make such discussions....moot.
Nah. Fascism - or some form of authoritarianism it is. If it has to be this way, my vote's for eco-authoritarianism, and that's if we're lucky and going to survive as a species.
posted by lalochezia at 4:46 PM on March 1, 2021 [4 favorites]
Imagine trying to get to a bottom-up nationless municipal socialist eco-confederalism
I frequently do.
It involves punching Nazis. Occasionally literally, but more often - and more usefully - figuratively.
The thing about complete fuckwits is that their willingness to throw their weight around and make a tremendous racket has always led and will always lead to the impression that there are more of them than there actually are.
Fuckwits are and always have been a minority. That they've worked out how to use this fact to generate and stoke their sense of spurious grievance doesn't alter the fact that it is a fact. Neither does the fact that the inevitable presence of a fuckwit minority in every social group is the reason why no ideology based on unity and a sense of shared goals will ever be fit for purpose. Once the fuckwit minority figures out how the system is believed to work they'll apply as much bad faith as is necessary to game it. History is replete with examples.
The other thing history is replete with examples of is the fact that fuckwits have no idea what to do with power once they do manage to glom onto some. They rain down death and destruction on all (including themselves!) for a while, and in doing so they break the systems they've gamed to get themselves to where they are.
There are more decent, good-hearted people than fuckwits. Always have been, always will be, everywhere, everywhen. And whenever the fuckwits fuck up badly enough then we organize, we outnumber them, we come at them simultaneously from more directions than they can conceive of and we throw the fuckers out.
Never lasts, of course. Nothing does. But we can get quite a tremendous amount of useful and highly diverse work done while it does.
The Trump years were pretty much Peak Fuckwit, and I'm sensing an increasing tendency to get organized in various anti-fuckwit ways in most of the circles I move in. What about you?
posted by flabdablet at 5:29 PM on March 1, 2021 [9 favorites]
I frequently do.
It involves punching Nazis. Occasionally literally, but more often - and more usefully - figuratively.
The thing about complete fuckwits is that their willingness to throw their weight around and make a tremendous racket has always led and will always lead to the impression that there are more of them than there actually are.
Fuckwits are and always have been a minority. That they've worked out how to use this fact to generate and stoke their sense of spurious grievance doesn't alter the fact that it is a fact. Neither does the fact that the inevitable presence of a fuckwit minority in every social group is the reason why no ideology based on unity and a sense of shared goals will ever be fit for purpose. Once the fuckwit minority figures out how the system is believed to work they'll apply as much bad faith as is necessary to game it. History is replete with examples.
The other thing history is replete with examples of is the fact that fuckwits have no idea what to do with power once they do manage to glom onto some. They rain down death and destruction on all (including themselves!) for a while, and in doing so they break the systems they've gamed to get themselves to where they are.
There are more decent, good-hearted people than fuckwits. Always have been, always will be, everywhere, everywhen. And whenever the fuckwits fuck up badly enough then we organize, we outnumber them, we come at them simultaneously from more directions than they can conceive of and we throw the fuckers out.
Never lasts, of course. Nothing does. But we can get quite a tremendous amount of useful and highly diverse work done while it does.
The Trump years were pretty much Peak Fuckwit, and I'm sensing an increasing tendency to get organized in various anti-fuckwit ways in most of the circles I move in. What about you?
posted by flabdablet at 5:29 PM on March 1, 2021 [9 favorites]
Fascism? You're soaking in it. The only way out is to labour for a future in which the whole of existence is understood as a unity: Hear, Israel! Being is your god, Being is one!
posted by No Robots at 6:27 PM on March 1, 2021
posted by No Robots at 6:27 PM on March 1, 2021
I tell you what, the oppressors aren't going to like this one bit.
posted by Oyéah at 6:49 PM on March 1, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by Oyéah at 6:49 PM on March 1, 2021 [3 favorites]
EQUAL RIGHTS FOR OPPRESSORS is indeed the slogan of the present age.
posted by flabdablet at 6:55 PM on March 1, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by flabdablet at 6:55 PM on March 1, 2021 [4 favorites]
Say, Lalochezia, can you do to one thing in your neighborhood, and I'll do it in mine: ask your fascist who's seeking power if they're also seeking responsibility? It scares off most; maybe it scares 'em off and leaves a gap for more people in our neighborhood to take responsibility. For those it didn't scare off, it gives us checks and balances against the frauds who say they're seeking responsibility but, say, act as agents of foreign powers or give un-vetted contacts for millions to friends and business associates.
posted by k3ninho at 11:01 PM on March 1, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by k3ninho at 11:01 PM on March 1, 2021 [1 favorite]
This is hopeful, and we need hope. I imagine approaching the young woman who has become the face and voice of the anti-lockdown, anti-mask, anti-elected government/"mainstream media," anti-medical science movement in my part of the world. I imagine approaching this person, who tells any crowd that will gather and listen that the media is lying, the politicians are lying, the medical professionals are lying. I am going up to her and asking her if she is seeking responsibility. I mean, I want to be hopeful and I want to believe we've reached peak fuckwit but I also don't want to have irrational expectations.
It's a good piece and I've shared it.
posted by elkevelvet at 7:14 AM on March 2, 2021 [1 favorite]
It's a good piece and I've shared it.
posted by elkevelvet at 7:14 AM on March 2, 2021 [1 favorite]
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posted by No Robots at 1:27 PM on March 1, 2021 [1 favorite]