Back in early July, I indicated that I should probably read a book called, Manifesto For World Revolution. Well, I read it! Click this link if you would like to read my earlier coments. My blog posting, today, might be thought of as a kind of "book review," with some relevant political comparisons tossed into the mix.
The mentioned book is the product of Adbusters, the group that sponsored Occupy Wall Street. Adbusters also originated the "corporate flag" that is pictured above. The "Occupy" effort, way back in 2011, spread to places far from Wall Street itself, including my own home town of Santa Cruz, California. "Occupy" ended up being a worldwide movement, but it did not, in the final analysis, much change the world. This recent book, authored by Kalle Lasn, the founder of Adbusters, is more or less a "second try" at promoting significant and substantial social, political, and economic change - and the stakes are pretty high, the way Adbusters sees it. At least at the time I am writing this, the website maintained by the Adjusters Media Foundation is promoting the latest edition of its magazine, which it has titled, "Ten Years To Save The World."
Just ten years, and then it's "over and out." As I say, the stakes are pretty high.
Lasn, and Adbusters, believes that a "massive global breakdown is coming," and Lasn actually believes that "it has already started." There are no page numbers in the Adbusters' book, but those statements are right at the beginning, on what would be Page 2, if page numbering were employed. On what would be Page 5, the Manifesto For World Revolution calls for a "people's revolution," sparking "another global big bang moment like Occupy Wall Street," which will "gain so much momentum that nothing and no one can shut it down." The book, according to Lasn, is a "field guide to a new world order," which will stem from that "people's revolution" and that will establish a "new way to live, love and play on this planet." The power behind this effort, though, will apparently be "anger."
"Once you ... realize that [the] consumer, corpo-capitalist system we live in is by its very nature unethical," you will "start trusting yourself" and will relate to the world as "an empowered human being instead of a hapless consumer drone." That is the Adbusters' prediction.
It's all going to be very "spontaneous," the way Lasn and Adbusters see it. Armed with "metamemes," we will "rush into the streets and get the job done by the sheer power of enraged swarms of humanity howling for deliverance from a future that does not compute." This rage-driven and spontaneous movement will "spark the first ever global revolution and win the planetary endgame."
"I am about go give you the codes." Lasn says this is on what would be Page 16, if the pages were numbered. Then he asks, "Are you ready?"
Well, just to be clear, I do think that it is highly likely that a global breakdown is coming, and that this is already evident. Global warming and massive economic inequality are two significant driving forces (and not the only ones, of course). We - ordinary people - need to do something. Thus, I appreciate the very "positive" tone taken by Lasn and Adbusters, telling us that something can, indeed, be done. Something "good," which contrasts with what Donald Trump and MAGA are calling for. What Trump is calling for - also spontaneous, but relying more on our electoral system, bears a suspicious similarity to right-wing, populist fascism.
Anger, in both cases, is going to drive the revolution, however it turns out in the end - as "a new birth of freedom" or as a collapse into fascism.
I am not very much convinced that a paroxsym of rigthteous anger and rage, erupting suddenly, worldwide (or as manifesting itself in "Project 2025," now advocated by MAGA), will steer us into a safe harbor of a more positive and productive existence. I am glad for the enthusiasm I found in Manifesto For World Revolution (and I can't disagree, much, with the idea that it would be good to "make America Great Again," either, though I am near to certain that the Trump program is never going to get us there, and am absolutely certain that what the MAGA movement thinks is "great" is far from that).
In the end, to come to the end of this "book report," while I definitely believe that truly significant political, economic, and social changes are needed - and on an urgent basis - I am taken aback by the idea that "letting our anger out" is going to get us to the kind of changes we need. "Anger," as opposed to more positive emotions, like compassion and a commitment to human solidarity, seems contraindicated to me.
Incidentally, Jacobin, a Socialist magazine based in New York, has a 2013 article, titled, "Adbusted" that criticizes Adbusters, and reinforces my personal trepidation about the Adbusters formula for World revolution.
My advice continues to be that we need to "Organize," not trust in spontaneous, anger-driven activity (or in a former President who advertises his comeback campaign as "retribution").
And.... for what it's worth, I continue to think we all need to "find some friends," and then "organize" with them - with our friends.
To get energized, I am recommending Manifesto For World Revolution, not MAGA! And I don't want anyone to forget that "we are all in this together," and that "self-government" is only possible when we get involved in government ourselves.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for your comment!