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George Monbiot Profile picture
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9 Sep, 4 tweets, 1 min read
Another reminder of why they call economics "the dismal science".
Here's why this "natural capital" approach is deeply flawed - unless you're hoping to make a killing from nature.
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
Markets change the meaning of the things we discuss, replacing moral obligations with commercial relationships. This corrupts and degrades our intrinsic values and empties public life of moral argument.
First we lose our wildlife and natural wonders. Then we lose our connections with what remains. Then we lose the words that described what we once knew. Then we call it capital and give it a price. This approach is morally wrong, intellectually vacuous and self-defeating.

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More from @GeorgeMonbiot

George Monbiot Profile picture
11 Sep
Every day in this country, newspapers owned by billionaires living offshore tell us that the problems we suffer are caused not by the power of money, but by immigrants and foreign officials.
And every day millions of people believe them.
This is the mess we are in.
People tell me "it's not the newspapers' fault: they just report the news."
Seriously?
They don't report the news, they create it. "News" is the propaganda of the oligarch.
They do so to shape the political life of this nation, to suit their billionaire proprietors.
Every day, massive things happen - environmental disasters, theft and fraud by the very rich, power grabs and lobbying - that go unreported by the billionaire papers. Every day, they concoct scandals out of marginal issues, or out of thin air.
Read 6 tweets
George Monbiot Profile picture
8 Sep
While capital can respond to government decisions every second, withdrawing its approval with catastrophic consequences if it doesn't like them, citizens are stuck with a voting system that allows us to make just one, incredibly crude decision every 5 years.
There's a massive imbalance of power here. The voting power of capital, with modern trading technologies, has advanced by leaps and bounds, while electoral power is trapped in an antiquated model, developed when the fastest information technology was the quill pen.
Capital's consent is given or withdrawn every moment of the day.
Our consent is PRESUMED, for five years at a time, regardless of what we might actually think about government policy.
We don't accept the principle of presumed consent in sex. Why should we accept it in politics?
Read 6 tweets
George Monbiot Profile picture
3 Sep
We have a government whose inner circle belives that some people are genetically predisposed to do better than others.

And that anyone can achieve success by pulling themselves up by their bootstraps.

Both positions cannot be true.

Both legitimise peculiar forms of cruelty.
Both these positions deny the structural causes of inequality, exclusion and poverty.

You can see why the government's rich backers champion these beliefs.
That the government's special advisers feel no obligation to resolve this crashing contradiction shows how little intellectual challenge they have received from the media and Opposition, and how effective propaganda and distraction have been in dulling our critical faculties.
Read 7 tweets
George Monbiot Profile picture
1 Sep
Boris Johnson is systematically destroying rival centres of power in the UK. Here's how he's doing it, and here's who's helping him.
My column
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
The billionaire press says the judges are out of control.
The next day it's the civil service.
Then it's the universities.
Then the mayors.
Then the protest groups.
People fall for it every time, while failing to see the whole picture.
This is a concerted attack on civil society.
This is the manufacture of outrage against any group or institution that might challenge the Prime Ministers' power. It's an essential step towards authoritarianism.

To resist it, first we have to understand it.
Read 12 tweets
George Monbiot Profile picture
25 Aug
If I were the head of @BBCNews and Current Affairs, I'd be seriously worried about this.
@DoubleDownNews is now routinely getting a bigger audience across all platforms for its videos than any BBC NCA programme.
The really amazing bit?
@DoubleDownNews is just ... TWO PEOPLE.
Albeit two remarkably talented young film makers.
What’s the secret of their success?
They provide a platform for people or perspectives that are largely excluded by mainstream broadcasters. And they do it with great style and power.
Read 7 tweets
George Monbiot Profile picture
19 Aug
Shut out of our nation, we are born on the wrong side of the law.
It is time to put this right.
Decolonise the land.
My column
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
When we visit the zoo, we think “look at those poor animals, trapped in cages”.
But we too, a free ranging species, are trapped, in tiny caged parks, on pavements and footpaths, while almost all the land is closed to us. Image
My column draws on a brilliant new book: The Book of Trespass by @nickhayesillus1.
It's a masterpiece: profound and richly textured, and beautifully illustrated by the author.
labiblioteka.co/item/the-book-…
Read 8 tweets

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