This piece goes along with the recent book we discussed, What Every Environmentalist Needs to Know about Capitalism. Michael’s piece is below.

had been involved in earth day for several years, years ago. at that time i thought earth day might be an opportunity for human beings to once again become creatures who live in close connection with the earth. it quickly became evident that there was a competing, more powerful paradigm in earth day: the idea that we could shop or buy or consume our way out of the predicament we face. a virtuous circle would be created. businesses seeking profits would design the products we need to avert ecological harm and consumers seeking low prices for “green” goods would make wise, ecological consumer choices. in other words, earth day became a celebration of corporate mass consumerism, and the market retained its place as the “sacred ground” of the modern world. call this the al gore model.

this cannot come as any sort of a surprise as the very reason for our existence, within modern, industrialized civilization, is to produce and consume. the “green” variant of this is that earth is a set of “resources” that must be “wisely managed” so that industrial civilization can be saved. but earth is first!, not the market and not industrial civilization. industrial civilization, man as producer/consumer, earth as resources…these ideas are at odds with what we used to call “nature.”

good luck with what you call earth day. i can’t say i hope i am wrong about my analysis because industrial civilization is just one long round of horrors–continuing genocide against indigenous people (today in borneo for example), the earth’s sixth great extinction crisis, the “eternal treblinka” of the industrial flesh system, a transportation system that results in a september 11 number of deaths per month from accident fatalities and 3 million injuries per year in the u.s. alone, obesity epidemic, millions on psychotropic drugs, weekly random shootings, etc., etc. with respect, it would be more honest to call it “greenwashing so we can continue our thoughtless pattern of habits that destroy the earth, day.”

like every civilization this one too will collapse. who can say when? hopefully, then people will realize that only “primitive” cultures are sustainable. (the yokuts lived here in this valley for 130 centuries, “sustainably,” before market civilization wiped them out.) hopefully, the wild, free, natural two leggeds alive then will remember what “civilized people” created, and they will vow to never again fall into the trap of believing that the earth is to be managed and that humans were made “in the image of god” to be the managers.

in the meantime i will always give at least verbal support to those trying to stop the juggernaut. if there is anything in earth day that relates to that idea–stopping the machine–please let me know, and i would be happy to help.

How do we get to socialism in the U.S.? Lately I have been thinking about whether we should do it by evolution or revolution. I don’t see revolution as the answer at this time. Plus I surely don’t want a violent revolution.

Can we bring about positive changes towards socialism in an evolving manner? It seems like we have already done that in the past with civil rights, women’s rights, worker rights and so much more. So what can we do today to continue that tradition and work towards socialism?

The economic system under capitalism surely isn’t working, at least for the bottom 99%. What are some changes or other economic systems we as progressives and socialist can use that will benefit the 99%. One thing we could look at is democratizing the U.S. economy with cooperative workplaces.

Recently I read an interview from Democracy Now with Gar Alperovitz, professor of political economy at the University of Maryland, called “Worker-Owners of America, Unite”: Will Cooperative Workplaces Democratize U.S. Economy? www.democracynow.org/2011/12/15/worker_owners_of_america_unite_will.

It also mentioned his recent op-ed in the New York Times www.nytimes.com/2011/12/15/opinion/worker-owners-of-america-unite.html?_r=1. He also recently published a new edition of his book America Beyond Capitalism: Reclaiming Our Wealth, Our Liberty, and Our Democracy.

Alperovitz is also founder of the Democracy Collaborative www.democracycollaborative.org which has a project called Community Wealth.Org www.community-wealth.org.

Is there a way we can use this information to bring about positive changes to our community, our state, our nation? Could it be a way to evolve towards socialism?