Fellow environmentalists are we barking up the wrong tree?
Abstract
In her book her book, Environmentalism and
Political Theory, Robyn Eckersley
makes a distinction between
"survivalist" and "emancipatory"
branches of Green political thought, and
suggests that each has a different assessment
of human nature. The emancipatory
wing, which I have operated in for
the last dozen years, has accepted three
major premises. These are that people are
alienated by the present system and an
ecological revolution would liberate
them along with the Earth; that a radical
and dramatic change in consciousness
and culture is possible and is the leading
edge of social change; and that a society
comprised of decentralized and self-reliant
communities is ethically and socially
desirable.
However, what if these assumptions are
wrong, or at least partially so? Might that
require a radical rethinking of our strategies?
Let's take a minute to look at each
assumption in turn.