For years I’ve been struggling with a paradox that seems fundamental to our age. We live under a system that celebrates freedom and choice. Yet almost everyone in a position of power or influence subscribes to the same set of preposterous beliefs.
Thread/
Here are a few of them.
- That economic growth can continue indefinitely on a finite planet.
- That the economic system should be granted primacy over the Earth systems that sustain it.
- That you should pledge allegiance to capitalism, even if you don’t know what it is.
- That natural wealth can be turned into private property, and the right of a person to own it corresponds to the numbers in their bank account.
- That the “invisible hand of the market” can one day solve our problems, though it has failed to do so to date.
- That the unhindered acquisition of enormous wealth by a few could lead to something other than economic and political disaster.
- That taxes sufficient to break the cycle of accumulation and redistribute this wealth are unthinkable.
- That permitting a handful of offshore billionaires to own the media, set the political agenda and tell us where our best interests lie is somehow OK.
- That democracy can proceed in the almost complete absence of civic knowledge and useful information.
- That we are best-served by an education system which recognises only one kind of intelligence (analytical, linear and hyperlexic) while neglecting other forms (spatial, systemic etc), writing off millions of children.
What amazes me is that no terror or torture is required to persuade people to fall into line with these crazy beliefs. Somehow the system has created an entire class of politicians, officials, media commentators, cultural leaders, academics and intellectuals who support them.
Reading accounts of 20th Century terror, it sometimes seems to me that there was more dissent among intellectuals confronting totalitarian regimes than there is in our age of “freedom” and “choice”.
It’s not total. There are a few dissenters.
They are not, on the whole, imprisoned or executed. The system is so powerful that it doesn’t need to crush them. They are simply ignored and marginalised. It is entirely unruffled by their objections.
So what’s going on? How has this system created a near-consensus around its ridiculous ideas? How has it ensured not only that people of power and influence defend them, but that almost everyone else nods along, or simply shrugs as Earth systems spiral towards collapse?
I don’t have a complete or satisfactory answer. But here are some guesses:

1. That petty ambition (better job, bigger house, smoother car) is as potent an enforcer of consensus as state terror.

2. That the billionaire press has become more powerful than human courage.
3. That spectacle, banter and an obsession with trivia and celebrity are more effective at defusing dissent than coercion and fear.
4. That our current organisational structures, which look as if they offer choice and freedom, actually do nothing of the kind. On the contrary, though it might have been accidentally achieved, we have arrived at an almost perfectly calibrated system of social control.

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More from @GeorgeMonbiot

Jan 26
Last week I wrote about the dumping of used gillnets by French and Spanish boats* in Scottish waters. My contact has sent me more photos of dumped nets landed by local trawlers. I'll spare you the very distressing shots of seals and porpoises caught in them, but brace yourselves:
This ghost net has trapped hundreds of large fish, which would have died slowly as they were rolled over the seafloor. Gillnetting is extremely light and fine, so this probably amounts to several miles of net.
This one has picked up some large brown crabs, which are crucial to thriving ecosystems.
Read 7 tweets
Jan 26
I’ve been taking a lot of heat over the past week, stoked by certain Twitter accounts, on the grounds that I “support trophy hunting”.
I don’t. I hate it.
But I have been seeking to engage with complexities which some people refuse to acknowledge.
Thread/
These complexities affect some places, in some circumstances. They are not universal, but they are important. In these cases, trophy hunting currently helps to protect some crucial wildlife habitats and allows populations of highly threatened species to recover.
To give a few of many examples, trophy hunting has contributed to the remarkable rise in the number of both white and black rhinos in Namibia and South Africa, to the recovery of the Selous Reserve in Tanzania and to the protection of polar bears by Inuit communities in Nunavut.
Read 12 tweets
Jan 25
It's an atrocity on an unimaginable scale, overseen by two of our national heroes, Winston Churchill and John Maynard Keynes. 3 million deaths in India caused by a deliberate policy to ‘reduce the consumption of the poor’. By @jasonhickel
newint.org/features/2021/…
But most people in the UK have no idea. If we've heard of the Bengal Famine at all, we remember it as an act of God. It wasn't. It was the direct result of elective economic policy. It has been airbrushed from national consciousness as effectively as any Soviet crime.
It's a reminder that there's something very strange about the UK: a remarkable ability to blot out the past. No coercion or terror is required, just the British nod and wink. The same applies to the concentration camps in Kenya and many other atrocities
Read 6 tweets
Jan 24
It's the big reveal ... of the cover of Regenesis, designed by @PenguinUKBooks.
I think it's wonderful.
Watch it unfold.
The book's published on May 26th, but you can pre-order it here: smarturl.it/regenesisbook
It would be great, if you want to order one, if you could do so through independent bookshops. Please ask your local shop. Or here are links to a couple of wonderful ones: Pages of Hackney, and Book-ish in Crickhowell.
pagesofhackney.co.uk/webshop/produc…
book-ish.co.uk/product/978024…
What's it about? Well, it's a revolutionary new vision for addressing the greatest challenges humanity has ever faced: feeding the world while simultaneously preventing climate and ecological breakdown.
Read 5 tweets
Jan 21
I'm not a voice piece for anyone, and you slander me by saying so. I hate trophy hunting and I'm repulsed by the people who do it. But the evidence shows powerfully that, when well-regulated, it creates a powerful incentive for the conservation of both species and habitats.
If you disagree, please read this paper. There's a wealth of evidence showing that regulated trophy hunting, disgusting as I find it, has brought wildlife and habitats back from the brink, while generating enthusiasm and income among local people. iucn.org/sites/dev/file…
The world does not divide up as neatly as we might wish.
Respect people with consistent principles.
But beware of people with consistent facts.
Read 12 tweets
Jan 19
This is a truly shocking story: strong evidence of systematic dumping of used fishing gear by Spanish and French boats in the UK's seas, and its devastating impact on marine life.
This isn't about nationalism though - we should all be horrified by it. theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
Every time the boats dock they take on miles of new net. When they return to port after 4-6 weeks at sea, they dispose of ... nothing. No used gear, no rubbish. Where does it go?
This is what local trawlers are now dredging up on every trip. Massive bundles of dumped nets.
These "ghost nets" are full of the animals they catch as they drift through the sea. I will spare you the pictures of the dead seals I've been sent: they are extremely distressing. But what follows are snapshots of the indiscriminate slaughter happening around our coasts.
Read 10 tweets

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