by Dr Joe Toscano - Anarchist Age - 10 April 2005
The report card delivered on the human race�s effect on the planet by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment group raises questions that go to the very heart of the type of society we have become. The 1350 scientists from 95 countries report that the human race is living beyond its means, has profound implications not only for the environment but for the direction political and economic change needs to move in, if we as a race are to avoid the �Blade Runner� scenario that will inevitably eventuate if we do nothing at this critical juncture in time.
In an era where everything is up for debate and discussion, it�s time that the last taboo-the role capitalism has played in creating a situation where the human race finds itself living on borrowed time, is explained. Capitalism, whether run by the State as in China or run privately by transnational corporations whose wealth exceeds the wealth of most Nation States, has played a central role in the flagrant destruction of the resource base that sustains all life on this planet.
The planet can no longer support an economic system that needs to create ever increasing profits irrespective of the human, social and environmental costs. It�s total lunacy to continue to support an economic system that destroys our environmental legacy to produce goods for a market that generates most of its profits from satisfying artificially manufactured, not real human needs. The struggle to keep Planet Titanic afloat is intensely personal and political. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment group�s frightening report card has the potential to urn orthodox political activity on its head.
Capitalism in the 21st century is clearly a non sustainable economic system. Competitive forces need to be replaced by cooperative forces. Wealth needs to be held in common by the community, not by the State or transnational corporations. This wealth needs to be used for the common good, not to enrich individuals, politicians and bureaucrats. Power needs to be removed from increasing hierarchical centralized political and economic structures and placed in the hands of decentralized non hierarchical structures which allow the people affected by a decision to make those decisions. We can no longer allow people who currently exercise power to make decisions for us and the planet which continue to enrich them and impoverish us and put our future as a species on the line.
The 21st century is the beginning not the end of history as many commentators claimed in the 20th century. The triumph of private capitalism over State capitalism (Communism) was an illusion. The political struggle in the 21st century is one which will be centred around the devolution of power and removing the control of the common wealth from the hands of a minority and putting it back in the hands of the people.
As a species, we are at a very important crossroad, we can continue to accelerate the current economic lunacy and create a society where a small minority live comfortably in gated cities and use the monopoly on force they enjoy to maintain the rest of the population in an environmentally and physically impoverished state, or we can begin to march to a different drum and expand the struggle to create an egalitarian community based on the satisfaction of real not manufactured human needs.