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Predatory Oligarchy is the Main Agent of the Global Crisis Aug 30, 2008 (8 of 9 found this helpful)
First of all, this is not a book about envy and "sour grapes." That is not it at all. The global ruling class is the essential factor in the environmental crisis because: 1) it establishes a horrible model of conspicuous consumption that lower classes in their own country and around the world feel compelled to imitate, and 2) because they directly control the levers of economic and political power that allow them to maintain this inequality. You could also argue that their horrible moral and ethical standards rot the entire society, but that would be another book...
I feel fortunate that I found this book. The strident title almost made me dismiss it as a probably poorly reasoned (and poorly written) sidewalk leftist polemic. Instead, I found perhaps the most comprehensive and best reasoned summation of the current world crisis that I have yet seen. The only works that I have read that come close to this level are by Noam Chomsky, but this one goes even further. The way that the author shows all the interconnections of the major ecological crises , then does the same with the economic sphere, and then goes on to show the relationship between the two is a marvel of synthesis. It is so well reasoned and researched that I repeatly found myself saying to myself, "I wish that I had written this!"
One reason that I compare this work with Chomsky's is that it makes me just as mad (at neoliberalism and the oligarchy) as does his. At moments I indeed felt physically ill. Unless you are totally cynically numb and soul-dead it would have to. And while the author gives reasons for possible optomism I just can't buy into it. The oligarchy is too entrenched, the ecological situation is too close to tipping over into collapse. The only optimism that I could generate was a sense of satisfaction that the rich and their lackies will not be able to insulated themselves forever from the hell and holocaust they have created. Forgive me for sounding pessimistic, but a lifetime in the working class has taught me that even if the oligarchs at the top are liquidated there is an infinate number of the ambitious and sociopathic at the bottom to take their places... This is the case of an entire civilization that has become cancer and who may very well kill off the host planet that they feed upon- in this coming century. Do not delude yourself into thinking that this is just one more period of crisis like all those in the past. Never before have we exceeded the planet's carrying capacity- this is not business as usual.
"If there is no justice, what are kingdoms, if not vast hold-ups?" -- Saint Augustine
What indeed, what indeed...
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a powerful indictment of the super-rich Sep 1, 2008 (5 of 5 found this helpful)
No question, this is a very significant book, one that needs to be read by anyone who is concerned about what our children and grandchildren's future will look like. Herve Kempf, the environmental editor at Le Monde for many years, draws attention in this book to the issues the economists have fundamentally ignored, ie, that a sustainable future is predicated upon social transformation, which must precede any return to ecological balance on this earth. Solving the social and environmental crises can only happen by disrupting the power of the global oligarchs, the hyper-rich along with their political lackeys.
The greatest obstacle to any sustainable future is the uncontrolled pursuit of redundant wealth by the oligarchs. By diffusing this ideology of waste via the imitation of their lifestyles by the middle classes, our social systems cannot change trajectories. According to Kempf, the 3 preconceived notions that are blocking transformation are:
a) the belief in growth as the best way for resolving social problems;
b) that technological progress will resolve environmental problems;
c) that chronic unemployment is an inevitability.
He maintains that these all-powerful oligarchs want to delete the democratic process - the War on Terrorism has duly shown how this is being achieved. In other words, Capitalism no longer needs Democracy.
Mr. Kempf believes the global oligarchy could become divided by the power of the system itself (if the socially conscious part of this oligarchy and the middle class take the side for public freedom and the common good); and also if the mass media reorients towards freedom and "the left" becomes "reborn". This vague but hopeful optimism, that the grave social inequities and ecological degradations of our time will reverse through transformations of awareness, is based upon the never-seen-before phase of human history we are now traversing.
Because of this awareness, solutions can and are emerging, and "the desire to remake the world is being reborn". For our sakes, and for those coming up behind, let us hope that Mr. Kempf's optimistic and forceful words will prevail.
Highly recommended reading.
The Cloud Reckoner
Extracts: A Field Guide for Iconoclasts
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Old Environmental Issues Updated Sep 28, 2008 (4 of 4 found this helpful)
Amazingly accurate assessment of an old subject brought back to the forefront by this author. We don't have to search far and long to see that the examples of the ongoing environmental catastrophes given are happening now, right under our noses and presented in plain sight for all to see. It is similar to the industrial revolution after the civil war, then on to the overgrowth and wealth accumulation at the beginning of the 20th century. There is a problem...the planet was at least able to weather the ecological devestations somewhat...now at the current rate the earth along with its people can't keep up nor can it clean itself sufficiently to contain the onslaught.
Old problems coming back to haunt activists on the sidelines are....the greedy gluttons known as the hyper rich reaping billions off the earths pillage, followed by the second tier rich wannabees .... increased poverty and inequality in the first, second, third and fourth world countries....possible shakeups of the global economic system...
In an effort to protect itself , the hyper rich have instituted such safeguards as, blocking journalistic reporting of a perfected nuclear bomb, the B61-11, criminalizing protests of the anti GMO reapers, development of RFID'S, increased usage of prison, and then CONTROL OF THE MEDIA,
And this ones for all the Africans Americans who accuse unjustifiably those activist as being whiners.....There are, data bank catalogs of genetic signatures mainly of blacks, 11.9 % of prisoners of African descent 25-29 years are captured behind bars, state of the emergency testing programs such as those practiced during Katrina and the ghetto riots in France. And anyone at anytime can be on the payroll...(V. Jordan) and (A. Young).
Great comeback, great update and hope that it spurs interests then global action...
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The Chips Are Down Nov 12, 2008 (3 of 3 found this helpful)
Rick Wagoner, current CEO of General Motors, opined in the Wall Street Journal (November 11, 2008) that he didn't think he should be fired. GM stock is the lowest it has been since 1946. The company can't sell its ridiculous cars and trucks because nobody wants these vehicles because everyone on the planet can see that the handwriting is on the wall for these gross, pathetic tubs of personal transportation and the carbon-dioxide-spewing internal combustion engines that power them. Consequently, General Motors will go bankrupt if we, the taxpayers, don't give them billions and billions of dollars of our hard-earned money to bail it out from Mr. Wagoner's and the Board of Directors of GM's supremely destructive and stupid business decisions.
Ten years ago, General Motors had the opportunity to be first in line with an electric car. If they had done so, they'd be sitting pretty. But they killed the car and its technology. Doesn't this seem positively unremittingly ill-advised to you in every way, from failing to be able to read the financial signs--for which business people are paid to do--to continuing to contribute to the degradation of the environment? If you were working for a company as a middle manager and you blew a major project that cost the company so much money that it was going to go bankrupt, wouldn't you be fired? When things are going well, it seems, the people at the top take the credit, but when events turn, everyone and everything else is responsible for that turn except themselves. Too bad we couldn't vote for the president of GM. Mr. Wagoner could then meet Mr. McCain's fate
This may seem like an odd introduction to this excellent, informative, little book by Hervé Kempf, the environmentalist editor for Le Monde. Mr. Kempf never mentions Rick Wagoner, but he would know why the GM honcho gets two paragraphs as an intro here. As Mr. Kempf says without mincing words, the rich--like Mr. Wagoner--are responsible for the pickle in which our planet and its people now find themselves. A small number of human beings--billionaires in America, China , France, India, Canada, Germany, and Saudi Arabia--i.e., the super rich, own the connections and the power; their decisions have put us where we are. Who else is in charge? The poor in Mumbai? The peasants of China? Middle managers? Joe the Plumber?
Make no mistake, this book is not an updated Communist Manifesto. Mr. Hervé goes after the left for its blinkered view as much as he does the right. The left simply cannot drop its old allegiances to strictly social change, thus arguing only for a bigger piece of the pie. The increasing size of pie is ending because the ideology of capitalism, with its linear notion of endless exploitation of our Earth, of greater and greater GNP, is done, finished, over, kaput. Growth is not possible any longer and--this is a key point for Mr. Hervé--it is no longer desirable because growth is destroying our planet. No planet. No us. Quick. You decide.
We are all going to have to take a hit in every way in the coming decades, and for the duration. We must simplify. And whether they like it or not, that hit has to start at the top because the top is where the hit can matter most in terms of freeing resources for the rest of us. But us, too, the lower orders, we must change. No more aping our so-called "betters", no more buying Ford Expeditions so that we can ape the rich with their Hummers. In this regard: Ever heard of Thorstein Veblen? He was an economist who coined the term "conspicuous consumption". Mr. Hervé re-introduces us to him, and a valuable re-introduction it is.
I could go on, but if you read Mr. Hervé, a very nice French intellectual by the way, you will be filled with hope and scared at once. We have maybe ten years to turn the ship around. Maybe eight years. If we don't, we are doomed. No. Seriously. Doomed. It's that clear. The melting of the Arctic is not a pl
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Allarmingly informative! Sep 18, 2008 (3 of 3 found this helpful)
Herve Kempf's book is certainly an eye-opener. Anyone who is interested in the environment and doing what they can to make it better should definitely read this book.
Kempf's premise is that the rich and their rampant capitalism are driving our planet to ruin. Kempf doesn't just focus his ire on the United States but directs his pen to Europe, Africa, China and anywhere else where the environment is being ravaged in pursuit of consumerism. Kempf's arguments are very cogent and well constructed, although one of my biggest complaints with this book is that Kempf is really big on identifying the problems, but there are few very realistic solutions to these problems.
Apart from the somewhat dull translation, the book will make you think twice the next time you head to the mall. I learned a lot about the environment and capitalism from reading this book, and I'm glad that I read it. Kempf discussed some economic principles and people that I am eager to do some independent research about. Any book that can make me do that, in my opinion, must be good.
Don't ignore the foreword by Greg Palast (one of the best parts of the book) and the introduction which helps to set up the context of the book. They will definitely help you to understand Kempf's reasons for writing it.