Convenient truths, Canadian-made

READ IT by Bruce Mason

• Naomi Klein’s brilliant, best-selling This Changes Everything is doing just that – fundamentally altering how we think and act to save life on our planet. We ignore climate change at our own and future generations’ peril. Becoming aware of and motivated by what’s in this game-changing book is humanity’s most hopeful and essential resolution for 2015 – a do-or-die moment.

Find out all you need to know in this big, blue, door-stopper-size publication – arguably the most influential book of our times – or in the reviews, interviews and panel discussions all over the Internet.

Klein’s message and subtitle is Capitalism vs. the Climate. Her argument is so simple, logical and irrefutable, so indelibly etched in our DNA, that kindergarten kids get it. Forget everything you think you know about global warming, she says. It’s not about carbon; it’s about capitalism, unfettered and inconsistent with survival, an economic system predicated on infinite growth and endless, senseless, greedy exploitation of obviously limited resources.

What’s wrong with us? Why are we failing to address our annihilation? Klein says, “We are stuck because the actions that would give us the best chance of averting catastrophe – and benefit the vast majority – are threatening to an elite minority with a stranglehold over our economy, political process and media.”

The good news is we can transform this existential crisis into something almost unimaginably better, beyond socialism and assorted utopias. She writes, “Any attempt to rise to the climate challenge will be fruitless unless it is understood as part of a much broader battle of worldviews, a process of rebuilding and reinventing the very idea of the collective, the communal, the commons, the civil, and the civic after so many decades of attack and neglect.”

Climate change is above all a global alarm sounding in floods, storms, droughts and fire – including the streets of Ferguson – and obscene, almost unspeakable yet ubiquitous wars, inequality and injustice. This Changes Everything is a rallying cry to large numbers of those currently unengaged. Scaring people is “bullshit,” says Klein. “We need fear and hope in equal measure. We absolutely should be scared. But fear alone will not mobilize people or it will mobilize them in scary ways.”

We’ve all caught glimpses and Klein pieces these and more together in a convincing, exciting, inspiring, visionary weave of healing and reconstruction. A new ideology to fight for, to take the con out of economy, share what’s left, fuel the world by renewable energy, declare peace rather than war with the Earth and each other – ecology trumping economy, always.

A key to Klein is a wonderful word: “Blockadia.” Use it or lose what refers to fluid, dynamic networks and roving trans-national conflict zones cropping up with increasing frequency and intensity in places such as Burnaby Mountain. Head-on local opposition to extraction. Shouts of “No!” beyond borders and NIMBYism. It’s about much more than mere money, and so-called “good jobs.” As French anti-fracking activists say: “ni ici ni ailleurs” – neither here, nor elsewhere.”

Humans can be complicated, competitive, greedy and nasty when called upon by a distorted culture. But also kind, generous and compassionate, when need be. Our innate ability to put collective interest above narrow, financial self-interest is now challenged by an unprecedented responsibility – at once, a huge burden and honour. We can hide our heads in the sand, including tar sands, or under the blankets of a technological, distracted, virtual, unmindful and unfulfilled life.

Surely, to maximize our self-interest is to create a future for maximum benefit. This Changes Everything invites us to stop fiddling and to disrobe our free market “leaders” and their great trick and lie about being selfish, that by trying to directly help others, we hurt them.

One of Klein’s most powerful ideas is that acting on climate change will address old, long-denied injustices, including indigenous rights. John Ralston Saul – another high-profile, Canadian, public intellectual – has added his voice to this chorus, writing The Comeback. In this book, he argues passionately that we must embrace and support aboriginal peoples as the great issue of our time and address this essential missing relationship, central to the building and continued existence of Canada.

At press time, Common Ground learned about Kwe: Standing With our Sisters, a 100-page anthology edited by Joseph Boyden, featuring more than 50 contributors, including Margaret Atwood, Tom King, Michael Ondaatje, Saul and others. It is intended to raise awareness of the crisis facing Canada’s First Nations women. All proceeds from the sale will be donated to Amnesty International’s No More Stolen Sisters initiative. It is available in digital format ($2.99) via major online retailers and a limited edition print can be purchased for $10 from the Amnesty International Book Club (amnestybookclub.ca).

Our politicians and corporations aside, Canadians continue to walk the talk. Please share books you recommend as useful tools for making change and breaking the silence in 2015.

–

Bruce Mason is a Vancouver and Gabriola-Island based five-string banjo player, gardener, freelance writer and author of Our Clinic. brucemason@shaw.ca

The post Convenient truths, Canadian-made appeared first on Common Ground.