two indonesia (political) transition narratives. september. 2021.
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two indonesia (political) transition narratives.
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It is hypothetically proposed that firstly the original national revolutionary aspiration of independence from a colonial power would be especially co-opted by President Suharto to help authenticate his internal authoritarian rule which provided 'national stability' and which suited the geopolitical strategic interests of the Cold War having aligned Indonesia to the 'Free World' under U.S. leadership. Secondly, in the post-Cold War and then post-Suharto period a new general overall narrative needed to be reframed/formulated for the oligarchal interests still prevailing in Indonesia and co-opting the originally radical, once marginal idea that is sustainability has helped to serve the same propaganda purpose for an elite utilising 'national prosperity' now - akin to 'national unity' before - within a new globalised multinational neoliberal era of a free market world by which ingeniously to argue - and as if in a new act of a politicized shadow play - to theatrically present the same so called democratic 'national liberation' front in order - as in the case of their industrial agribusiness interests - to blindiy appear shiningly 'environmentally responsible' - & for all - of which unwittingly there has especially been a rising need to do so with climate change now so catastrophically enveloping the world; with this planetary threat now taking on the same high level of all encompassing global focus so as to be on par with the perceived nuclear threat that had existed in the previous Cold War.
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Transition of the Narrative of Power from the Cold War Period to the Neoliberal Age
'It's important to realise Indonesian independence from Dutch colonialism would eventually in the long term not guarantee democracy for all and in 1967 the 'pushback' against the internal 'Red threat' which led to hundreds of thousands of state sanctioned murders was a clear regime marker at the start of the Suharto period; so that any state rhetoric regarding a commitment to upholding democratic principles was only to be perceived as political magic realism.'
- a final remark by the author of this website from Oriental Mandarins. (please see sidebar).
It could be argued that such a top-down state inspired illusion exists to this day although both the Suharto dictatorship and the polarising historical period of the Cold War in which Suharto violently came to power are now long gone. Nevertheless, in Indonesia oligarchic power still remains leading to all sorts of political tensions in the many-patterned social fabric of the nation and chameleon like any strongman hold of the country that once justified itself in Cold War security terms has to in a new post-Suharto 'democratic age' must now publicly do so with a 'replacement ideological justification': to be the aspirant neoliberal guarantors of the nation's ongoing economic 'development'.
Power can draw strength from being monolithic in scale so as to inspire awe from any onlooker much like being beside a tall skyscraper that stretches skywards. Yet, a political structure despite its apparent strength can be brittle if its foundation can be undermined so as to bring it down such can be the case for a building in an earthquake. A political crisis is akin to an earthquake and in 1997 there was the Asian Financial Crisis and the political inflexibility of Suharto who was really a man of power for the Cold War would meet his demise. Yet, the crony political environment which he had built up around him would survive him but a new ideological validity had to be procured so it could effectively linger on after absorbing the shock waves that occurred soon after the beginning of a new post-Cold War era that was no longer 'two-tone' in its political hues but rather now 'multi-tone'. Black & white was re-orientated by the many greys in between whose wide range could now find more open political expression.
Yet, in terms of the theme of this website what the focus shall be is that while the radical idea of 'revolution' was co-opted in the Cold War era to ironically validate a political dictatorship another previous radical notion would be co-opted to advocate for an 'agribusiness dictatorship' equally monolith in both its monoculture structure and enormous ever expanding scale which had come into existence in the Suharto years but now had to recalibrate its ideological justification away from the old semantics of 'national security' to the new semantics of 'national prosperity' which befitted the full flowering of this new neoliberal age which, with some bitter irony, had found its first 'real world' embryonic manifestation in the Pinochet dictatorship of Chile where the ideas of the so called 'Chicago School' were tested out in this privatising gestation period for the free market and then fully prostelyzed into global life by which this free market ideology at birth has most infamously colloquially expressed as the monster 'love child' of Reagan and Thatcher.
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‘Tree of Life.’
sepia on cream paper. 6” X 4”. copperplate. Java. Indonesia.
An Indonesian puppet theatre; on the left side are rows of wooden puppets used during the play. The play was viewed during the day and differed from the usual shadow puppet play which has the puppets behind a curtain. The large leaf in the middle of the stage is known as the tree of life and is displayed before a play begins and also at the end of the play to signal to the audience that it is finished.
In the following article is an interesting paragraph for a novice such as myself on Indonesian history which I found to be very informative (see the article link below for the necessary particulars); which mentions initially how there was in 1870 - during the long Dutch occupation - a law was passed that strengthened the central power of colonial rule.
Yet in 1960 when Indonesia had now become an independent nation a land reform act was introduced – the Basic Agrarian Act by which through adiat – or customary practices – became the legal avenue with the use of land reform tribunals by which land ownership was determined.
However, when Suharto came to power he brought in the Basic Forestry Act (1967) which introduced the primacy of centralized authority. Local administrations lost their authority to determine land use with the land tribunals disbanded as well as having hutan adat (customary lands) become hutan negara (state forests).
One assumes a local community would now have to prove their rights to the land while before it would have been a default position that local peoples did have rights to land tenure. After Suharto stood down in the late 1990s and there was a process of decentralization in new Jakarta administrations hutan negara still remained whereby although local and provincial governments now have their authority restored regarding the determination of land use the land rights of local and indigenous communities have not been restored.
Thus, one would advocate that a return to the Basic Agrarian Act (1960) with adiat would at least for now be an adequate legal starting point for the restoration of land rights for local/indigenous peoples.
To Build a New Capital City, Indonesia Must Design for Resilience. January 2022. [ Edge Effects].
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.Need for Ideological Homogeneity in the Cold War
The accomplishment of Indonesian independence can be domestically perceived as a revolutionary liberating moment whose 'righteous legacy' can later be co-opted by a state that has itself politically devolved into an autocracy.
In the case of Suharto he could draw upon Pancasila which as a secular movement could be utilized to help accomplish his desire to ingrain throughout the Indonesian archipelago a national consciousness which also incorporated a centralised loyalty to Jakarta. It is interesting to read that there was tension between the State and Islam regarding Pancasila. However, when Suharto's authoritarianism took on an ever tighter grip over all of the political space and by which anyone who was critical of the Suharto regime was daubed as being 'anti-Pancasila' and thus arrested and so forth the only space where Suharto could be more or less safely critiqued was in an alternative space such as the mosque and by which there occurred an inadvertent rise in Islamisation which would lead in turn to a rise in ideological radicalisation with violent results as witnessed in the so called Age of Terror.
In Concept of a Hero in Malay Society by Shaharuddin b. Maaruf. (1984) - which I now wonder if I purchased in Kuala Lumpur in 1989 - in which it is critically supposed a feudal, materialistic idea of the hero is accentuated amongst what are termed the 'underdeveloped elites' which came to power after Malaysian independence (September, 1963) from British rule one sees negative characteristics that can be identified with the neighbouring 'elite class' in Indonesia. It is only a presumption but one senses it is an adequate one. However, within the book mention is made of an Indonesian general - General Sudirman (1915-1950; an admirable self-sacrificing brave resistance fighter who greatly did much to bring about the success of the independence movement and who if he had lived would perhaps been a worthy President) who sacrificed his life for the cause of Indonesian independence against the Dutch (which incidentally also involved initially fighting the British) upon whom - and again one only speculates - it can be imagined that a later authoritarian ruler such as Suharto could build upon by way of the heroic actions that occurred in resistance times to garner moral legitimacy in the justification of his singular political hegemony. After all, Suharto also capably fought in the independence movement rising through the ranks and so the notion of the 'leader as heroic fighter' becomes an applicable 'ideological window' through which to frame a ruler in regards to their 'authentic' claim to leadership - to have been prepared to sacrifice for the state so in turn a grateful populous should be prepared to sacrifice for the leader who only wishes progress not for his (her) self but for the state/people. Yet, again, what is further co-opted is the radical notion of revolution by which everything that President Suharto claims to be doing is for the 'benefit' of the Indonesian peoples who have been freed from the colonial oppressor and in this 'doing' includes diligently working against those who threaten the security of the revolution - of course a common ideological trope used by all in power which in modern times can trace all the way back to Napoleon who as a lowly artillery officer would notably - as well as meteorically - make his brilliant reputation during the revolutionary period; yet thought still worth pointing out mainly in relation that in the post-Suharto era another idea originally radical when it was first proposed in the 1970s - sustainability - would be used in the ensuing neoliberal era for the benefit of those with oligarchy corporate power. Specifically for Indonesia the five main principles of Pancasila that were extolled by the likes of Suharto happen to be the following:
PANCASILA: The Five Principles
1. Belief in one supreme God
2. Justice and civility among peoples
3.Unity of Indonesia
4. Democracy through deliberation and consensus among representatives
5. Social justice for all the people of Indonesia
It is interesting for a moment to look over at George Orwell's notion of nationalism in his essay Notes on Nationalism which in general summary more or less covered any modern tribe's sense of mutual belonging from not just of a nation-state but through to political party members, religious groups, social classes, sports teams supporters etcetera and basically involved a 'habit of mind' that can involve a psychological, culturally ingrained, somewhat uncritical loyalty to what is deemed worthy of support and one can say that Suharto was especially proficient in developing a loyal ‘habit of mind’ towards this nationalist artifice known as Indonesia which 'naturally' emerged from the geographically expansive Dutch colonial rule of the East Indies.
In terms of the Cold War Suharto's firm ability to maintain the complex cultural tapestry that was Indonesia stringently as a whole national entity was a strategic positive to the so called Free World especially when it was feared under Sukarno there was a chance that the Soviet Union would finally sway Sukarno to align with Moscow even though it has to be said that Sukarno as a leading figure in the non-alignment movement saw himself as a nationalist first and an ideologue second. Nevertheless, under Suharto his brutal approach to internal opposition forces - both ideological and national - could be 'excused' as a 'regrettable' 'lesser evil' when there was so acutely and clearly the 'greater evil' of communism to forcefully deal with. Thus Suharto's authoritarian regime could exist as it did - which had involved the 'ideological cleansing' murders of hundreds and thousands at its inception - as long as it stayed loyally aligned with the United States for it served an important strategic geographical role and its democratic veneer as extrapolated by way of Pancasila also suited not only its own interests but the interests of the West which despite its own colonial cruelties saw itself after the enormous bestialities of the Second World War as the civilizing inheritors of a new global order which during the Bretton-Woods period of international regulation could be one of bringing on some semblance of social and economic equality and stability to some parts of the world but any promising start for the world as a whole would all go by the wayside with the breakdown of Bretton Woods due to stagflation and the Oil Crisis in the 1970s. Yet in that economically tumultuous period - and despite the interventionist military take over of Timor Leste - Suharto could still offer the Free World a strategic sense of stability in the South East Asian region (which presumably was especially appreciated after the U.S. defeat in Vietnam which had just recently occurred; one also sees mentioned how submarine channels for U.S. submarines could strategically traverse between the Indian and Pacific oceans by way of Indonesia). Furthermore, a global multinational corporate system craves overall stability in order to guarantee for itself a good return on any low risk investment undertaken; and during the Cold War and for a little while afterwards nearing up to the time of the Asian Financial Crisis in the late 1990s Suharto certainly well played his part as a good 'store manager' for the foreign investment he was able to attract - as was certainly the case in an annexed West Papua - and for the economic oligarchy that he also domestically installed which palm oil also played its sullied part with transmigration thus by which the politics must also be examined in any in depth study of this cash crop.
Stability is associated with homogeneity which means less diversity and so allows for uniformity and this is what Suharto was able to provide which on the surface at least allowed for predictability which was appreciated in a static world with only two major forces working against each other but also paradoxically giving the world clear definition which would splinter apart in the post-Cold War era.
The Political Economy of Oligarchy and the Reorganization of Power in Indonesia
Editorial: Indonesia Backslides Into Feudalism
(Have noticed has been recent issues with this link. Apologies. It may help to do a Search).
https://jakartaglobe.id/opinion/editorial-indonesia-backslides-feudalism/
Feudalism in Indonesian Democracy
https://www.scitepress.org/Papers/2019/100021/100021.pdf
Need for Ideological Homogeneity in the Post-Cold War Neoliberal Global Age.
It will prove worthwhile to look at the link directly below which I came across when it crossed my mind when after the ousting of Suharto at the time of the Asian Financial Crisis ( also by which the 'AFC' would actually give new impetus to the palm oil industry which i perhaps sometimes overlooked...) it was a time when the world had emerged from the nuclear war psyche of Mutual Assured Destruction (M.A.D) as envisaged by the two superpowers to now shifting to an new psychological perception of global catastrophe which would involve global warming. Environmental damage was linked to this new threatening nemesis to the planet which would envelop the mindset of the human race in the same way as the previous nuclear age. In the past, the many sins of any authoritarian and corporate regime could be excused if it was perceived as ultimately serving the interests of the so called 'free world' but now there had to be a new ideological framing to excuse the excesses of corporate ambition especially and sustainability would play that role perhaps best in disguising or 'greenwashing' its many obvious environmental sins in the single-minded pursuit of maximizing profit. In short in the same way 'revolution' has been co-opted as a 'social good' when associated with 'change for the better' which is an 'ideological mirage' modern industrial societies like to promote in order to paradoxically maintain a hierarchical triangular pattern whereby the elites maintain both their power and their wealth as the 'avant-garde' leaders of human progress which a 'drone' induced humanity cannot do without it is recognised that such Captains of Industry must now re-calibrate their corporate rhetoric so as to appear to be seriously re-orientating their business practices in a responsible way so as to be working towards overcoming this new existential threat and doing so as vigorously as when the world faced the previous existential threat of worldwide totalitarianism; to do so to keep justifying their 'natural' high economic position which also allows them to deal with possible threat or argument that will challenge them. Sustainability was such a challenge as extractive industries can only be seen as a threat to the ecology of the planet in the same way previously an actual revolution to the top-down hierarchical order was also a genuine threat. Yet, corporate moguls became corporate pioneers blazing the way for a new material world that would benefit humanity and so the corporate world now 'leads the way' to develop new and revolutionary business practices so as to sustain not only high levels of economic growth which also means high levels of profits but to also sustain the health of the planet at the same time its resources are being exploited. Thus in the free market neoliberal age once again power uses the rhetoric of a 'moral imagination' which accents towards a positive reformist position in regards to human behaviour in order to immorally blind humanity while pragmatically getting on with 'business as usual' which will lead to human and planetary calamity.
Sustainability was originally a challenge to a world of unprincipled economic growth without serious care to the inequities that occurred on both a social and environmental level along the way in the unbridled pursuit of wealth - and worse - of wealth for the few. Extractive industries have always destroyed the environment but in recent decades such economic vandalism has become a serious threat unheralded in scale and so new moral determinants have to be put in place to stop it and which have been resisted and one way is by stealth so as to be able to proceed unhindered with any brutal ongoing negligence of the planet's health. Suffice to say that the many well known environmental inequities associated with palm oil went on in the Suharto era but oligarchies did not have to be held accountable under his regime in much the same way that those companies devastating the Amazon in Brazil are not being held accountable with the Bolsonaro presidency who has given carte blanche to free market capitalism. Nevertheless, while there was the rhetoric of democracy in the Suharto era there is now a new rhetoric of democracy in the neoliberal era which oscillates around a word such as 'sustainability while in the past it oscillated around the word 'independence' which with liberation from Dutch rule in mind was a perceived radical word by Jakarta to use. Thus to deal with the environmental criticisms dealt out against the palm oil industry with its annual fires, rampant deforestation, wildlife deaths, carbon release, human rights violations, indigenous suffering, land grabs - the 'full catastrophe' of ecocide - it came up with a neoliberal reflex response to incorporate the environmental notion of 'sustainability' in its practices to nullify such deserved criticism so the palm oil industry could still pursue its ever expansive aims which has not involved any real structural re-formation thus there is the veneer of environmental accountability to actually allow ''business as usual' persists; such is the ideological window dressing in this positive corporate reframing in the post-Suharto 'reform era.' Well, one can pursue this discussion but it maybe best to leave what I have just said as enough for now and I am sure it is open to debate and I must admit what I state is opinion but heartfelt and feels substantially correct from what I have studied regarding the ongoing environmental damage associated with the palm oil industry since officially utilizing the label 'sustainability' and one adds that although it is a polarizing topic one believes the push for sustainability has not been wholly cynical and there are those who have a sincere belief in the possibility of sustainability but after two decades only one fifth of palm oil has been certified and it is very much disputed by many major environmental watch dog organisations as to how much of it is actually environmentally sound. yet, in dealing with this industry its political shaping as well as its corporate structure must also be looked at for Suharto's transmigration policy with its underlying nationalist intent has helped to play a key role in the expansion of the palm oil industry and this has to be taken into account when resolving to suit out real solutions which both guarantee the security of indigenous rights, the rights of the planet and wildlife as well as the rights of those who are within the palm oil industry and need to have a pathway to 'just transition' in the same way just transition is mooted for thos e who work in the coal industry and would like to transfer to renewables. Anyhow strongly suggest looking at the following paper:
The Neoliberalisation of Sustainability
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.2304/csee.2014.13.1.26
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NOTE: Some further postings on neoliberalism, some alternative ideas etcetera n be found at the end of this webpage.
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A final remark: Regional stability to assure long term predictability can come at the expense of human and environmental rights is too often seen as an 'acceptable' price to pay to assure business investment and the economic 'benefits' it supposedly to the nation (when in actuality much wealth goes mainly to investors) is realised. - comment by the author of this website just sighted from the Long Draft webpage and perhaps initiate further discussion.
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Indonesian Forests and Palm OIl. The Gecko Project/Mongabay.
(i) Gecko Project with Mongabay. Links relating to politics and palm oil in Kalimantan (Borneo). 2017.
The Palm Oil Fiefdom - Mongabay
https://news.mongabay.com/2017/10/the-palm-oil-fiefdom/
The making of a palm oil fiefdom - The Gecko Project. [Is actually the same article as directly above but thought to acknowledge that both organisations posted this long article].
https://thegeckoproject.org/the-making-of-a-palm-oil-fiefdom-7e1014e8c342
Comment: It’s time to confront he collusion between the palm oil industry and politicians that is driving Indonesia’s deforestation crisis. The Gecko Project. (Mongabay have also posted this comment).
Indonesia for Sale: in-depth series on corruption, palm oil and rainforests launches. Mongabay/The Gecko Project.
To curb deforestation in the long-term, break the link between politics and palm oil’ Reuters post The Gecko Project,
(ii) Gecko Project with Mongabay. Link relating to investigation regarding palm oil in West Papua. (2020).
The Consultant: Why did a palm oil conglomerate pay $22m to an unnamed ‘expert’ in Papua?. Mongabay/ The Gecko Project.
The secret deal to destroy paradise. The story behind the single biggest threat to the rainforests. Mongabay. 2018.
https://news.mongabay.com/2018/11/the-secret-deal-to-destroy-paradise/
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Video: ‘Injustice’ for West Papuans whose land was sold out from under them. (...with Al Jezeera & the Korean Center for Investigative Journalism-Newstapa.
https://news.mongabay.com/2020/07/video-injustice-for-west-papuans-whose-land-was-sold-out-from-under-them/
OTHER PALM OIL ARTICLES. HISTORICAL OVERVIEW. CRITIQUE OF SO CALLED SUSTAINABLE PALM OIL.
Finally, some general articles regarding palm oil that may prove of interest starting with a general historical overview in the first link then more of a look at Indonesia and the other articles focusing on critiquing the notion of so called 'sustainable palm oil' in regards to one particular scientific study. A kinda 'variations of a theme of a paper by Roberto Cazzolla Gatti which on social media one has curiously noted it has attracted much trollish vitriol by pro-palm oil advocates which from my point of view only helps to substantially authenticate the sound scientific basis of his findings. However, of course I invite the reader to come to her/his own opinion...for I am but a mere messenger...(I should add one has also experienced some nasty attraction which only piqued my interest in a subject which I before I only had a cursory interest which has at least inspired me to take the environmental issue of palm oil more seriously and examine it in more in depth although I feel I am still on a steep learning curve etcetera....all the best).
How the world got hooked on palm oil. Guardian Long Read. 2019. (When doing a general web search about palm oil this article often appears).
The Time Has Come to Rein In the Global Scourge of Palm Oil. Yale. Environment. 360. BY JOCELYN C. ZUCKERMAN. (Author of PLANET PALM). MAY. 2021.
https://e360.yale.edu/features/the-time-has-come-to-rein-in-the-global-scourge-of-palm-oil
Indonesia’s Palm Oil Expansion & Further Contribution to Economic Fragility. 2016
https://digitalcommons.bard.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1237&context=senproj_s2016
Palm oil and the politics of deforestation in Indonesia - ScienceDirect. July. 2021.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S009506962100036X
https://news.trust.org/item/20210811010011-4m4tl/
https://robertocazzollagatti.com/2019/01/14/certifying-forest-destruction/
No such thing as sustainable palm oil – 'certified' can destroy even more wildlife, say scientists. Study reveals 'trick' behind endorsement schemes linked to 'greenwashing’. INDEPENDENT. 2018.
https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/palm-oil-sustainable-certified-plantations-orangutans-indonesia-southeast-asia-greenwashing-purdue-a8674681.html
Meaningless certification’: Study makes the case against ‘sustainable’ palm oil. Mongabay. 2020.
https://news.mongabay.com/2020/08/palm-oil-certification-sustainable-rspo-deforestation-habitat-study/
OTHER GENERAL LINKS RELATING TO SUHARTO/ PANCASILA/ INDONESIA FOR PERUSAL.
Suharto's New Order: Development of Indonesia under Authoritarian Rule. Indonesia Investments.
https://www.indonesia-investments.com/culture/politics/suharto-new-order/item180
Reformation; New Challenges & Changes for Indonesia. Indonesia Investments.
https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/11/09/human-rights-abuses-post-suharto-indonesia
Historical overview of the use of Bahasa Indonesia for Indonesia:
https://www.purpledivepenida.com/post/a-brief-history-of-bahasa-indonesia
(This last link also posted on Oriental Mandarins webpage in relation to a discussion how the Bahasa Indonesia language was used to help unify Indonesia as a national entity).
Whilst the following small 2014 article below talks about a protest whereby the claim is made that the World Bank can be blamed over the 1965 massacres in Indonesia. The Bretton Woods Project. No matter what one may think of this polarizing point of view have included this website as intimates that it critiques the IMF and World Bank so may prove to be an alternative voice with useful information.
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Two 'random' postings (amongst those one can find on the internet) relating to Konfrontasi between Malaysia and Indonesia which was a military expression of Indonesian nationalism under Sukarno and which involved fighting Commonwealth troops in Borneo. When Suharto came to power he ended it.
The Indonesian Confrontation 1962 to 1966. Anzac Portal.
https://anzacportal.dva.gov.au/wars-and-missions/indonesian-confrontation-1962-1966MALAYSIA-
INDONESIA RELATIONS BEFORE AND AFTER 1965: IMPACT ON BILATERAL AND REGIONAL STABILITY.
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NEOLIBERALISM. An introduction.
Neoliberalism - the ideology at the root of all our problems. George Monbiot. Guardian. 2016.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/apr/15/neoliberalism-ideology-problem-george-monbiot
Chicago School. PBS. 1998.
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/commandingheights/shared/minitext/ess_chicagoschool.html
Neoliberalism Explained: Its Theory, Practice, and Consequences. Bad Empanada video.
Neoliberal Ebola: palm oil, logging, land grabs, ecological havoc and disease. ECOLOGIST. 2015.
Should we really aim for sustainable development? FUTURE TENSE. Radio National. ABC Australia.
(As an aside musings of other possible environmental/sociological realities).
NEW NARRATIVE. Christopher Barnett.
From the above radio program/podcast one came across this unexpected video link which I thought was kinda interesting as an example of lateral thinking in approaching different future directions.
One may not agree with all of the proposals and so forth but to try and keep an open mind I think it is worthwhile to suggest other possibilities to bring on a useful 'many mind sparks' debate to help envisage some positive 'next step' which hopefully will be of human/non-human/ecological/planetary benefit but maybe quite rather unpredictable from what we imagine at the present moment.
The five principles of the new narrative mentioned seem reasonable enough as a general inclusive framework to work with and which I must admit similar notions have also crossed my mind especially the notion of the local over the global as the baseline of a different structural economic outlook that maybe more genuinely sustainable and equitable for humans, non-humans and the planet as a whole:
- Demand Less / Value more
- Repair rather than Replace
- Localisation over Globalisation
- Technology only where appropriate
- Community and Crowdsourcing over Competition & Economics
(Source: from The New Narrative. Christopher Barnett).
The New Narrative. 2012. From the website: ExplainingTheFuture.com .Christopher Barnett.
Social Ecology. Murray Bookchin.
One also recalls some of the basic principles of Social Ecology as were espoused by Murray Bookchin (1921-2006):
(1) ecological problems are not separate from social problems (one would also add political and economic issues which Murray Bookchin also makes clear in his writings);
(2) understanding how humans relate to each other as social beings is critical in addressing current and future ecological issues.
(3) the ecological future of the planet is clearly a social one.
General Comment. (by the author of the website).
As another editorial aside one may very hurriedly comment whereby one agrees that there needs to be a change in the economic system and one agrees the extractive model that capitalism promotes is negligent. Yet, it is seems that the modern industrial state per se as it has been for the last two hundred odd years since the Industrial revolution began has proved to be untenable and that would be the case whether remained under a private capitalist model or as was the case in the former Soviet Union a so called state capitalism model that also caused much damage to the environment as is the case now in the supposedly more 'open' industrial state capital model of modern China. One thinks that if the industrial model was an ice breaker scarring its way through the glacial ice it does not really matter to the earth how the ship was run whether it be by way of a typical pyramid hierarchical model or whether by a horizontal collective decision making model for the ice breaker will still proceed scarring the terrain and so forth. Yet while what Gaia would hope for by fighting back that as the ice melts with the ensuing raging warm sea to be able to envelop the ship and sink it with then the hope being that the human beings who have saved themselves in the lifeboats will see that breaking away from any large industrial model and living more in balance in smaller units side by side with Gaia rather than trying to tower over it and mindlessly scarring her will prove to be a far more genuine environmental way to live. Now, there are many descriptive flaws in this rushed allusion and perhaps be better to rewrite it later in a more sophisticated way later but transforming away from the large scale now intricately-linked globalised industrial model that is the engine that drives the modern world to more localised economic models ideally with horizontal power sharing.
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