The West Virginia Democrat told the White House he is firmly against a clean electricity program that is the muscle behind the president’s plan to battle climate change.
I can relate to the impulse to be doomer, but I'd encourage leftists to begin to prepare themselves for the inevitability of neo-liberal failure to address climate change. We ain't keeping this baby under 1.5, we might not even keep it under 2.0. We will see and have to deal with climate horrors that are tantamount to genocide, and we might realistically never get "justice" against those who benefited and propogated misinformation.
It's okay to grieve that. In fact, it's essential. We have to grieve the life we thought we were going to live, the hopes and dreams and futures we were promised, the suffering and horror we are destined to observe and survive. If we are going to be clear eyed leaders when the contradictions of capitalism begin to really tear itself apart, then we need to let ourselves feel the loss and sadness now, but not be overcome by it. As revolutionaries we need to set an example of how to face reality as it is yet still stand up and be willing to resist. To believe the worst is yet to come, but a more equitable and just world is still possible. There's no magic solution, there's no mecha Lenin to seize the means for us; there is only the hard work of educating, agitating, and organizing. We must set an example for those still blinded by liberalism to the magnitude of the problem. Increasingly, though, we will also have to set an example for those crushed by the reality of climate change yet blinded to the solutions by liberalism. To have hope in the face of climate change is a revolutionary act. To show that we can understand the problem yet not accept its inevitability is to open the door for others to reconsider their assumptions and ideology.
Joe Manchin and the failures of the Democrats are a known entity. Catastrophizing will do us very little good. Instead, point out the contradictions and failures of bourgeois democracy and demonstrate that there's a better way, both of being as an individual and a path for our world.
I'm glad it's resonating. I went through the deepest depression of my life and could not bring myself out of it; not with meds, not with diet and exercise, not with all my usual go to avenues of self-reflection and adjustment. Eventually, I came to recognize it as grief, and realized I needed to process it as such. I had to go through the phases and let myself feel it DEEP instead of trying to desperately keep my head above water. Since then I'm a changed person - but by accepting the future with all its ugly bits, I can begin to see the avenues of hope and plan my life more strategically. It's truly liberating and I think it makes me a better revolutionary. I hope others can find that relief through grief and similarly use it to ground themselves.
It’s hard to come to terms with the idea that we must grieve for the future we thought we would have but it is liberating in a way too. Thank you for that insight.
In a way, it's a death of the self. The person we thought we would become and the life we had hoped for are simply impossible given climate change. That hurts bad. But once we've let go of that imagined future, we're finally free to imagine another. Even better, we're in a place of consciousness and awareness when developing this vision instead of patching it together based on whatever garbage we passively pick up from hegemonic ideology.
Clean up litter, plant a tree, validate someone who is worried about the future. There's so many small ways we can put grains of sand on the scales of justice and preserve our mental health and revolutionary spirit at the same time. Once we accept the problem, it becomes fulfilling to live and act against it. The magnitude of the problem is beyond us as individuals, but our example that we set for others and sphere of influence is ours to manage.
Ironically I find cleaning up litter to make me more doomer because we can spend the whole day picking up trash and not even make the slightest dent in it.
The failure happened 20 years ago. It's gonna happen, in you're life time. Best thing people can do is take reasonable steps to minimize the impact - i.e. If you live in Miami, think about where you want to move. Don't mourn, organize (politically and your life so you don't drown in boiling oceans)
That's kind of what I mean though. It's easy to say "LOL JUST MOVE," but people have an attachment to where they live and the networks that are there. They have an attachment to the lives they imagined they'd live in those places, the people they would become. To be able to get comfortable with the necessity of moving and choosing an entirely different life path requires letting go of the one you thought you were on.
Jokes aside, I feel like I am probably yet to go through the process of grieving that you've been through. I'm just not yet willing to let go of the hope that we'll be able to hold off the worst of climate change, and I try not to think about the mass exodus of climate refugees and how our bastard governments will deal with them. I guess these things take time.
I can relate to the impulse to be doomer, but I'd encourage leftists to begin to prepare themselves for the inevitability of neo-liberal failure to address climate change. We ain't keeping this baby under 1.5, we might not even keep it under 2.0. We will see and have to deal with climate horrors that are tantamount to genocide, and we might realistically never get "justice" against those who benefited and propogated misinformation.
It's okay to grieve that. In fact, it's essential. We have to grieve the life we thought we were going to live, the hopes and dreams and futures we were promised, the suffering and horror we are destined to observe and survive. If we are going to be clear eyed leaders when the contradictions of capitalism begin to really tear itself apart, then we need to let ourselves feel the loss and sadness now, but not be overcome by it. As revolutionaries we need to set an example of how to face reality as it is yet still stand up and be willing to resist. To believe the worst is yet to come, but a more equitable and just world is still possible. There's no magic solution, there's no mecha Lenin to seize the means for us; there is only the hard work of educating, agitating, and organizing. We must set an example for those still blinded by liberalism to the magnitude of the problem. Increasingly, though, we will also have to set an example for those crushed by the reality of climate change yet blinded to the solutions by liberalism. To have hope in the face of climate change is a revolutionary act. To show that we can understand the problem yet not accept its inevitability is to open the door for others to reconsider their assumptions and ideology.
Joe Manchin and the failures of the Democrats are a known entity. Catastrophizing will do us very little good. Instead, point out the contradictions and failures of bourgeois democracy and demonstrate that there's a better way, both of being as an individual and a path for our world.
Really well put comrade o7
I'm glad it's resonating. I went through the deepest depression of my life and could not bring myself out of it; not with meds, not with diet and exercise, not with all my usual go to avenues of self-reflection and adjustment. Eventually, I came to recognize it as grief, and realized I needed to process it as such. I had to go through the phases and let myself feel it DEEP instead of trying to desperately keep my head above water. Since then I'm a changed person - but by accepting the future with all its ugly bits, I can begin to see the avenues of hope and plan my life more strategically. It's truly liberating and I think it makes me a better revolutionary. I hope others can find that relief through grief and similarly use it to ground themselves.
It’s hard to come to terms with the idea that we must grieve for the future we thought we would have but it is liberating in a way too. Thank you for that insight.
In a way, it's a death of the self. The person we thought we would become and the life we had hoped for are simply impossible given climate change. That hurts bad. But once we've let go of that imagined future, we're finally free to imagine another. Even better, we're in a place of consciousness and awareness when developing this vision instead of patching it together based on whatever garbage we passively pick up from hegemonic ideology.
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Clean up litter, plant a tree, validate someone who is worried about the future. There's so many small ways we can put grains of sand on the scales of justice and preserve our mental health and revolutionary spirit at the same time. Once we accept the problem, it becomes fulfilling to live and act against it. The magnitude of the problem is beyond us as individuals, but our example that we set for others and sphere of influence is ours to manage.
I choose to believe this means "do adventurism against politicians". :picard-direct-action: (jk lol)
Ironically I find cleaning up litter to make me more doomer because we can spend the whole day picking up trash and not even make the slightest dent in it.
The failure happened 20 years ago. It's gonna happen, in you're life time. Best thing people can do is take reasonable steps to minimize the impact - i.e. If you live in Miami, think about where you want to move. Don't mourn, organize (politically and your life so you don't drown in boiling oceans)
That's kind of what I mean though. It's easy to say "LOL JUST MOVE," but people have an attachment to where they live and the networks that are there. They have an attachment to the lives they imagined they'd live in those places, the people they would become. To be able to get comfortable with the necessity of moving and choosing an entirely different life path requires letting go of the one you thought you were on.
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Well put, u/MemesAreTheory.
Jokes aside, I feel like I am probably yet to go through the process of grieving that you've been through. I'm just not yet willing to let go of the hope that we'll be able to hold off the worst of climate change, and I try not to think about the mass exodus of climate refugees and how our bastard governments will deal with them. I guess these things take time.
Agreed.
Build a party. There is no Lenin, no Rosa without a party.