WEBVTT 00:00:05.522 --> 00:00:09.772 Would any sane person think that dumpster diving would have stopped Hitler, 00:00:09.832 --> 00:00:12.954 or that composting would have ended slavery 00:00:12.954 --> 00:00:17.204 or brought about the eight-hour workday, 00:00:17.215 --> 00:00:19.515 or that chopping wood and carrying water 00:00:19.515 --> 00:00:22.415 would have gotten people out of Tsarist prisons, 00:00:22.415 --> 00:00:25.188 or that dancing around a fire 00:00:25.188 --> 00:00:28.708 would have helped pass the Voting Rights Act of 1957 00:00:28.708 --> 00:00:31.538 or the Civil Rights Act of 1964? 00:00:32.610 --> 00:00:36.296 Then why now, with all the world at stake, 00:00:36.296 --> 00:00:38.309 do so many people retreat into these 00:00:38.309 --> 00:00:40.490 entirely personal “solutions”? 00:00:49.178 --> 00:00:51.085 Part of the problem is that we’ve been victims 00:00:51.085 --> 00:00:53.784 of a campaign of systematic misdirection. 00:00:54.470 --> 00:00:56.940 Consumer culture and the capitalist mindset 00:00:56.940 --> 00:01:00.877 have taught us to substitute acts of personal lifestyle choices 00:01:00.967 --> 00:01:03.552 for organized political resistance. 00:01:04.922 --> 00:01:07.581 The same is true for spiritual enlightenment. 00:01:08.471 --> 00:01:10.956 This is not organized political resistance. 00:01:15.136 --> 00:01:17.563 An Inconvenient Truth helped to raise consciousness 00:01:17.563 --> 00:01:18.626 about global warming, 00:01:18.978 --> 00:01:21.988 but did you notice that all of the solutions presented 00:01:22.038 --> 00:01:24.178 had to do with personal consumption— 00:01:24.178 --> 00:01:27.628 changing lightbulbs, inflating tires, driving half as much— 00:01:27.661 --> 00:01:30.151 and had nothing to do with shifting power 00:01:30.151 --> 00:01:32.011 away from corporations 00:01:32.031 --> 00:01:33.758 or stopping the growth economy 00:01:33.758 --> 00:01:35.688 that is destroying the planet? 00:01:36.334 --> 00:01:38.984 (Al Gore) “Each one of us is a cause of global warming, 00:01:38.984 --> 00:01:41.691 but each of us can make choices to change that 00:01:41.691 --> 00:01:45.391 with the things we buy, the electricity we use, the cars we drive, 00:01:45.394 --> 00:01:50.154 we can make choices to bring our individual carbon emissions to zero." 00:01:50.287 --> 00:01:52.877 But even if every person in the United States 00:01:52.877 --> 00:01:55.283 did everything the movie suggested, 00:01:55.283 --> 00:01:57.493 U.S. carbon emissions would fall 00:01:57.493 --> 00:01:59.493 by only 22%, 00:01:59.493 --> 00:02:01.733 and scientific consensus is that emissions 00:02:01.733 --> 00:02:04.371 must be reduced by at least 75% 00:02:05.101 --> 00:02:06.351 worldwide. 00:02:07.891 --> 00:02:10.051 Or let’s talk water. 00:02:10.051 --> 00:02:11.051 We so often hear that 00:02:11.051 --> 00:02:12.738 the world is running out of water. 00:02:12.738 --> 00:02:14.838 People are dying from lack of water, 00:02:14.838 --> 00:02:17.085 rivers are dewatered from lack of water. 00:02:17.969 --> 00:02:19.479 And while this is true, 00:02:19.479 --> 00:02:21.902 we’re told that because of this, 00:02:21.902 --> 00:02:24.902 we must take shorter showers. 00:02:24.902 --> 00:02:26.512 But see the disconnect? 00:02:27.571 --> 00:02:28.844 Because I take showers, I’m responsible 00:02:28.844 --> 00:02:31.844 for drawing down aquifers? 00:02:31.844 --> 00:02:32.844 Well, no. 00:02:33.514 --> 00:02:36.494 More that 90% of the water used by humans 00:02:36.494 --> 00:02:38.864 is used by agriculture and industry. 00:02:39.349 --> 00:02:40.979 The remaining 10% is split 00:02:40.979 --> 00:02:42.829 between municipalities 00:02:42.829 --> 00:02:45.499 and actual living, breathing, individual humans. 00:02:46.989 --> 00:02:50.069 Collectively, municipal golf courses use as much water 00:02:50.081 --> 00:02:52.211 as municipal human beings. 00:02:53.066 --> 00:02:54.616 That’s insane. 00:02:56.991 --> 00:02:59.727 People, both human people and fish people, 00:03:00.035 --> 00:03:01.405 aren’t dying because the world 00:03:01.405 --> 00:03:03.220 is running out of water. 00:03:03.220 --> 00:03:04.060 They’re dying 00:03:04.060 --> 00:03:06.140 because the water is being stolen. 00:03:11.449 --> 00:03:13.089 Well, let’s talk energy. 00:03:13.090 --> 00:03:15.490 Kirkpatrick Sale summarized it well. 00:03:15.490 --> 00:03:16.860 “For the past 15 years 00:03:16.860 --> 00:03:19.000 the story has been the same every year. 00:03:19.000 --> 00:03:20.420 Individual consumption— 00:03:20.420 --> 00:03:22.810 residential, by private car, and so on— 00:03:22.810 --> 00:03:24.500 is never more than about a quarter 00:03:24.500 --> 00:03:26.251 of all consumption. 00:03:26.251 --> 00:03:29.271 The vast majority is commercial, industrial, 00:03:29.271 --> 00:03:31.721 corporate, by agribusiness and government. 00:03:31.721 --> 00:03:33.211 [He forgot the military.] 00:03:33.211 --> 00:03:35.251 So, even if we all took up cycling 00:03:35.251 --> 00:03:36.701 and wood stoves, 00:03:36.701 --> 00:03:38.591 it would have a negligible impact 00:03:38.591 --> 00:03:40.331 on energy use, global warming, 00:03:40.331 --> 00:03:42.141 and atmospheric pollution." 00:03:49.671 --> 00:03:51.301 Or let’s talk waste. 00:03:51.831 --> 00:03:52.831 In 2005, per-capita 00:03:52.831 --> 00:03:55.015 municipal waste production 00:03:55.015 --> 00:03:57.645 (basically everything that’s put out at the curb) 00:03:57.840 --> 00:04:01.600 in the United States was about 1,660 pounds. 00:04:03.263 --> 00:04:04.663 Let’s say you’re a die-hard, 00:04:04.663 --> 00:04:06.093 simple-living activist, 00:04:06.293 --> 00:04:07.933 and you reduce this number to zero. 00:04:08.497 --> 00:04:10.037 You recycle everything. 00:04:10.347 --> 00:04:12.629 You bring cloth bags shopping. 00:04:12.905 --> 00:04:14.455 You fix your toaster. 00:04:14.455 --> 00:04:17.255 Your toes poke out of your old tennis shoes. 00:04:17.481 --> 00:04:19.591 You’re not done yet, though. 00:04:19.591 --> 00:04:20.591 Since municipal waste 00:04:20.591 --> 00:04:22.757 includes not just residential waste, 00:04:22.757 --> 00:04:24.327 but also waste from government offices 00:04:24.327 --> 00:04:25.597 and businesses, 00:04:25.597 --> 00:04:27.227 you march down to those offices, 00:04:27.227 --> 00:04:29.347 waste reduction pamphlets in hand, 00:04:29.347 --> 00:04:31.987 and convince them to cut down on their waste 00:04:31.987 --> 00:04:34.177 enough to eliminate your share of it. 00:04:35.163 --> 00:04:37.273 Well, I’ve got some bad news. 00:04:37.273 --> 00:04:38.233 The municipal waste 00:04:38.233 --> 00:04:39.603 accounts for only 3 percent 00:04:39.603 --> 00:04:41.163 of total waste production 00:04:41.163 --> 00:04:42.223 in the United States. 00:04:49.874 --> 00:04:51.484 I want to be clear. 00:04:51.894 --> 00:04:54.664 I’m not saying that we shouldn’t live simply. 00:04:55.421 --> 00:04:57.501 I live reasonably simply myself, 00:04:58.169 --> 00:05:00.729 but I don’t pretend that not buying much, 00:05:00.729 --> 00:05:03.239 or not driving much, or not having kids, 00:05:03.239 --> 00:05:05.049 is a powerful political act, 00:05:05.049 --> 00:05:07.099 or that it’s deeply revolutionary, 00:05:07.099 --> 00:05:08.529 because it isn't. 00:05:09.950 --> 00:05:13.060 Personal change does not equal social change. 00:05:14.208 --> 00:05:15.208 So how, then, 00:05:15.208 --> 00:05:17.988 and especially with all the world at stake, 00:05:17.988 --> 00:05:19.388 have we come to accept 00:05:19.388 --> 00:05:21.748 these utterly insufficient responses? 00:05:25.109 --> 00:05:28.259 I think part of it is that we’re in a double bind. 00:05:28.259 --> 00:05:29.589 A double bind is when you’re given 00:05:29.589 --> 00:05:31.089 multiple options, 00:05:31.089 --> 00:05:32.739 but no matter what option you choose, 00:05:32.739 --> 00:05:34.159 you lose, 00:05:34.159 --> 00:05:36.329 and withdrawal is not an option. 00:05:37.818 --> 00:05:39.968 At this point it should be pretty easy 00:05:39.968 --> 00:05:41.688 to recognize that every action 00:05:41.688 --> 00:05:43.128 involving the industrial economy 00:05:43.128 --> 00:05:44.198 is destructive, 00:05:44.448 --> 00:05:45.978 and we shouldn’t pretend that 00:05:45.978 --> 00:05:48.398 solar photovoltaics, for example, 00:05:48.398 --> 00:05:49.718 exempt us from this. 00:05:49.718 --> 00:05:50.788 They still require mining 00:05:50.788 --> 00:05:52.788 and transportation infrastructures 00:05:52.788 --> 00:05:55.378 at every point in the production process. 00:05:55.378 --> 00:05:56.598 The same can be said 00:05:56.598 --> 00:05:59.598 for every other so-called green technology. 00:06:03.349 --> 00:06:05.369 If we choose option one— 00:06:05.369 --> 00:06:06.369 if we avidly participate 00:06:06.369 --> 00:06:08.359 in the industrial economy— 00:06:08.359 --> 00:06:10.899 we may think in the short term we win 00:06:10.899 --> 00:06:12.929 because we may accumulate wealth, 00:06:12.929 --> 00:06:14.549 the marker of so-called success 00:06:14.549 --> 00:06:16.049 in this culture. 00:06:16.049 --> 00:06:17.759 But we lose, 00:06:17.759 --> 00:06:20.289 because in so doing we give up our empathy, 00:06:20.289 --> 00:06:21.919 our animal humanity. 00:06:22.432 --> 00:06:23.812 And we really lose because 00:06:23.812 --> 00:06:26.202 industrial civilization is killing the planet, 00:06:26.202 --> 00:06:28.202 which means everyone loses. 00:06:29.009 --> 00:06:31.609 If we choose the “alternative” option 00:06:31.609 --> 00:06:33.009 of living more simply, 00:06:33.009 --> 00:06:34.519 thus causing less harm, 00:06:34.519 --> 00:06:36.439 but still not stopping the industrial economy 00:06:36.439 --> 00:06:38.079 from killing the planet, 00:06:38.079 --> 00:06:40.399 we may in the short term think we win 00:06:40.399 --> 00:06:42.199 because we got to feel pure, 00:06:42.199 --> 00:06:43.359 and we didn’t even have to give up 00:06:43.359 --> 00:06:45.199 all of our empathy, 00:06:45.199 --> 00:06:47.859 just enough to justify not stopping the horror, 00:06:48.429 --> 00:06:50.199 but once again we really lose, 00:06:50.199 --> 00:06:51.559 because industrial civilization 00:06:51.559 --> 00:06:53.039 is killing the planet, 00:06:53.039 --> 00:06:55.279 which means everyone still loses. 00:06:59.737 --> 00:07:00.957 The third option, 00:07:01.175 --> 00:07:04.355 acting decisively to stop the industrial economy, 00:07:04.955 --> 00:07:07.438 is very scary for a number of reasons, 00:07:07.703 --> 00:07:10.143 including but not restricted to the fact that 00:07:10.143 --> 00:07:11.143 we’d lose some of the luxuries, 00:07:11.143 --> 00:07:13.493 for example, electricity 00:07:13.493 --> 00:07:16.353 to which we’ve grown very accustomed, 00:07:16.353 --> 00:07:18.213 and the fact that those in power 00:07:18.213 --> 00:07:20.183 might try to kill us if we seriously impede 00:07:20.183 --> 00:07:22.333 their ability to exploit the world— 00:07:23.043 --> 00:07:27.043 none of which alters the fact that it’s a better option than a dead planet. 00:07:27.722 --> 00:07:30.742 Any option is a better option than a dead planet. 00:07:37.011 --> 00:07:39.141 Besides being ineffective at causing 00:07:39.141 --> 00:07:40.721 the sorts of changes necessary 00:07:40.721 --> 00:07:42.991 stop this culture from killing the planet, 00:07:42.991 --> 00:07:44.491 there are at least four other problems 00:07:44.491 --> 00:07:47.031 with perceiving simple living as a political act 00:07:47.031 --> 00:07:49.161 as opposed to living simply 00:07:49.161 --> 00:07:52.161 because that’s what you want to do. 00:07:52.161 --> 00:07:54.459 The first is that it’s predicated on the flawed notion 00:07:54.459 --> 00:07:56.999 that humans inevitably harm their landbase. 00:07:57.895 --> 00:07:59.620 Simple living as a political act 00:07:59.620 --> 00:08:01.950 consists solely of harm reduction, 00:08:01.950 --> 00:08:03.710 ignoring the fact that humans 00:08:03.710 --> 00:08:06.030 can help the Earth as well as harm it. 00:08:06.844 --> 00:08:08.554 We can rehabilitate streams, 00:08:08.980 --> 00:08:11.280 we can get rid of noxious invasives, 00:08:11.404 --> 00:08:13.444 we can remove dams, 00:08:13.444 --> 00:08:15.544 we can disrupt a political system 00:08:15.544 --> 00:08:16.784 tilted towards the rich 00:08:16.784 --> 00:08:19.264 as well as an extractive economic system, 00:08:19.790 --> 00:08:22.070 we can destroy the industrial economy 00:08:22.070 --> 00:08:24.650 that is destroying the real, physical world. 00:08:36.938 --> 00:08:38.288 The second problem, 00:08:38.288 --> 00:08:39.898 and this is another big one, 00:08:40.275 --> 00:08:42.351 is that it incorrectly assigns blame 00:08:42.351 --> 00:08:45.031 to the individual, and most especially 00:08:45.031 --> 00:08:48.231 to individuals who are particularly powerless, 00:08:48.736 --> 00:08:51.316 instead of to those who actually wield power 00:08:51.316 --> 00:08:52.416 in this system 00:08:52.416 --> 00:08:54.446 and to the system itself. 00:08:59.911 --> 00:09:01.241 The third problem 00:09:01.241 --> 00:09:04.391 is that it accepts capitalism’s redefinition of us 00:09:04.391 --> 00:09:06.501 from citizens to consumers. 00:09:07.925 --> 00:09:09.705 By accepting this redefinition, 00:09:10.244 --> 00:09:12.734 we reduce our potential forms of resistance 00:09:12.734 --> 00:09:14.754 to consuming and not consuming. 00:09:16.776 --> 00:09:18.946 But citizens have a much wider range 00:09:18.946 --> 00:09:20.776 of available resistance tactics, 00:09:20.776 --> 00:09:22.626 including voting or not voting, 00:09:22.626 --> 00:09:25.596 running for office, pamphleting, boycotting, 00:09:25.596 --> 00:09:27.666 organizing, lobbying, protesting, 00:09:28.165 --> 00:09:32.165 and, when a government becomes destructive of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, 00:09:32.441 --> 00:09:35.001 we have the right to alter or abolish it. 00:09:40.512 --> 00:09:41.832 The fourth problem 00:09:41.832 --> 00:09:43.592 is that the endpoint of the logic 00:09:43.592 --> 00:09:45.712 behind simple living as a political act 00:09:46.152 --> 00:09:47.322 is suicide. 00:09:48.169 --> 00:09:50.349 If every act within an industrial economy 00:09:50.349 --> 00:09:51.289 is destructive, 00:09:51.289 --> 00:09:53.589 and if we want to stop this destruction, 00:09:53.589 --> 00:09:56.299 and if we are unwilling or unable to question, 00:09:56.299 --> 00:09:57.490 much less destroy, 00:09:57.490 --> 00:09:58.710 the intellectual, moral, 00:09:58.710 --> 00:10:00.800 economic, and physical infrastructures 00:10:00.800 --> 00:10:02.133 that cause every act 00:10:02.133 --> 00:10:03.466 within an industrial economy 00:10:03.466 --> 00:10:04.800 to be destructive, 00:10:04.800 --> 00:10:07.020 then we can easily come to believe 00:10:07.020 --> 00:10:08.020 that we will cause 00:10:08.020 --> 00:10:09.880 the least destruction possible 00:10:09.880 --> 00:10:11.080 if we are dead. 00:10:13.436 --> 00:10:14.926 The good news is 00:10:14.926 --> 00:10:16.796 that there are other options. 00:10:16.796 --> 00:10:19.506 We can follow the examples of brave activists 00:10:19.506 --> 00:10:22.356 who lived through the difficult times I mentioned— 00:10:22.356 --> 00:10:24.963 Nazi Germany, Tsarist Russia, 00:10:24.963 --> 00:10:27.093 antebellum United States— 00:10:27.093 --> 00:10:28.584 who did far more 00:10:28.584 --> 00:10:31.584 than manifest a form of personal purity. 00:10:31.584 --> 00:10:33.822 They actively opposed the injustices 00:10:33.822 --> 00:10:35.932 that surrounded them. 00:10:35.932 --> 00:10:37.272 We can follow the example 00:10:37.272 --> 00:10:38.392 of those who remembered 00:10:38.392 --> 00:10:39.652 that the role of an activist 00:10:39.652 --> 00:10:40.952 is not to navigate systems 00:10:40.952 --> 00:10:42.352 of oppressive power 00:10:42.352 --> 00:10:43.732 with as much personal integrity 00:10:43.732 --> 00:10:45.562 as possible, 00:10:45.562 --> 00:10:46.680 but rather to confront 00:10:46.680 --> 00:10:48.760 and take down those systems. 00:10:55.999 --> 00:10:57.239 Let’s get to work.