November 18, 2016 - 18:03
-Explore difference between how ATWB and CWC answer the questions:
-Can change come from inside the system or if the system must be overthrown
-Where does the blame lie (people? Corporations? Government?) and what should be done to slow/stop climate change
-what can an individual do to make a difference?
-“For the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house. They may allow us to temporarily beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change.” –Audre Lorde
As The World Burns notes:
-Bunny burns down animal testing facility, seems to advocate for eco-terrorism/illegal actions to effect change
-“All we need to do is dismantle the industrial economy?”(7)
-“Or you could knock out the water supply to a factory. That would save a lot of energy, and water too!” (9)
-“We’re always told that the ‘solution’ to the ‘water crisis’ is that we should take shorter showers. But what we’re not so often told is that more than 90 percent of the water used by humans is not actually used by humans at all, but by agriculture and industry. And of the water used by cities, as much water is used for golf courses as is used by human beings” (20)
-“Instead of getting us to make these little lifestyle changes, why don’t you storm the vivisection labs and release the mousies? Why don’t you burn those places to the ground?” (34)
“But we can’t do anything about them. We can only do something about ourselves” “That’s what they want you to think.” (41)
-Using letters and petitions as heating and toilet paper, showing how system disregards the conventional means by which we are theoretically supposed to be able to make a difference (70)
-“You’ve been looking for solutions from people who are invested in the very way of life that’s destroying the planet in the first place. Addicted people. People who love power and things.” (145)
-“Recognize your real enemies: production, the system that requires constant expansion, the people in power who keep it running” (149)
-“Let go of your destructive culture and you’ll remember how to live with us, and how to be happy.” (155)
-“Don’t you get it? You can’t fight a machine.” (167)
-“So we’re going to use the master’s explosives to dismantle the master’s prison” (176)
-“That’s what we’re afraid of. The wild. Those we can’t buy. Those we can’t threaten. Those we can’t domesticate. Those we can’t control.” (181)
-“I’d rather die than quit this lifestyle.” (219)
-No hope for change, need to destroy and start over
-Advocates for overthrowing and destruction of whole system
-Portrays politicians and corporations as irredeemably evil
The Collapse of Western Civilization notes:
-“It is clear that in the early twenty-first century, immediate steps should have been taken to begin a transition to a zero-net carbon world.” (9)
-advocate for government intervention to reduce carbon emission
-the cause was people, and their patterns of conspicuous consumption.” (16)
-“Many Western intellectuals came to see everything associated with communism as evil, even—and crucially for out story – modest or necessary forms of intervention in the marketplace such as progressive taxation and environmental regulation” (42)
-“Lacking widespread support, government leaders were unable to shift the world economy to a net carbon-neutral energy base.” (45)
-The ultimate paradox was that neoliberalism, meant to ensure individual freedom above all, led eventually to a situation that necessitated large-scale government intervention.(48)
-We were taken down by our overconfidence in the system/market, and our denial as a whole country
-If we had cared and supported change, the government would have responded
-CWC says solution was more government, blame is on people, especially our faith in the free market and our denial that there were problems
-ATWB argues that our current systems are corrupt, solution is to overthrow them entirely and turn our focus back to nature