To remake the world
Paul Hawken has an article in Common Dreams called "To Remake The WorldSomething Earth-Changing is Afoot Among Civil Society", in which he discusses the thousands, or even millions, of small grass-roots groups spread throughout the world, which he has researched throughout the years. Remaking the world...global makeover...hmmm...seems to be a similarity here. Hawken's book, "Blessed Unrest", will be released on Thursday, and the website wiserearth.com will launch then as well, containing a database of thousands of these groups.
Perhaps the global civil society, if I may call it that, that Hawken has identified, is where the "action" is in terms of an alternative to the present global order; remember that in 1999, at the Seattle WTO meeting, it was thought that an anti-globalization movement was forming. Walden Bello has written a piece called "World Social Forum at the Crossroads", discussing the best known of the current attempts to create a global...well, as Hawken says, it's not clear if this is a movement, so maybe "global civil society" is not a bad start for a label, although Hawken seems to like the idea that a label can't be applied.
On the other hand, I have the feeling that the literature on civil society (and there is quite a literature, particularly in political science) includes the idea that people participating in said civil society are aware of their membership, or participation, in a larger, normally national society. Not that nationalism is necessarily a part of it; but can the movements Hawken describes be considered part of a global civil society? It sems as if these people are aware of themselves as part of a planet, but because they are atomized, as Hawken says, there may be a certain lack of consciousness...
...which is a tricky word, having been somewhat abused by Marxists, generally to explain what the working class falsely has. But others, such as Teilard de Chardin, and currently perhaps some such as Edward O. Wilson, the biologist, have attempted to articulate a global consciousness, or the possibility that humans might be able to communicate across the globe and thereby save the planet.
Hawken says that there is no ideology pervading this global civil society, but this blog is, to a certain extent, devoted to trying to create a global ideology, as full of unmitigated audacity (to quote Frank Zappa, not Barak Obama) that may seem (or megalomanical, take your pick). It seems to me that at some point, millions of people will have to reach out and create a movement, with an ideology, and with a program, as terrible as that may sound after all the horrors of the 20th century, much less what the Republicans have done with a movement (evangelicals) an ideology (neoclassical economics) and a program (neocon). But I still feel that people need to discuss movements, ideologies, and programs in order to avert major global crises. At any rate, some excerpts from Hawken:
"They were from the nonprofit and nongovernmental world, also known as civil society. They looked after rivers and bays, educated consumers about sustainable agriculture, retrofitted houses with solar panels, lobbied state legislatures about pollution, fought against corporate-weighted trade policies, worked to green inner cities, or taught children about the environment. Quite simply, they were trying to safeguard nature and ensure justice...
this is the largest social movement in all of history, no one knows its scope, and how it functions is more mysterious than what meets the eye...
What does meet the eye is compelling: tens of millions of ordinary and not-so-ordinary people willing to confront despair, power, and incalculable odds in order to restore some semblance of grace, justice, and beauty to this world...
The movement has three basic roots: the environmental and social justice movements, and indigenous cultures’ resistance to globalization—all of which are intertwining. It arises spontaneously from different economic sectors, cultures, regions, and cohorts, resulting in a global, classless, diverse, and embedded movement, spreading worldwide without exception. In a world grown too complex for constrictive ideologies, the very word movement may be too small, for it is the largest coming together of citizens in history."
Perhaps the global civil society, if I may call it that, that Hawken has identified, is where the "action" is in terms of an alternative to the present global order; remember that in 1999, at the Seattle WTO meeting, it was thought that an anti-globalization movement was forming. Walden Bello has written a piece called "World Social Forum at the Crossroads", discussing the best known of the current attempts to create a global...well, as Hawken says, it's not clear if this is a movement, so maybe "global civil society" is not a bad start for a label, although Hawken seems to like the idea that a label can't be applied.
On the other hand, I have the feeling that the literature on civil society (and there is quite a literature, particularly in political science) includes the idea that people participating in said civil society are aware of their membership, or participation, in a larger, normally national society. Not that nationalism is necessarily a part of it; but can the movements Hawken describes be considered part of a global civil society? It sems as if these people are aware of themselves as part of a planet, but because they are atomized, as Hawken says, there may be a certain lack of consciousness...
...which is a tricky word, having been somewhat abused by Marxists, generally to explain what the working class falsely has. But others, such as Teilard de Chardin, and currently perhaps some such as Edward O. Wilson, the biologist, have attempted to articulate a global consciousness, or the possibility that humans might be able to communicate across the globe and thereby save the planet.
Hawken says that there is no ideology pervading this global civil society, but this blog is, to a certain extent, devoted to trying to create a global ideology, as full of unmitigated audacity (to quote Frank Zappa, not Barak Obama) that may seem (or megalomanical, take your pick). It seems to me that at some point, millions of people will have to reach out and create a movement, with an ideology, and with a program, as terrible as that may sound after all the horrors of the 20th century, much less what the Republicans have done with a movement (evangelicals) an ideology (neoclassical economics) and a program (neocon). But I still feel that people need to discuss movements, ideologies, and programs in order to avert major global crises. At any rate, some excerpts from Hawken:
"They were from the nonprofit and nongovernmental world, also known as civil society. They looked after rivers and bays, educated consumers about sustainable agriculture, retrofitted houses with solar panels, lobbied state legislatures about pollution, fought against corporate-weighted trade policies, worked to green inner cities, or taught children about the environment. Quite simply, they were trying to safeguard nature and ensure justice...
this is the largest social movement in all of history, no one knows its scope, and how it functions is more mysterious than what meets the eye...
What does meet the eye is compelling: tens of millions of ordinary and not-so-ordinary people willing to confront despair, power, and incalculable odds in order to restore some semblance of grace, justice, and beauty to this world...
The movement has three basic roots: the environmental and social justice movements, and indigenous cultures’ resistance to globalization—all of which are intertwining. It arises spontaneously from different economic sectors, cultures, regions, and cohorts, resulting in a global, classless, diverse, and embedded movement, spreading worldwide without exception. In a world grown too complex for constrictive ideologies, the very word movement may be too small, for it is the largest coming together of citizens in history."
Labels: environmental activism, global movements, ideology, social justice
posted by Josh Rynn at 9:04 PM
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