Essays by Eric Worrall
“…We need to leave the fossil fuel age behind quickly and decisively. But what drives our machines won’t change until we change what drives our ideas. …”
‘If you win the popular imagination, you change the game’: why we need new climate stories
There’s so much going on, both wonderful and terrible – and what matters is how we tell it. We can’t erase bad news, but ignoring good news is the path to apathy or despair
via Rebecca Solnit
Thursday, January 12, 2023 17.00 AEDTEvery crisis is part of a narrative crisis. This is as true of climate chaos as anything else. We are surrounded by stories that keep us from seeing, believing, or acting on the possibilities of change. Some are habits of the mind, some are industry propaganda. Sometimes the situation has changed but the stories have not, and people follow the old versions, like outdated maps, into dead ends.
We need to leave the fossil fuel age behind quickly and decisively. But what drives our machines won’t change until we change what drives our ideas. Not long ago, visionary organizer adrienne maree brown wrote that there is an element of science fiction to climate action: “We are shaping the future we expect but have not yet. be experienced. I believe we are in a battle of the imagination.”
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To change our relationship with the physical world – ending the era of profligate consumption by the few with consequences for the many – means change the way we think about almost everything: wealth, strength, joy, time, space, nature, values, what makes a good life, what is important, how the change itself takes place. …
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There is another story that has persisted at least since the invention of the compact fluorescent light bulb and the Toyota Prius: that we had to give up abundance and enter an age of austerity. It’s all in the telling. To consider our age to be the age of affluence, you must count the absolute accumulative and ignore how it is distributed. That is, we live in times of extreme wealth for some and despair for many. But there is another way to measure wealth and abundance – like hope for the future, public safety and trust, emotional well-being, love and friendship, and lasting social relationships. , meaningful work and a life of purpose, equality, justice and inclusion.
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I think what the author is trying to say is if we accept climate communism, can we feel better about having our belongings redistributed?
I think I’ll keep my toys. If the poor want their own toys, they should get their ass up and work for them.
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