for: definition - green democratic revolution

definition: green democratic revolution

• Schneider proposes this strategy is more pragmatic than either green growth or degrowth. The words are chosen carefully:
  • green - obvious
  • democratic - authentic equal power of the people
  • revolution - because we are at the precipice, a fast evolution, a rEVOLUTION is necessary
• He finds both of these current approaches problematic:
  • green growth employs the same elite debt-based growth logic that contributed to the fossil growth economy
  • degrowth is a terrible term for climate communications which brings the wrong immediate connotations to the masses so creates unnecessary friction at the outset for any strategy that needs to win over the masses.

for: climate crisis - voting for global political green candidates, podcast - Planet Critical, interview - Planet Critical - James Schneider - communications officer - Progressive International, green democratic revolution, climate crisis - elite control off mainstream media

podcast: Planet Critical

title: Overthrowing the Ruling Class: The Green Democratic Revolution

summary

• This is a very insightful interview with James Schneider, communications officer of Progressive International on the scales of political change required to advert our existential Poly / meta / meaning crisis.
• James sees 3 levels of crisis
  • ordinary crisis emerging from a broken system
  • larger wicked problems that cannot be solved in isolation
  • the biggest umbrella crisis that covers all others - the last remaining decades of the fossil fuel system,
    • due to peak oil but accelerated by
    • climate crisis
• There has to be a paradigm shift on governance, as the ruling elites are driving humanity off the cliff edge
• This is not incremental change but a paradigm shift in governance
• To do that, we have to adopt an anti-regime perspective, that is not reinforcing the current infective administrative state, otherwise, as COVID taught us, we will end up driving the masses to adopt hard right politicians
• In order to establish the policies that are aligned to the science, the people and politicians have to be aligned.
• Voting in candidates who champion policies aligned to science is a leverage point.
• That can only be done if the citizenry is educated enough to vote for such politicians
• So there are two parallel tasks to be done:
  • mass education program to educate citizens
  • mass program to encourage candidates aligned to climate science to run for political office

for: question - how do we organise a green democratic revolution when power is so entrenched?

question

• how do we organise a green democratic revolution when power is so entrenched?

for: green democratic revolution - critique

critique: green democratic revolution

paraphrase

• it is so difficult to get people excited about politics because
• they've sort of seen through the two- party system now where it's just like the same thing over and over again
• so you have to offer something new
• but I think was quite difficult for the left to really bring about a progressive Revolution
• Iif you take that kind of thinking to its logical conclusion, one essentially ends up just abolishing the whole system and end up at Anarchy

• meanwhile, the right is doubling down and making itself a firmer force

comment

• in a sense, it feels like a moment when the traditional tension between liberals and conservatives is reaching a peak
• over force is desperately hanging onto the past whilst smoother is forestry moving in a new direction