Monday 19 March 2007

Bipartisan Politics and the Green Mind

Why is it proven so difficult for individuals with an interest in the environment to avoid being tagged as being fringe-dwellers or eccentrics? And why have the green efforts that have been adopted been neutered so readily? At what point does 'buying into' the System become 'selling-out' to the System? [Or is it all just semantic hopefulness if the System, given its basic instincts and logic, proves that it can never be trusted??] Might it do the ecology movement more harm than good if the movement collectively embraced the virtues of patriotism, thereby depriving those who have been traditional less ecologically-minded of their soapbox. After all, what is better for our nation and those within than actually having a functioning planet to live on? Or would embracing patriotism risk simultaneously incorporating the more unsavory elements of nationalism into the environmental movement? After all, many of the problems currently being experienced in the environment are derived from the colonialism that occurred as part of the industrial capitalism in the late 18th century. [Not to say that the world was a verdant paradise before the first halting steps at primitive accumulation of capital and mercantile capitalism in the 18th and 19th centuries, but the commodification and proletariatization were more destructive a force on the collective psyche then any event either prior or since.]

It has been said that only fools fight in a burning building and, looking at current events, I do believe that we have been sleeping through the our wake-up call.

For more information about the cartoon, please see Rustle the Leaf.