This Is Your Green Captain: We Are Going Down.

53
0

GREEN POLITICS has never been about business-as-usual. Green politics has always been about the salvation of the planet and the reclamation of the human soul from the talons of the Capitalist death-machine. To reduce Green politics to mere environmentalism is to betray a complete misunderstanding of its raison d’être.

Sadly and predictably, however, that is exactly what the majority of New Zealand’s political commentators are doing. They are heaping their praise upon the Green caucus for taking the party back-to-basics with wonderful new policies about re-cycling car tyres and paying ten bucks to whoever before dumping your rubbish.

As if New Zealanders (or, at least, those New Zealanders with a still-functioning brain) aren’t aware that even if the entire nation voluntarily reverted to a stone-age existence, then the rest of the planet would struggle to measure the environmental impact of its sacrifice. New Zealand’s contribution to Anthropogenic Global Warming, by way of CO2 and Methane emissions, comes in at approximately 1 percent of the total. So the best we could hope for, capitalist-death-machine-wise, is to maybe knock just a tiny chip or two off its talons. Nothing more.

This is, of course, a huge problem for the Greens. No matter how loudly they trumpet their latest round of “concessions” from Labour and NZ First, in their heart-of-hearts they know they’re not making the slightest difference to the pace and extent of what is looking more-and-more like runaway climate change.

Alright! Alright! Calm down! I know it’s probably better to do something than nothing. But, really, isn’t that all about polishing our armour before riding out to certain death? We’re not going to win, but hey, at least, we’ll look suitably heroic as we lose!

Except, the self-inflicted psychic violence required for this political strategy to work will very quickly destroy the Green Party. If “being in government” means accepting that climate change will continue to run amok before their helpless eyes, while in caucus-room and cabinet committee they argue about whether or not to exclude methane from the greenhouse gasses the agricultural sector should be expected to pay for, then, seriously, they’re nuts. Pretending white is black and up is down is injurious to people’s physical and emotional health. A political party which willingly engages in such Orwellian “doublethink” is bound to become very sick, very fast.

Before you know it, they’ll be attempting to rehabilitate the word “cunt”.

TDB Recommends NewzEngine.com

Or, failing to understand the need for legislation designed to keep every member of the Green Party’s caucus focused on how best to address the looming climatic apocalypse. Tender consciences should alight from the bus immediately.

Far from striving to remain in government, the Greens should be taking themselves out of it. By all means vote down every attempt by the National Party and Act to unseat the Labour-NZ First coalition, but don’t dissipate your energies in an unseemly scramble for a handful of sticky crumbs. Those New Zealanders who understand how serious the threat of runaway climate change has become want to know that the Greens get it too.

There’s a chilling track from Laurie Anderson’s Big Science album in which the lines “This is your captain /We are going down” are repeated over and over. That’s what it feels like now, whenever we read the latest grim findings from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. “We are going down.” When we study photographs of vast holes in the Siberian tundra caused by the explosive release of tons of methane gas: gas trapped for thousands of years beneath the frozen soil; soil which is relentlessly thawing. “This is your captain /We are going down.”

What the Greens need to be telling us, both here and all over the planet, is how humanity can rush the cockpit, seize the plane’s controls and pull it out of its current death-dive. Does that amount to a revolution? Of course it does! How could it not? Is there any truly sentient individual who doesn’t believe that only a global revolution in the way human-beings interact with this planet’s biosphere can save them – along with the tens-of-thousands of other species threatened by rapidly rising global temperatures?

A Green Party bent on saving the planet cannot be satisfied with a mere 5 percent of the votes. It’s target must be 99 percent. No deals, no coalitions, no memorandums of understanding: nothing less than complete control of humanity’s stricken aircraft.

What does that mean for a tiny country at the bottom of the world? It means remaining clear and consistent. It means waiting for people to hear through all the static the Greens’ uncompromising message. It means transforming this country into a megaphone of sufficient volume to reach the ears of every human-being ready to listen. It means turning New Zealand into the home of a Green “Comintern”. A place to which people come to receive the message of planetary salvation and the soul’s reclamation, and then head back out to spread it to everyone who is willing to listen.

With every passing year, the number of willing listeners will grow. It’s a race now, between humanity in the cockpit fighting to prise capitalism’s hands from the controls – and the ground.

This is your Green captain …..

53 COMMENTS

  1. Only an accident , a financial meltdown collapsing the economy so that no one can buy fuel, and industry grinds to a halt , a global war having the same effect, or some natural global catastrophe reversing the greenhouse effect will slow Global Warming.
    The Greens like everyone else are looking in other directions, reversing climate change is in the “too hard” basket.

    http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/50050.htm

    D J S

    • There’s only ever been a couple of political figures Iv been interested in from New Zealand, one was Michael Joseph Savage, the other Billy T James because politics is like wading through a mud swamp and we need guys who can shock the system and change it and to change New Zealand’s idea of itself, that we can have another rugby World Cup, that we can have a hundred years of the Americas cup, that we can causally fight climate change and immigration and terrorism on weekdays. That’s what these personalities do. They make the hard look easy. Labour and National are heavily overloaded and there’s a lot of hands on the throttle pushing it off the runway. A lot of corporate hands on the throttle pushing us forward. We can no longer allow corporate interests to hide in the woods when thing fuck up in the bilateralism of New Zealand public life. We are never quite sure of what we are doing and all of a sudden powerful people use the power of the state to shift things. When we change New Zealand’s idea of its self we change the country and we change the direction.

      New Zealand is a post colonial outpost with all the glue of the Anglo sphere hanging off us. By differentiating New Zealand from the white Australia policies we missed the marginalisation of South Africa and the worst bit of white flight / segregation, we missed it by seconds. That change in world view and that shift in policy domestically and the big post war programmes domestically, the housing and health was so important to every one. The right to a secondary education and a tertiary one, the right to technical training. But the whole range, rights for woman, two of the most powerful positions in NZ are held by woman, 2018 rugby person of the year is a woman, that’s across all rugby codes. AUTs female STEMs programme, NZDF science person of the year is female. So dowsing the contributions woman make with vagina smoothies at all.

      We’ve got central wage fixing and unions are weak, no one knows what to do about that. And I don’t think we should take advice from losers like Marama Fox and Russel Brown, the cabinet craft is not the from Jacinda’s to English or Keys. There’s a major shift in foreign policy and we can’t burn any bridges. The common responsibilities of each MP on the whole programme or at each stage of the debate, discussion or each issue is profoundly different across the board with each changing MP. But the fact that John Key was a little John Howard with half the skill and a lot of ambition to change things but the National Party had forgotten how to change things. John Keys had forgotten his position on the Spring bokke tour so like a little John Howard New Zealand missed white Australia by seconds because Key forgot how to do it. And now we have a bureaucracy that doesn’t know how to produce wealth naturally, human capital is like some sort of Ebola virus to government. Green Party members see vagina smoothies everywhere. Post 2008 financial crises the government floundered trying to figure out how to restart the engines.

  2. I agree. I hate to agree but I do agree.
    That’s why I suggested to Julie Anne Genter once that the Green Party needs to go get our farmers, all of them. Lead them away from the Natzo scum. From vegetable growers to cowsploiters, get them over to the sustainable side of the Death Star that our planet’s doomed to become.
    We fucking need to eat. And we city people would be entirely fucked without a reliable supply of foods despite being pimped out by the greedy, rapacious supermarket cartels. $29.00 a kg-for-free-range-chicken-supermarkets FFS! A whole fat lamb is expected to bring in $30.00 for the farmer this season!
    The Green Party should be the farmers party primarily. Farmers are in dire need of being allowed to be sustainable and to farm within the natural capabilities of their operations without being debt forced into spraying cancer-causing chemicals that YOU eventually consume. Bowel cancer anyone? Not to mention the artificial fertiliser and unnecessary water consumption needed to intensive factory-farm FOR THE FOREIGN OWNED BANKS ! Whether it be dairy, beef, sheep, vegetables, wine, fish, forestry and one day hopefully, cannabis too etc.
    Farmers must be allowed safe anchorage away from the foreign bankster criminals and deviant local traitors who were once farmers who sold out their comrades but who are now simply rich old men desperately clinging onto their secret swindles.
    I will go so far as to say; we’re in deep trouble. If agriulture is allowed to crumble? We’re all fucked.

    • City slickers are too busy shopping and chatting via online social media through their smart phones. Sorry, busy, far too busy to think about farmers and food, it comes from the supermarket anyway, I am ‘safe’ there, am I not? I just like my urban liberal lifestyle, and I do NOT want to get my own hands dirty, I am used to push buttons and keyboards, they are clean and nice and easy to control.

  3. Well Chris, so many ‘issues’!

    1. More than 30 years ago climate change was scientifically identified as being a potential threat to civilisation. Rather than take appropriate measure to mitigate the threat, governments promoted polices (increased population and increased consumption) that exacerbated the predicament. And they still do.

    2. The fossil fuel sector poured millions upon millions of dollars into promulgating misinformation, in order to keep the general populace confused or in denial and consuming.

    3. The mainstream media ignored the issue of planetary meltdown or down-played it. A large sector of the general populace remains ignorant, confused or in denial.

    4. The banks and corporations that effectively run the show ignore the damage they cause and continue to make matters worse.

    5. Many years ago the NZ Green party decided that getting elected was more important than speaking publicly about the biggest ‘elephants in the room’ or having policies that made scientific sense. They promoted (and still promote) the ridiculous notion that we can select the parts of industrial civilisation that suit us whilst at the same time ‘saving the planet’.

    So, here we are in 2018, with catastrophic trends everywhere; California in drought and on fire, British Columbia in drought and on fire, New South Wales in unprecedented drought and the rural economy collapsing (and a forecast of drier than normal over the next 3 months), unprecedented flooding and heatwaves around the world, and the jet streams disrupted as a consequence of overheating of the Arctic region:

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/aug/20/summer-weather-is-getting-stuck-due-to-arctic-warming

    Yes, ‘we are going down’, rather fast in fact. And almost certainly accelerating as a consequence of climate feedbacks (less ice -more area to absorb heat; more drought and tees on fire =less photosynthesis etc.).

    However, I’m not holding my breath for the Green party to do anything worthwhile to reduce the speed of our descent or to prepare the nation for the very hard landing that is an inevitable consequence of decades of ignoring the evidence.

    ‘Feel good’ propaganda reins supreme (for the moment).

    • The Greens will not dare present the full inconvenient truth to their potential voters in mostly nice urban suburbs and centres, as that will only stir up so much fear and insecurity, people would not vote for them.

      Greenwashing sells much better, so they will stick to that, wait and see.

  4. Perhaps the revolution has to come from outside politics altogether, and the Greens should stay in government to do their bit for the cause

  5. Alright! Alright! Calm down! I know it’s probably better to do something than nothing. But, really, isn’t that all about polishing our armour before riding out to certain death? We’re not going to win, but hey, at least, we’ll look suitably heroic as we lose!

    What a load of tosh.

    New Zealand, being a small country with a small population and surrounded by waters in one of the few countries in the world that may actually survive the coming Extinction Event that has been brought about by capitalism. But even then we need to set ourselves up for it.

    Setting ourselves up for it is going to mean the recycling and manufacture of everything we use.

    You’re entire rant is nothing more than an anti-Green smear.

    Have you been picking up pointers from Hooton?

  6. It ain’t necessary or even smart for the NZ Greens to try and save the world, that would be clearly impossible.
    Unobtainable aspiration is a road to nowhere (hello predator free by 2050) and a signal of who not to vote for.

    What the greens have to aim to do is make New Zealand a shining example of how a western democracy can become a green economy with reduced emissions clean energy and environmental protection.
    So what if we are 1 percent of emissions, show the big polluters how we can get our own industries in order and still pay the bills.

    Reclaiming the c word and green lighting water extraction for foreigners are bafflingly stupid if there is any shared green goal of environmental betterment.(is there?)

    • We don’t need the Greens, hell we don’t need any political party, we’ve got Mike Hosking, the great messiah!

  7. Actually for the Greens to in effect abdicate the responsibility of seriously addressing this issue and focus on the social trivia they are doing , is more than just failing . The Greens have identified themselves as the environmental protection party. It basically means that they occupy that political space, and it makes it very difficult for any other group to set up and replace them in that role. If as they are doing they fail to address the issue seriously they have prevented it from being addressed. They have grabbed the ball and kicked it for touch instead of running with it. Or perhaps they have taken their talent and buried it. If they don’t do as Chris suggests they might be more responsible for the disaster than anyone.
    D J S

    • To take this a step further, what has happened of corse , is that the present hierarchy of the Greens have cynically co-opted the real and ever more urgent environmental public concern to push a range of different unrelated and infinitely less important personal agendas . Starting with Sue Bradford.
      D J S

      • Paralysis through analysis and infighting in the Greens has been with them from the from the beginning, especially in Green parties abroad. Being negative capitalism is who the Greens and pro weak and downtrodden is who the Greens are. So when The Greens and its members are so against the system, it won’t matter what system they are against, the system will give them nothing in return. There are a lot of opportunists in the Green Party and its membership, but there are a lot more opportunists on the left with average ideas but no clue on how to execute anything. Draco T Bastard is one that pops into mind with his constant need for 2000 conventional ballistic missile screen and he claims it’s possible if every one just listen to him. I mean how stupid could one get, and you can go down the list of really stupid far left ideas who come from really well meaning and kind places, fundamentally. They just have no clue about the nature of power the wish to control.

  8. TOP could be the Green Party killer .. and that might not be such a bad thing.

    I don’t care to muse over the Green’s political shortcomings, I’d rather they all just fade away.

  9. Ha ha, the ‘Greens’ should be saying F**K IT! Rather than the ‘c’ word at this stage.

    The picture at the top of the page tells you everything. Civilization is a death machine.

  10. So a few mornings ago , my daughter, who has two young children, rings me up sobbing because she’s just read some terrifying article about the imminence of climate catastrophe, she’s read Cormac McCarthy’s post apocalyptic
    “The Road” and she says, barely able to speak through her tears”how do we live, what can we do, its a juggernaut hurtling down the road towards us, and am I going to be defending our last cans of food while society breaks down all around us”
    She’s terrified for her kids
    All I can say is lame stuff, make good choices, dont consume mindlessly, be staunch about your values, get the kids out in to nature, lobby govt, savour the time you have
    So, people, what do you say to your kids?
    All suggestions most welcome

    • Francesca I advised one of my offspring to have their littlies learn martial arts. Probably Mandarin too. They are already quite good on sustainable living, growing food etc and enjoy it; have an urban stream running through their property – which someone else could dam further up.

      Your idea of lobbying govt on specific environmental issues is a good one and I’ll do that, because if nothing else it lets them know that voters are seriously concerned about issues which they may be pussyfooting round about. Making OIA requests is quite an effective way to get some focus on a specific issue.

      Be staunch about your values is good too, so thank you for that.

      • Thanks Christine
        Yes, the ability to defend oneself is a survival necessity, and allows a quiet confidence , you’re right , a good skill.
        Being staunch about ones values enables others to come out of the closet as well, rather than cringing away in fear of being mocked or cast out
        Interested in the OIA angle, will look into how its done
        Thanks again, most appreciated

        • There’s an organisation in NZ and elsewhere that for many years has encouraged it’s members to store enough dry grains and durable foods in lever lid tins and other sealable receptacles to keep their family alive for at least 12 months. That and the sense to keep this plan quiet are about the only things I agree with in this organisation’s strategy . It is a thought.
          D J S

        • Side note: the vast majority of self defence instructors while useful as a whole for teaching discipline are actually next to useless for teaching self defence, particularly for girls. So if I’m being pinched or kicked I don’t really care because I can run away. I’m not going to be drawn into some useless engagement because some one is bored. But if some one grabs me then Iv got to know how to break a hold then escape and evade. And for the girls learning ju jitsu, breaking a hold from a ground position, stand, then escap and evade is self defence. If a life is not on the line then it’s just play fighting. A bit of entertainment for the masses. Doesn’t matter really unless there’s a life on e line.

    • With out Trump sharemarkets are worthless. Before Trump came along sharemarkets where in free fall. Take Trumo out and there’s a reckoning coming only this time from higher heights than 2008. So in about 5 to 50 years there will be this period of reckoning where every one will have to revaluate how society functions from the ground up because the sharemarkets are at all time highs and that wealth clearly has little to do with the productive engines of society.

  11. “To reduce Green politics to mere environmentalism is to betray a complete misunderstanding of its raison d’être.”

    This sentence is really the crux of the article.

    Greens’ as a brand that connotes love of the environment and Chris subverts the existential truth of the “Greens” label and redefines to be “Green” is a mere part of the whole. The whole is the acceptance of extreme left-wing ideology. If don’t consume your identity to this Marxist-environmental nexus, you are not only a heretic but a person less worthy.

    Contrary to Chris’s belief that the love of the environment and extreme-wing ideology are natural bedfellows; the worst environmental vandals were left-wing ideologues as well ideological agnostics. There is no intrinsic link.

    Co-opting of the environment as a cover for extreme left wing ideology continues.

  12. My dad was stationed in Fiji during WW2. He remembers interminable boredom as being the most difficult thing to deal with. He also terribly missed frosty Southland mornings. My father and I agreed to disagree on that one.
    A story he told me once was of a fellow soldier becoming very nervous at the spectre of the beastly ‘Jap’ coming around and doing unmentionable things to their nether regions, as was the propaganda of the day when my father said ” Don’t worry. They’ll die laughing on the beach once they see us lot.” A bunch of knobby kneed kids in scratchy woollen uniforms parading up and down under a tropical sun.
    My dad and his army had guns but no bullets. They’d cut down trees to arrange as if they were cannon under tarps. Ooooh! Scary, Mr Japanese Person.
    To die laughing is something that’s appealed to me ever since. I, of course had to tweak it up a little to wish to die laughing while having sex. What a way to go!
    We must remember to cultivate a certain bon vivant approach here. If not? We’re likely to attract that which we fear the most.
    Stop worrying and make fruity sexy times with your lover.
    Buy a second hand funky something that makes you happy.
    Walk a dog. You don’t have a dog? What!? Are you mad? Dogs are wondrous beasties. They love you and you love them and they protect you and comfort you. A life without a dog would be an awful thing. So go and rescue one now!
    Grow a potato. I know. Doesn’t seem like a work of art does it? No. But when you cook and eat it… It sustains you. Have you read ‘The Poor Mouth’ by Flan O’Brian?
    To eat that which you grow is awesome. Even for the most elite and elegant of you creatures who prefer to deny that they must wipe their arse like the rest of us. Unless, they have someone else to do that for them. ( That was a thing ) In that case, they’re a lost cause so who gives a fuck, I think the term is?I hope it wasn’t a funny fuck. What a waste when dying is likely on the cards for the poor bastards anyway.
    We The Daily Blogger-philes must be vary wary of becoming that which we hate the most. To live in fear. To hope for better times, when the best of times is likely upon us. We must remember to be kind to ourselves, and each other, despite the best efforts of other fuckers.
    It’s about now, that we put on loud music, pat the dog and smoke a joint. Go on! You’ve got my permission. My most recent fav’ is Club Des Belugas. Thanks Youtube x

  13. Live each day as if it is your last.

    Prepare for the ‘very difficult’ times that will be upon us in the near future.

    Grow fruits, nuts and vegetables (if you can’t you are in the wrong place).

    Walk, cycle, play music, play games, dance and sing.

    Disengage from the bullshit machine of mainstream culture.

    Watch the greatest films of all time while you still have the opportunity -especially the joyful ones like ‘Singing in the Rain’.

    Don’t look to politicians, mayors, councillors or councils for salvation or solutions. They have none. They are there to maintain business-as-usual for as long as possible, and business-as-usual is what got us into this mess and what is making this mess worse by the day.

    Keep an eye on key factors so you have some idea what to expect, even if the timing is uncertain.

    ‘The oldest and thickest sea ice in the Arctic has started to break up, opening waters north of Greenland that are normally frozen, even in summer.

    This phenomenon – which has never been recorded before – has occurred twice this year due to warm winds and a climate-change driven heatwave in the northern hemisphere.’

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/21/arctics-strongest-sea-ice-breaks-up-for-first-time-on-record

  14. With all this said, Chris, trouble is, the electorate appears to see little urgency in voting for a party that would rush into the cockpit to avoid the worst. Most are ‘green’ only in words, not so in action. Even those who say they like cycling, they put the bike into their SUV, drive to a park, and then cycle a bit.

    Those that now use multi use shopping bags, they do drive to the supermarket in their cars, all contributing to climate change.

    People are not seeing the urgency, so even if the Greens would push harder and try to get votes, they will not get above the roughly ten percent of ALL votes at best, given the present lack of ‘awareness’ and ‘urgency’ among the population out there.

    People are locked into lifestyles and personal ‘investments’ they will NOT want to lose, those are mostly middle class people living in suburbia, many continuing their quarter acre, two car household, mow the lawns on the weekend, drive to the mall and consume and waste as usual lifestyles.

    Urgency would look something different, an urgency for change that is, we have not even sorted which plastic bags will be banned as of next year, and which ones not.

    We allow water being exported in PLASTIC bottles, we use plastic every where, we use fossil fuel everywhere every day, much of it is used for moving vehicles, much for making stuff we use, much is used for heating homes, and the list goes on.

    It will be too late, billions will die in droughts, floods, storms, due to lack of food as harvests fail, due to heatwaves and so much more.

    The thousands fleeing Africa over the Mediterranean into Europe are just the beginning, wait until the real disaster will hit, even New Zealand will be reached and swamped by thousands or tens of thousands of climate refugees, the first hundreds of thousands will come from Australia, once it gets so hot and dry there, it will be impossible to live there.

    Wake up, idiots, wake up, all over the globe, but nobody does, too late.

    • In 2014 I gave up trying to wake people up to the reality of resource depletion and environmental collapse, and gave up trying to get sane policies implemented at central government and local government level.

      One of the prime reasons for attempting to engage with the local council was because the responses I had received from Wellington demonstrated scientific illiteracy and ineptitude. Sadly, the local council were no better, and in many respects were worse -actually prepared to breach NZ Statutes in order to promote unsustainability. That absolute determination to promote rapid destruction of the future still applies, of course.

      Back in 2011 I recognised (and wrote in the last book I bothered writing about these civilisation-destroying and life-threatening matters) that ‘people tend to ignore alarms’, and that is particularly true if they are told by a person ‘in authority’ to ignore them.

      Ten years before that I had worked out that only when a crisis occurs do people leave their comfort zones.

      So here we are in 2018, still stuck on the a ‘Titanic’ (that I alluded to in a book written in 2001), with alarms going off everywhere but with the ‘captain’ still insisting on full speed ahead, even though we have ‘hit the iceberg’ and are sinking. And if we ‘make too much trouble’ we will be locked up.

      Dismal, isn’t it?

      No one can say how much longer the global economic system will hold together -remembering that it is totally dependent on the stability of the environment. If it rains in certain parts of the world the economic system may stagger on for another few years. If it doesn’t rain in certain parts of the world the global economic system will almost certainly collapse within a year.

      http://www.bom.gov.au/jsp/awap/rain/index.jsp?colour=colour&time=latest&step=0&map=percent&period=3month&area=nat

      • But, but, last time I went to the nice supermarket, all the shelves were filled to the top with all these nice goodies, from NZ, Australia and other countries of origin (some not defined).

        Surely, it cannot be, that this due to some climate change supply issues may arise.

        Our Consumerism Cargo Cult God or Goddess who blesses us with all these goodies must have more where that came from, that is the stuff I saw on the shelves.

        Surely, the milk cannot be made by cows, can it? Surely the butter, cheese, certainly spread, flour, bread and so forth come from a well supplied factory somewhere, always supplied by stuff they need to make end products.

        Do not disappoint me, do not destroy my faith, we live in wonderful times, are blessed and have higher living standards than we ever had before.

        This must be ‘maintained’, kept going, or I may die in despair.

  15. And what if none of this global warming hypothesis is true? What if they got the math right for their models but all their underlying assumptions were wrong? How about checking the real facts first?

    FACTS: Part 1: Climate Change
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HntrGv_d8XU

    Who the hell would dare challenge the mainstream consensus?

    FACTS: Part 2: Who the heck are you?
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpImPL61R4s

    How is that the IPCC got the science of the climate and suns role in driving it so wrong?

    FACTS: Part 3: Climate Coupling
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m71uQPhwhTk

    Want more facts with references checkout the book the Weatherman’s Guide to the Sun https://otf.selz.com

    What if the real reasons for the climate chaos was worse than current assumptions? Worse simply because there is nothing we can do about the earths magnetic poles reversing and our fading magnetic shield letting in more and more solar and cosmic ray energy?

    Where are we and where are we going?
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hilN8eNp930&list=PLHSoxioQtwZcm9KdHf_n8WsF2IFB4FVvq

    What if the Greens got their shit together to understand the real independent science and the very real terrible future humanity is heading into? This terrible climate chaos future requires humanity to adapt to our planets ever changing rhythms driven by the sun and fully embrace what it means to be human on a small rock buffeted by solar and cosmic forces beyond our control. This would require humility, solidarity and creativity to adapt as individuals and a society to the very real world consequences of the forces that sustain us on a very fragile planet. But will you wake for pitys sake?

  16. “What does that mean for a tiny country at the bottom of the world? It means remaining clear and consistent. It means waiting for people to hear through all the static the Greens’ uncompromising message.”

    Perhaps…but given the response to date and human beings capacity for self delusion AND the critical issue of time is even that a viable strategy? I’d suggest not.

    As the Captain said…we are going down, regardless

  17. I would wish the Greens to adopt a more socialist stance, but surely you wouldn’t suggest that any other party in current existence has the balls to assume that role?

  18. I remember how acid I felt when after an election 4 years ago a North American political commentator presented with passion his true revelation the Greens should move to the centre to pivot their best strength. The Greens being the only practical Left option, given … Labour. A man who doesn’t know where the heart of NZ lies.

    Bravissimo, Chris. If there were any sense in the world, or , at least , salesmanship from anyone but Briscoe’s, we’d be in War Cabinet mode. Yet the Ozzies make a move from the ridiculous Right, which would make them and America and Northern Ireland in the same mental lot in the Anglo world. God help us, and I don’t believe in that burp of the ego.

  19. And Chris, what do you think of the public service strikes that could break Labour’s budget restriction rules, now you’re free. Martyn isna keen.

  20. ….’The failure to act to ameliorate global warming exposes the myth of human progress and the illusion that we are rational creatures. We ignore the wisdom of the past and the stark scientific facts before us. We are entranced by electronic hallucinations and burlesque acts, including those emanating from the centers of power, and this ensures our doom. Speak this unpleasant truth and you are condemned by much of society. The mania for hope and magical thinking is as seductive in the Industrial Age as it was in pre-modern societies.’…

    ‘Saying Goodbye to Planet Earth’

    https://www.truthdig.com/articles/saying-goodbye-to-planet-earth/

    • Instead of welcoming millions of consumerist tourists adding to the pollution and other issues there are already in NZ, the people in NZ should ready themselves to become somewhat independent of the global economy, also learn to grow your own food, to make your own clothes and other essential items, and to arm themselves, and participate in militia type local exercises, preparing for not so friendly forces come and try and take hold here, as refugees from wherever due to climate change, due to war and worse.

      Those believing all can be contained some how, that is the fall out of the disaster that is looming, are fooling themselves. You will not be able to house and shelter the millions of climate refugees, of war refugees, or disaster refugees in this little land, you have to prepare to fight for every bit of land and resource here, or you will be dragged down into self destruction.

      So get some survival training, organise yourselves, and connect at the same time with like minded people overseas, to prepare for the worst, and stop the madness carry on, if that is at all possible.

  21. The reason why the Left fails to get traction time and time again, is because we focus on politics to the exclusion of Socialist economics. We simply don’t understand how Capitalism works, and for that matter, we have no real clue how to (re)create a Socialist society.

    If we did understand economics, we would know that the Greens could focus entirely on ecological issues to the exclusion of all else, and thereby do more to end Capitalism in a year than they’ve accomplished in their entire history.

    Capitalism relies for a large part of its profits on the externalisation of its waste and inefficiency. If it had to pay for its own waste and cleaning up its own messes, it would not be able to afford to feed all of those useless mouths they call shareholders. The only way to run a technological society that did not destroy the environment and flood our planet with plastic consumer crap would be through worker owned factories and public ownership.

    Before you can dismantle an existing system, you have to be able to understand it, otherwise you risk pulling it down on top of yourself. Even then, if you survive that, you must understand how to replace it with a new and better one. We are completely incapable of doing either thing. Hence why the great mass of the working class does not trust the cognoscenti of the Left, and won’t put us in charge, in anything more than a strictly limited capacity.

    • Yes and no, as the major problem is the global system we are to firmly entwined in, we cannot simply opt out as a small nation and economy, without some MAJOR disruption for people living here. Most people may not understand that, but sense that, so they act in a very fearful and apprehensive manner when presented alternatives that do not offer enough in detail.

      They sense that sacrifices may be needed, even cutting back on their present lifestyle and investments in that and so forth. Expect a quarter acre section occupant and owner with a home overvalued due to speculation, with a two car household, all tied into the system as it is, to sign off on much of what they have to be taken away from them, you will find STIFF opposition.

      As for the working class, or the precariat, or what is left of it, they are also so afraid of losing that bit they have invested in, as consumerist workers, they dread having to pay more for goods, having to sacrifice parts of lifestyle and leisure, even if it comes to plastic bags and the likes.

      Nobody but a few seems really informed and committed at the same time for REAL change, that is why this government carries on as usual, and is as useless as usual as most governments have been for decades.

      There is cowardice all over, and all are basically waiting for others overseas to do the change first, so they can as usual follow as loyal sheeples the latest trend and fad from overseas, to adjust to it, and feel ‘cool’ about it also.

      NZers are simply not up to it, not willing for real change, and rather follow than lead, that is the truth, like it or not.

Comments are closed.