"Rupert Murdoch is, of course, notorious for using his control of information to support his business interests... (but): The suppression of stories that may harm corporate interests is hardly unique to Murdoch's media empire" ("The Silent Takeover: Global Capitalism And The Death Of Democracy", Noreena Hertz, Arrow, 2001, p176).

"Power, like a desolating pestilence,
Pollutes whate'er it touches; and obedience,
Bane of all genius, virtue, freedom, truth,
Makes slaves of men, and of the human frame,
A mechanised automaton."
Percy Bysshe Shelley

"Technological change is simply the microeconomic term for industrialisation, or the continual development of the forces of production that has been going on at a brisk clip since the 18th Century. Over time, industrialisation produces more with the same endowments; technological change is a principal means by which it does this" ("The Capitalist Imperative: Territory, Technology, And Industrial Growth", Michael Storper & Richard Walker, Blackwell, 1989, p53).

"Power: The increase in energy available for both constructive and destructive social uses has been one of the main marks of technological progress... from the earliest beginnings of 'civilisation' in the Fourth Millennium BC... Except for food power, wind power, and water power, all later sources of energy, dependent upon chemical transformations (coal, petroleum, uranium), have increased productivity at the price of degrading the environment, more or less in direct proportion to the quantity used" ("Pentagon Of Power", Vol. 2 of "The Myth Of The Machine", Secker & Warburg, 1964, 1970).

"A Better Life or Utter Chaos? Through technology, Man hoped to conquer the world but these hopes have not been realised. If he is to have a future, he must clean up the mess he has made and use his knowledge with greater care" ("Technology: The Mind Alive Encyclopedia", Marshall Cavendish Books Ltd., 1968-84, p189).

"And when the greatest flagellant movement of all time swept through Germany in 1348-9, it too turned out to possess rituals and songs, (along with signs and symbols indicating) that some, at least, of its leaders must have come from a clandestine movement, and been able to draw upon an esoteric tradition. The outbreak of 1348-9 was precipitated by the Black Death" ("The Pursuit Of The Millennium", Norman Cohn, Paladin, 1957/70, p131).

This sort of social movement back in late mediaeval times mirrors our own era. Under the hammer of the Covid-19 plague, ultimately caused by environmental disruption, we now even confront the outbreak in Aotearoa/NZ of irrational far Right, crackpot conspiracy parties like the NZ Public Party, Advance NZ, and the New Conservatives!

"At best, our inquiry establishes the approach of certain kinds of challenges, but cannot pretend to judge how individual nations may meet these challenges. For the majority of capitalist nations, however, I do not see how one can avoid the conclusion that the required transformation will be likely to exceed the capabilities of representative democracy" ("An Inquiry Into The Human Prospect", Robert L Heilbronner, Calder & Boyars, 1974/5, p90).

"" ...humanity cannot grow consumption and waste streams forever on a finite planet. There are limits. The evidence is clear. We are reaching these limits" ("The End Of Growth: Adapting To Our New Economic Reality", Richard Heinberg, New Society Publishers, 2011, p152).

"If Black America genuinely wishes to pay homage to its real heroes, and to all those unsung people who fought by their side; if the world wishes to pay homage, then it's time to march on Washington. Again. Keeping hope alive - for all of us." ("The Ordinary Person's Guide To Empire", Arundhati Roy, Harper Perennial, 2004, p145).

"Trump held up a mirror to American society and it reflected back a grotesque image (of white racism) that many had refused to see" (Trump's History Of Racism And The Reckoning It Has Forced", The Atlantic, September 2020).

"Progressives have alternative economic ideas and paradigms that can help us move towards a truly systemic transformation but these have not yet been translated into a critical mass on the ground" ("The Race To Replace A Dying Neo-liberalism Is On. As Of Now, The Rightwing Is Ahead", The Wire, 19/5/20, Walden Bello; refer also to Walden Bello at Qoshe:).

In this article I look again at various global trends and how these trends relate to Aotearoa/NZ. I weave together a raft of themes as I see and interpret them. It is a lengthy article intended to examine issues in the fullness of the various and multiple interconnections, which we have to address. The major themes include the continuing momentum to division, conflict and war; the increasing impact of technological change; the growing environmental crisis; and so on.

They all comprise the complex and intimately entangled drama of what can be called the general global crisis enveloping the peoples of the world and our future prospects. These international issues now form the stage for the domestic scene in Aotearoa/NZ. In response, we seek sets of solutions to the problems identified, and how we can contribute positively on the global scene.

The NZ Scene

Our 2020 general election most thankfully returned the Labour Party-led Government to power. This Party actually achieved a massive landslide victory and can claim a mandate to govern on its own. But Labour went into negotiation with the Green Party. I, for one, had fervently hoped we would get a Labour/Greens/Maori Party Coalition government dedicated to transformational change. The cooperation agreement (a Coalition-lite?) that was finalised by the end of October 2020 falls well short of this commitment but still gives us a good flexible springboard from which to prod the Government on.

It is yet so important and so very sobering to record that without the intervention of the Covid-19 crisis as it were, the Labour-led Government would have been almost certainly rolled out of office. Up to then, there had been an orchestrated and very nasty media campaign mounted in conjunction with the Rightwing National and ACT Parties to subvert our Government, which was democratically elected in 2017 (despite all the odds against them, including those just cited!).

Crush The Greens Is The Corporate Cry!

I expound on this charge a bit later below in light of previous documentation and analysis. At this juncture, however, I want to firstly take up the case of the environmental movement in the context of the Western capitalist system. This movement encompasses grass & flax roots activists; change agents of various description; pressure groups; non-government organisations (NGOs); and political parties. In particular, I give some illustrative detail and commentary in regard to Aotearoa/NZ.

Since environmental concerns came to some substantial global attention in the 1960s, these concerns have worked out in a whole range of ways in the West. Across capitalist enterprise, responses and reactions have spanned the political spectrum in the sense here of a spectrum spanning, at one end, acute awareness and constructive action (e.g., the Club of Rome) right over to outright antagonism and hostility (see, e.g., "The Greenpeace Guide To Anti-Environmental Organisations", Carl Deal, Odonian Press, 1993). Overwhelmingly, on the whole, the latter pole of hostile opinion and resistance has predominated.

Capitalist, and indeed industrialist, resistance to environmentalism is encapsulated in some pithy comments as follows. Under the heading of "The Environmental Sceptics (It is noted that): There has been a backlash from those who see environmentalist policies as putting a brake on human development. The world is more robust than it seems, goes one theory, and technological advances will counter the effects of environmental degradation" ("The Little Book Of Big Ideas: 150 Concepts And Breakthroughs That Transformed History", Daniel Smith, Michael O'Mara Books Ltd., 2017, p207).

In this summary overview of anti-environmentalism, the observation is also made that: "Others say that environmentalist 'red tape' threatens economic growth and jobs. In 2012, for example, the future US President Donald Trump asserted: 'The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make US manufacturing non-competitive'. While few serious scientists give any credence to such claims, it is indicative of the hostility environmentalism can encounter" (ibid.). For sure, this stuff reflects hardline capitalism and still prevails today.

Getting Stuck Into The Greens!

A couple of points are worthy of register for my line of argument in the quotes just above. The first relates to the challenge to existing patterns of business behaviour and employment. There was much hype and discussion in Aotearoa/NZ following the election outcome about some farmers who allegedly voted Labour in a desperate move to try and keep the Greens out of office. Again, this was linked with a wider supposed similar move by a number of National and also more Centrist-oriented people. Other than hearsay, there is no evidence to confirm claims of this nature.

What, in fact, these claims showed was how certain elements of the mainstream media like MediaWorks can operate "hand-in-glove" with the Opposition National Party, and this Party's vested interest constituencies - in this specific case, Federated Farmers above all. TV3 dramatically promoted the claims about rural strategic voting that were made by both National Party identities and farmer representatives (e.g., NewsHub Live At 6pm, 19/10/20). One interviewee even painted the Greens as a threat just like a "powder-keg" ready to explode! (ibid.).

Farmers and National Party agents pushing these claims are very resistant to any stronger measures to control greenhouse gas emissions (GGEs), water pollution, etc. Agriculture accounts for roughly half of NZ's GGEs, while our country's per capita contribution is right up at the higher end of the scale. Yet our dairy industry exults in a self-image of economic efficiency regardless of its record on the environment - excessive GGEs; nitrate contaminated waterways from synthetic fertiliser; grossly overstocked paddocks; world's biggest quantity of imported palm kernel extract (PKE) feed; etc.

Some media operating in National's interests even tried to spin the line that the voters who decided the de facto "first-past-the-post" win for the Labour Party were "Nats on loan" as it were. The tale went on that the now newly re-elected Government ought to be gentle with them, and avoid any transformative measures! In particular, it should reject any coalition deal with the dangerous Greens. Even Radio NZ (RNZ) journalist Peter Wilson parroted this line.

So, let's get this right. National and its "glove-puppet" media moaned for years after the 2017 general election that NZ First's leader Winston Peters played arbitrary and naughty king-maker. Peters went with Labour, instead of National which got most votes. Allegedly, he betrayed many of his own more conservative voters. However, when Labour wins an unprecedented outright popular victory under MMP in the 2020 election, the malign spin is that this victory is really a National one! Almost hysterical laughter can be heard stage left.

Far Right Syndrome

The second point I want to register at this stage is the psychological syndrome of the far Right in its perception and reaction to threats as defined to its tribalist security. Any threats are hugely human in form, e.g., militant Islam, China, Russia, the Black Lives Matter Movement, refugees and boat-people; and so on. On the other hand, apparent environmental threats or obstacles to progress are pictured as only illusions, as exemplified by the stupidity of Donald Trump on anthropogenic climate change. Any such environmental problems are always open to technological control and economic cut-through according to this viewpoint. Human hubris and god-like technology rule - okay!?

All this constitutes a greater irony today, as humankind continues to suffer the inroads of the Covid-19 virus, a horrible instance of blowback from our plunder of Nature. Trump's China-concocted global warming hoax, as voiced in 2012, was parallelled by his later allegations about the China-instigated viral assault on America and other countries. At worst, conspiracy theory claims the virus was contrived in a Chinese lab to help conquer the world!

Capitalist Contradictions And Green Crisis

During the run-up to the 2020 election, the media bias that has so grossly and outrageously favoured the far Right ACT Party and its leader David Seymour over the years came to the fore, ushering him into Parliament with a rag-tag band of extra MPs. ACT's new total of ten MPs now matches the ten Green MPs. Hearteningly, the Greens - even full in the face of unfriendly media bias! - managed to extend its seating line-up in Parliament.

The TV channels, including TV1, gave Seymour and ACT especial attention. Before the election result, David Seymour was a lone ACT member in Parliament. The Greens actually had eight MPs yet Seymour was constantly given the priority in reportage. Seymour himself is such an ideologically perverse clown it is stunning how commentators can take him seriously and give him any credence. However, his Party represents the globalist comprador elite in Aotearoa/NZ. Big money most certainly talks! MediaWorks in particular acts as a special conduit for ACT Party messaging and Seymour's antics.

ACT had brazenly and callously showed its contempt for our Muslim minority community in the wake of the March 2019 mosque massacres by opposing proposals to curb "hate speech" and regulate semi-automatic guns. In the latter instance, the Government has passed legislation to this effect. But ACT has rallied a potentially dangerous clutch of gun lovers under its umbrella, who now have representation in Parliament. This kind of thing is redolent of the notorious American National Rifle Association (NRA), which obviously gives inspiration for like-minded groups overseas.

Furthermore, the ACT Party is so extreme it aims to dismantle the Welfare State as much as possible and give the corporate "free market" full rein. It exults in its climate change scepticism and general Rightwing fundamentalist anti-environmentalism. Correspondingly, the media promotion of ACT before the election was egregiously friendly, with the minimum of criticism.

Cynically Schooled Media

On the other hand, controversy over a so-called "Green School" in Taranaki gave an excuse for the anti-Green bias of much of the mainstream media to let fly quite nastily (e.g., "School Hypocrisy Dents Greens' Integrity", Press, Luke Malpass, 29/8/20; also, the editorial in the same edition; and repeated criticism from TV3). When you consider the case of the corporate-oriented media calling out the Greens for an alleged ethical lapse, you just have to laugh out loud!

This is the same media, which has cynically protected - and even promoted - the devious machinations of the National Party, until this Party disintegrated in the wake of Covid-19. As well, the media has facilitated the unfettered free market extremism of National's mate ACT for well over a decade or more. Again, it has largely enabled the rampant climate change scepticism and anti-environmentalism manifest in both these Parties, despite a supposed increasing concern about the state of the planet and our country.

In the last months before the 2020 general election, the Greens had seemed to be teetering out at one point in a "white-knuckle" ride during the Green School controversy. But enough of us got behind them at the last moment for a big boost up. Green MP Chloe Swarbrick actually managed to win the electorate seat of Auckland Central away from National, as well as fending off a Labour rival (and increased her majority once special votes were counted. Ed.).

Stuff's Political Editor Luke Malpass, along with other Rightwing columnists like Mike Yardley, has called for Labour to go it alone and ignore any agreement with the Greens. Deeply imbibed with corporate free market ideology, Malpass certainly stands out for his anti-Green attitude. He cynically casts the Green Party with ACT "as both (being) at the margins of political life" as opposed to what he calls "middle NZ" ("Labour Can Go It Alone, So Why Wouldn't It?", Press, 24/10/20).

Malpass throws up a smokescreen by picturing the Greens' support for cannabis reform as something allergic for middle NZ. But the most important truth in NZ politics is that without all the Green Party work to get the Zero Carbon Act passed, our nation would not be so nearly committed to tackling the dire mounting threat of global warming.

While the valid criticism can be well made that we need far more urgent and comprehensive NZ action on this global crisis, it has been eminently due to the Greens that we have actually got this far. Labour Prime Minister (PM) Jacinda Ardern might have heralded the importance of action to combat climate change. But we owe what action has been taken to date primarily to the Greens, and in particular to James Shaw in his role as Minister for Climate Change (thankfully continuing within the new Government!).

Anti-Green Crap In Crisis

The constant game of the mainstream media is to try and divide the Left as much as possible. This was demonstrated on November 1st, 2020, the very day that the newly elected Labour Government and the Greens signed their cooperation agreement. Both TV1 and TV3 gleefully highlighted criticism of the Green Party by several former Green MPs, who condemned the Party for allegedly selling out to Labour.

TV3 opened its evening news bulletin by headlining this criticism. Political Editor Tova O'Brien then waded into the Greens in typically dramatic "over-the-top-gotcha" style. The aim was clearly to take the shine off the co-operation agreement and spoil the occasion. Such media games present a constant problem for the Left. We desperately need radical change but, as PM Ardern noted during her victory speech on election day, humankind is showing increased "polarisation". The ongoing challenge will be how to navigate the social tensions while effecting really positive transformation.

Given all the hostility to the Greens, it is so ironic that of all the political parties in Aotearoa/NZ the Greens are far better grounded than the rest in terms of scientific evidence, and have been for decades. Earth is truly in ecological crisis with regard to human survival, as signposted in a recent warning about global warming by the UN ("Humanity 'Wilfully Destructive'", Press, 14/10/20). For sure, the UN "warned that the Earth was becoming uninhabitable for millions of humans" (ibid.).

Stuff and other NZ media have deliberately played down the critical contribution of the Greens to getting us on track to tackle global warming, and the general global environmental crisis. Yet Stuff's hypocritical greenwashing is so rife that it even puts out from time to time a publication titled "The Forever Project". This expresses "Stuff's pledge to treat climate change and sustainability with the gravity they deserve - permanently".

The Forever Project promulgates a lot of excellent information and appeal for relevant action. There is just one huge stumbling-block - Stuff's commitment to corporate capitalism! This commitment to the upper class interests that Stuff has represented for decades means the contradiction of really going for more of the same - i.e., more conventional-type economic growth, and so on.

Overall, the 2020 general election result proved to be a resounding victory for the Left in Aotearoa/NZ. Yet, while many of us have rejoiced in celebration of such a progressive outcome, the global challenges (transmitted into domestic issues too!) - as outlined in the introductory quotes and the opening paragraph to this article - continue to press hard upon us all. There remain plenty of big political problems ahead in effecting real positive change, and I shall cover some in more detail below as I continue to weave the various threads of discourse together.

Traditional Mainstream Mass Media In Crisis Mode

At this stage, I want to elaborate on the rampant bias of NZ's Rightwing mainstream media and its implications for democracy. This syndrome, of course, is deeply embedded in the Western capitalist media in general, and especially its Anglo-American version. In particular, I want to stress the problems of really meaningful public discourse and the extent to which it has been so badly warped by this same media.

In a couple of recent articles, I documented a mainstream media campaign to subvert the Labour/New Zealand First Coalition government in the then coming 2020 general election ("Rap Hard The Reactionary Right: Grow the Progressives - Survival Is At Stake!", Watchdog 153, April 2020, & "Combatting Global Capitalism & Its Comprador Cheerleaders" in Watchdog 154, August 2020). This media campaign had been vigorously under way by the early part of 2020 and, indeed, drew on previous groundwork laid down during 2019. By February 2020, National was riding high in the polls.

A specific target of attack for the crony corporate media campaign was to try and kick away what it saw as the NZ First Party prop for the Labour-led Coalition government. Hilariously, in the end, their campaign backfired with the Government getting decisively re-elected even though NZ First bombed out. Thanks media! The campaign came quite dramatically unstuck with the advent of the Covid-19 crisis. Our Jacinda Ardern-headed Coalition Government (despite NZ First!) most admirably demonstrated its competence in yet another disaster event, just as it had dealt with the horrible mosques' murders in March 2019 and the December 2019 White Island volcanic tragedy.

By going "hard and early" in dealing with the threat of the pandemic descending on Aotearoa/NZ, the Government achieved world-recognised success through its nationally cooperative public health programme. It was singled out for praise as an international model more than once by the World Health Organisation (WHO). The NZ people responded positively to our Government's appeal to "be kind" and "unite against Covid-19". Its team spirit of collectivist cooperation came to the fore. This was the same sort of spirit demonstrated back in the 1980s when the peace/anti-nuclear movement motivated the fourth Labour government to establish a NZ as a nuclear free zone.

At that time, we succeeded in scuppering the dangerous ANZUS military agreement between the US, Australia, and NZ. Unfortunately, ANZUS still prevails today in de facto form despite our supposed nuclear free status since both later National and Labour governments effectively gutted the substance of our achievement. We sure have plenty of work to do on a number of fronts!

Malicious Muzzy Mass Media Muddling On?

Despite the anti-Government media campaign under way in early 2020, the public had rallied by even mid-year in firm support of the official stance on Covid-19, lockdowns and all. The great majority clearly considered that the Government was very competent and doing well, whereas the National Opposition was riddled with inconsistency and clearly untrustworthy. Meantime, the media campaign was clearly running off the rails ("Combatting Global Capitalism", ibid.).

Three transnational corporations' (TNCs) branches operative in Aotearoa/NZ have dominated the scene in recent decades, at least until lately: Stuff; MediaWorks, and NZME. But a combination of competition from the online giants like Google and Facebook and the impact of Covid-19 in particular during 2020 has transformed the media landscape to a very considerable degree.

There had already been some very welcome changes around the margins with the establishment of alternative media outlets like the Spinoff and Newsroom. These media firms arose in part in response to the ugly revelations about National's "Dirty Politics" and intimate ties with elements of the mainstream media. Another alternative and very good outlet, Scoop, had already been functioning for quite a while.

I canvassed some key issues in a previous article (ibid.). Only one of the original three TNC operations now remains a branch of a TNC, namely MediaWorks, recently taken over by the New York-based Discovery Inc. So MediaWorks keeps its very well-worn American orientation, as does Prime News, which MediaWorks' TV3 also produces.

NZME, on the other hand, is an NZ-registered company but still foreign-owned, although not to any dominant extent by any one company. Instead, this NZ conglomerate is composed of multiple foreign investors. All of the major shareholders are ultimately banks, or holding companies for banks like Citigroup Inc. and JP Morgan Chase & Co "(Who Owns The NZ Media?", VJMP, 14/5/18). Yet again, the key ownership is American-driven.

In contrast, Stuff got well and truly stuffed by the virus! It has even become very reliant on Government subsidies ("Combatting Global Capitalism", op. cit.). Along with this factor, the steadiness in public support and confidence for the Government's performance are now reflected in a better balanced and fairer media coverage, at least to some extent.

Crony Corporate Spin

But the crony corporate spin is still often evident enough. This is especially manifested by Stuff's Political Editor Luke Malpass, previously a financial journalist in Australia, and also an agent here in NZ of the globalist "free market". He is a former employee of the TNC-run, so-called NZ Initiative. Malpass pointed out in an article just before election day how much "Labour has been the beneficiary of Covid-19" ("Fraught Campaign All But Over", Press, 16/10/20). For Malpass and the rest of the Stuff hierarchy, this must have been like having to swallow a dead rat! As emphasised, Covid-19 effectively derailed the Stuff-led mainstream media campaign against the Government.

While National's time in office from 2008 to 2017 saw the sell-off of State assets; a run-down in public services and infrastructure; dire lack of meaningful action on climate change; blatant cavalier neglect of our environment; consolidating socio-economic inequality; etc., the Rightwing media have been silent on this glaring record of failure as a Government. Instead, Malpass & co. have continued to bang on about the Labour-led Coalition Government's alleged "abject failure of several of its core 2017 campaign promises, including KiwiBuild (re: housing), Auckland light rail, child poverty and housing" (ibid.).

Yet, in context, this constitutes a quite malicious misrepresentation of reality when, despite the pandemic crisis and the conservative handbrake of former Coalition partner NZ First, the Labour-led Government has been eminently more concerned, active, and productive on these issues than National ever was! But again, Stuff & co. have been assiduously silent as much as possible in regard to the Government's achievements.

The constant corporate-owned and/or oriented-media game is to criticise the activities of any Left-leaning Government no matter what it does. For example, the media will concertedly criticise the Government for letting farmers off the hook on GGEs, or otherwise parade farmers' grievances about being too tough concerning the very same issue.

Capitalist "Creative Destruction" (!?)

They have maliciously panned this Left-leaning Government for not being "transformational" when, in reality, this is the very last thing they would want! Genuinely Leftwing socio-economic measures or committed concerted far-reaching action to address environmental problems are actually an anathema to hardcore corporate capitalism, which denies any limits to economic growth.

Indeed, this capitalist brand advocates inequality, along with greed, as incentives for "entrepreneurialism". Economist Joseph Schumpeter held that "the entrepreneur is the key figure in nurturing economic progress" ("The Little Book Of Big Ideas", op. cit., p232). The NZ Initiative has peddled this sort of line. Correspondingly, Schumpeter trumpeted the theory of "creative destruction" (ibid.). Entrepreneurs would rise from the ashes of severe economic recessions to spark further progress ever onwards and upwards into the materialist heavens!

Well, this is indeed the corporate media's bottom line and essential message in a crisis like Covid-19. Stuff is happy to promulgate this message - "Why Covid-19 Will Make The Rich Richer", Stuff Money, Esther Taunton, 23/10/20). Stuff even brazenly points to increasing inequality, a mounting concern around the globe, as something to embrace! As the explanatory introduction puts it: "Every crisis is also an opportunity. That's true of the global pandemic - ordinary people can join the wealthy in cashing in on Covid, writes Esther Taunton" (ibid.).

So, there you have it, folks, a nauseating exposition of how capitalist greed can benefit you if you seize the time! Let's get rich then by trampling over our fellow humans, and increasing inequality... Stuff, MediaWorks, etc. will sure do their best to see ACT & co. succeed, whatever the covering crap they might spout! You see, it's now open class warfare!!

Boom And Bust!

The Western capitalist system is inherently boom and bust. At a deeper level, it is now in the train of evolutionary overshoot. Yet, in the midst of imminently cataclysmic climate change and a grimly reaping global plague, it is still very much business as usual for those of the crazy capitalist mindset. This outlook prevails despite the mounting problems of population growth, increasing conflict over diminishing resources, and rapidly declining ecosystems, let alone all the accumulating blowback and fallout of imperial predation, refugee crises, "failed states", and failing states, and other such mounting problems.

So, forget then about growing divisions within and between countries; the deepening global environmental/climate change crisis; the growing multitudes of suffering people; etc. Instead, harden up, and trust your risk taking to make as much money as you can! Esther Taunton's article quotes Simon Angelo, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Wealth Morning, at length. "Angelo says history shows invested capital can grow faster than traditional sources of income during a crisis, increasing the wealth gap" (ibid.).

Wealth Morning's Angelo advises investing in "commercial and industrial property", along with infrastructure like "roading and broadband", as well as related metals like copper and steel (ibid.). So, "look at some of the mining and resource companies", not forgetting, of course, pharmaceutical and biotech companies working on vaccines for the virus (ibid.).

Looming Ultimate Self-Destruction?

Ironically, Simon Angelo "says most people don't fully understand the economic implications of the pandemic" (ibid.). Well, yes, indeed! Covid-19 is a graphic manifestation that humankind is now on the downside of evolutionary overshoot. The lessons are full in our face - in plain sight! In this phase of the human experience, we either cooperate and share the planet's resources in a truly sustainable bid for mutual survival, or we fight to the death.

Capitalist globalisation is evolutionary overshoot in action. In "The Little Book Of Big Ideas" (op. cit.) author Daniel Smith cites two very different analysts in favour of "inescapable" globalisation - Professors Francis Fukuyama and Amartya Sen (ibid., pp236/7). But there is a glaring contradiction in Smith's own expressed wish for globalisation to "work for everyone" (ibid., p237). He had earlier noted with regard to the environment the warnings about the "Malthusian trap", i.e., over-population in relation to resources (ibid., p226).

He then goes on to say that: "Furthermore, as modern geographers, environmentalists, and economists confront the idea that the planet might be nearing capacity (both in terms of human population and ecological system exploitation) - with battles for such basic resources as water becoming a genuine threat - there is a tide of opinion that Malthus may have had it about right all along" (ibid.).

"Water War" Woes

"When considering potential climate-related 'wars of survival' among the great powers, the problem of shared river systems often comes to the fore - a danger highlighted by the US Intelligence Community's 2012 assessment, Global Water Security ("All Hell Breaking Loose: The Pentagon's Perspective On Climate Change", Michael T Klare, Metropolitan Books, 2019, p141). A relevant illustration is the conflict between Ethiopia and Egypt over accessible water.

"The two countries, connected by the Blue and White Nile Rivers, have been at odds over Ethiopia's hydro-power dam and regional water-sharing plans for years. Ethiopia sees its nearly-completed $US4.6 billion Renaissance Dam as a vital national project to spring millions out of poverty. But farther downstream, Egypt has deemed it an existential threat over worries it will disrupt water access for its booming population" ("Dam Sparks 'Incitement Of War'", Press, 26/10/20).

President Donald Trump stirred up confrontation in October 2020 by backing his "favourite dictator" Egypt's Abdel Fatah al-Sissi, with the threat that "Egypt will 'blow up' [the] contentious Ethiopian dam" (ibid.). In an angry reaction, Ethiopia accused Trump of "incitement to war" (ibid.). Today, there are multitudinous woes over water across the Earth. There are lots of contentious issues, including in Aotearoa/NZ.

It is of further significance that just below the Press article cited, an item described how "Californians (were) facing the largest mass blackout so far this year as the state's biggest [electricity] utility prepares power shut-offs to prevent its equipment from igniting wildfires during ferocious winds" ("Californians Face Biggest Power Shut-Offs", ibid.). California, in fact, gets about 20% of its internally generated power supply from "renewable" hydro sources. But we can see here the interaction of global warming and energy problems.

These are the kind of challenges identified by David Sedlak, a Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of California. He has been calling on us to get seriously concerned and pre-emptively active about them (see his "Water 4.0: The Past, Present, And Future Of The World's Most Vital Resource", Yale University Press, 2014). In Sedlak's terminology, "Water 4.0" means "building the next generation of urban water solutions" to cope with climate change and population growth (ibid., p277).

Democratic control of water supplies for the public good is an absolute imperative. "An economics of water should be liberating - both for people and for water itself. It doesn't mean turning water supplies, or water infrastructure, over to remote, self-interested, profit-driven corporations" ("The Big Thirst: The Secret Life And Turbulent Future Of Water", Charles Fishman, Free Press, 2011, p291). Howsoever we value and even price water, we must protect and safeguard the human rights of the most vulnerable people.

Creating Genuine Cooperation

Even though he commended "creative destruction" and its pursuit of individual self-interest, Joseph Schumpeter ironically "feared it contained the kernel of its own self-destruction by ultimately tearing down the institutional framework that upholds it" (ibid., p232). His underlying argument for minimal governmental intervention is thus turned on its head in the final crunch as we confront all the problems weighing in on us. We must work collectively to forge a viable future together.

Globalist capitalism certainly means ultimate self-destruction, given the major global trends in train. So, we do inescapably face the challenges of the future, and the central choice of cooperation or conflict. Ironically, too, we need to purge ourselves of a specific form of collectivism: we must rid ourselves of the tribalist killer ape within... or perish. We have to embrace genuine cooperation, both domestically and internationally. The perennial challenge of compounding global crisis is greater than ever before. Can we turn the tides of self-destruction in time?!

Meretricious Media

Having closely watched and followed various Parliamentary debates over a long time now, I can personally testify to just how bad the National Party has been on many important issues, and how the mainstream media so indulgently treat them. Indeed, you really can wonder what the Parliamentary Press Gallery get up to at times, other than, say, hanging out in the foyer to hear and report the latest vacuous "sound-bite" from "The Weasel", i.e. ACT's David Seymour!

The superficiality and "infotainment" of the commercialised media under the neo-liberal hegemony has deeply infected its coverage of both domestic and international politics. To continue the critical scrutiny of the Press article earlier cited above, Luke Malpass to be sure concludes his piece with another plug for the far Right ACT Party and its Leader David Seymour.

He opines that: "David Seymour has spent parts of this year (purportedly because of National's leadership problems) as the de facto leader of the Opposition. He has been the only one with a significant policy alternative to the Government on the coronavirus. Mostly, National has hugged close to the Government and quietly hoped things go wrong at the border" (ibid.).

There are a couple of things illustrated here to note again, as previously stressed above. One is the promotion of ACT and Seymour. Thus, the globalist free market approach of this fundamentalist Party gets a further implicit endorsement. Generally speaking, the approach of the mainstream media has been to root for an economic recovery pretty much along the conventional growth path pre-Covid-19.

Business As Usual?

Whatever the reflections around the edges of this, it is still basically assumed that "business as usual" will somehow eventually pick up. Hence, both the main Parliamentary Parties want to gear up for the next NZ and planetary lift-off into the fantasies of yet more market fly-overs! These expectations have certainly been the ruling assumptions of the various business groups and lobbies. Yet, as hammered throughout this article, we need instead a rapidly coordinated transition to a properly sustainable and just society.

As for dealing to Covid-19, Luke Malpass certainly makes a damning point about how National had been hoping "things would go wrong at the border" (ibid.). So much then for National's protection of our public health and our team of five million! But Malpass badly misrepresents the history of National's policies on the virus. In fact, National has flip-flopped egregiously, and its inconsistency would have proved devastating to our society had it been in Government. It has always been ready to open up the borders on any pretext while posturing about measures such as pre-testing travellers to NZ - a measure recently found to be sadly wanting in probity and reliability for Russian and Ukrainian fishermen coming here.

Meanwhile, ACT's David Seymour has pushed the model of Taiwan to deal with Covid-19. Yet this Asian country has drawn on a very different history and set of experiences for its approach. Today, it is touted as a democratic contrast to a totalitarian China but very authoritarian aspects remain as legacy from a very grim modern narrative ("Formosa Betrayed: The Definitive First-Hand Account of Modern Taiwan's Founding Tragedy", George H Kerr, Camphor Press, 1997). The US was instrumental, in substantial part, in effecting Chinese Nationalist Kuomintang (KMT) misrule (ibid.).

While NZ public health experts and epidemiologists endorse the current Taiwanese model for our own learning and emulation as appropriate, Seymour's personal take on it is pretty problematic. His policy is riddled with inconsistency when examined closely. If we drill down much of it predictably smacks of the "herd immunity" syndrome. He enjoins voluntary conformity and a "let the market run free" approach. Yet, at the same time, some of what he advocates for monitoring and enforcement strongly contradicts ACT's proclaimed libertarianism!

As Seymour has repeatedly voiced in Parliament, ACT would apply a supposedly smart targeted approach, avoiding lockdowns, and instead freeing up the market and people's behaviour as much as possible. In fact, experience has shown this public health strategy to be an ignominious failure (e.g. "Italy Shows Peril Of Targeted Rules", Press, 28/10/20).

Rise Of Reactionary Politics

Here in Aotearoa/NZ, we must be alert to the socio-economic fault-lines and be as pre-emptive as possible as the global crisis continues to deepen and spread in its harmful ramifications. The emergence and incipient popularity of political parties like the NZ Public Party, Advance NZ, and the New Conservatives reflect both the strains and stresses within our society, and the dangerous march of Rightwing reactionary movements ("Rap Hard The Reactionary Right", op. cit.; & "Combatting Global Capitalism & Its Comprador Cheerleaders", op. cit.).

Even in these days of mainstream media meltdown in the wake of Covid-19, the National Party's dirty politics still simmers away in collaboration with some of the more crony elements. Given the globalist neo-fascist trends of Trumpism and European reactionary racist movements, we must monitor such influences increasingly impacting on the NZ scene (for some exemplification: see my "Reactionary Pakeha Politics", in Watchdog 135, April 2014).

The reactionary exemplar, Amy Brooke, who features prominently in the Watchdog article just cited, evidently provided inspiration for an NZ One Nation version of the openly racist Australian political party that has been led by Pauline Hanson in Australia ("Draining The Swamp", Standard, 29/5/18). She indeed provides a psychological portrait that exemplifies the far Right in general ("Reactionary Pakeha Politics", op. cit.).

It is worth emphasising that two complementary inter-related dimensions stand out as highlighted by our example of Donald Trump's views on global warming and Covid-19. On the one hand, there is denial of any environmental or natural limits to the pursuit of economic gain on planet Earth. On the other, the obstacles perceived to be in the way of security or betterment are decidedly human in form. There are allegedly hordes of threatening enemies massing against us!

Racism Raises Its Ugly Head

Threatening tribalist challenges to white supremacist values and attitudes range from invading Muslim mobs to duplicitous Chinese imperialists in the latest phase of the "Yellow Peril" syndrome ("Reactionary Pakeha Politics", op. cit.; "In The Jaws Of The Dragon: How China Is Taking Over New Zealand And Australia", Ron Asher, Tross Publishing, [Sixth Revised Edition], 2017/19). Almost needless to say, the self-image of the white supremacist tribe is one of well-meaning intentions and good deeds (ibid.).

Indeed, the ugly face of white racism could rise again in Aotearoa/NZ, given the widespread anti-immigrant/refugee movements in the West - from the waves of European neo-fascism to Trumpism and the radical American Right. Social Darwinism has flourished in the Anglo-American axis under the regime of US President "Proud Boy" Donald Trump and British PM "Boerish" Boris Johnson.

Recent years have seen this latest bout of ethnic antagonism imported from overseas connect closely with the tradition of NZ's own domestic white racism (for relevant historical background and cultural context see: "The Politics Of Nostalgia: Racism And The Extreme Right In New Zealand", Paul Spoonley, The Dunmore Press, 1987; & "Revival Of The Right: New Zealand Politics In The 1980s", Bruce Jesson, Allanah Ryan, & Paul Spoonley, Heinemann Reed, 1988).

The Politics Of Nostalgia Amped Up By The "Alt-Right", Etc.

Before the horrible mosques' murders in Christchurch, there was a burgeoning racist movement on the rise in Aotearoa/NZ, with a lot of ugly social media chatter, street marches, rallies, and related activities. The main focus for this spurt of activity was the UN Global Compact for Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration adopted on an inter-governmental basis at the end of 2018.

A special boost for racism here had come from the strongly contested visit of two visiting Canadian "alt-Right" speakers, Stefan Molyneux and Lauren Southern, in August 2018. This pair of neo-fascists voiced the same sort of concerns that were being expressed by the terrorist-to-be Brenton Tarrant. The very Rightwing Free Speech Coalition NZ was to the fore in promoting these neo-fascists and their toxic anti-immigrant and racist views.

Even some nominally on the Left were outspoken in defence of the touted "free speech" of this alt-Right couple, thus giving a cover for hate speech and the growth of conspiracy theory in Aotearoa/NZ. ACT's David Seymour is now so outrageous in exhibiting his neo-fascist proclivities that he is calling for the abolition of our Human Rights Commission!

It is highly significant that the National Party has been involved in the anti-UN Migration pact movement, connecting with racist ideologues both internationally and domestically. However, our local media have mostly turned a blind eye to National's facilitation and promotion of white racist and anti-immigrant/refugee sentiment. National drew on its previous nine years in office (from 2008 to 2017), when from time to time, the then PM John Key played up a threat of boat-people reaching NZ, as was happening with Australia.

During 2018, besides the marches and rallies, along with all the nasty social media chatter, various other signs were evident enough. For instance, a glossy new quarterly magazine NZ Voice (now defunct?), edited by Mykeljon Winckel, articulated a far Right, racist-oriented ideology. This publication even sported a series of feature articles challenging established academic anthropological findings about the early human settlers of Aotearoa/NZ, including the ongoing research at the Wairau Bar in the eastern upper South Island.

Racial Angst

NZ Voice claimed that Maori were not the first settlers here. It advocated the comical, yet potentially malevolent, long-peddled view that the earliest settlers were not tangata whenua Maori at all. Indeed, Winckel and his ilk even give credence to the fantasy that the earliest human settlers were actually Celtic in origin (for background see the excellent article by author Scott Hamilton, Scoop Review of Books, "No To Nazi Pseudo-History: An Open Letter").

Besides such racially-motivated conspiracy stuff, NZ Voice featured articles from the likes of Dr. Don Brash and Michael Laws, both notorious for their "black arts" politics and racial prejudice. The current Government has been a special target for attack. To its great credit back at the time, the National Party saw fit to dump Don Brash as its Leader in the wake of the damning revelations in the book "The Hollow Men: A Study In The Politics Of Deception" (Craig Potton Publishing, 2006) by Nicky Hager (reviewed by Jeremy Agar in Watchdog 114, May 2007. Ed.).

Brash's toxic appeal to racist sentiment had the potential to usher in a very dangerously divisive phase of politics for the peoples of Aotearoa/NZ. Don Brash and some others still persist in this sort of approach with the group Hobson's Choice, as well as finding an outlet for their poisonous prejudices in publications like NZ Voice, and other forums. For the moment, the Black Lives Matter Movement and associates have stifled much of this sort of posturing. But dark, fascist groups like Action Zealandia hover menacingly in the shadows, biding their time and waiting for opportunities to take the limelight.

Geopolitical Contortions And Contradictions

To return to the international level, The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists (BAS) has warned that the existential threats of nuclear war and climate crisis are compounding, and that we need to take urgent pre-emptive action ("It Is Now 100 Seconds To Midnight", 23/1/20, Doomsday Clock Announcement:). The Doomsday Clock has never been closer to midnight!

This is another message that I keep hammering since so much of the political Establishment and the mainstream media remain wantonly and stupidly blind to the realities that threaten to engulf us. As stressed by expert assessment back in the perilous 1960s: "There is no doubt that the horror of modern war is caused by the application of essentially industrial techniques to warfare...".

(Moreover): "Current thermonuclear technology and delivery systems make irrationality (my emphasis) a key element in the possibilities associated with the causes of war" ("War: Studies From Psychology, Sociology, Anthropology", ed. Leon Bramson & George W Goethals, Basic Books, Revised Edition, 1964/68, Preface, p7). We are always near the edge of the precipice, given the menace of nuclear weapons.

Most ironically, PM Jacinda Ardern has said that tackling climate change today is NZ's "nuclear free moment", harking back to the achievement of our nuclear free status in the 1980s under the fourth Labour government. Yet her Government's decision, especially urged and cheered on by then Coalition partner NZ First, to procure the new Boeing Poseidon-8A submarine hunting aircraft effectively reintegrates NZ back into the Pentagon's crazy plans for WWIII (see my "New Zealand's Doomsday Commitment: Anti-Submarine Warfare", in Peace Researcher 6, 1984, pp2-9). Thankfully now on the 2020 election result, NZ First has careened into virtual oblivion!

A Tumultuous World Trembling On The Brink!?

Contradictions yet still reign as ever. A Bloomberg media report declares that: "In Echo Of Cold War: The West's Five Eyes Pact (Including NZ) Focuses On China" (reproduced in the Press, 27/10/20). At the same time, while our Government has been lining up with its allies for eventual military confrontation with China, it has also taken some laudable initiatives on disarmament and peacemaking.

Aotearoa/NZ is admirably one of the nations, which are signatories of the Treaty On The Prohibition Of Nuclear Weapons. This Treaty has now "reached the 50-state ratification (at the UN for entry into force" ("Beyond The Bomb Welcomes the Entry Into Force Of The Nuclear Ban Treaty" 25/10/20). Most revealingly, this ever so important news only rated a very small item at the foot of a Press page! (26/10/20). Most of the West's mass media seem to be permeated by Freud's "death instinct".

Currently, the nuclear-armed countries have so far refused to sign, and a number have even rebuked this Treaty. But the struggle goes on to eliminate these weapons of mass destruction (WMD). American NGO Beyond the Bomb is campaigning for No First Use - "a critical, trust-building policy declaring that the US will not start a nuclear war" (ibid.).

We all need to network more effectively in our international peace and anti-nuclear campaigning. Current peacemaking and nuclear disarmament campaigns are taking place against the global environmental crisis, especially the ravages of global warming and Covid-19. Inconsistent policies and lockdowns to combat the virus have backfired in both Europe and the US, with dangerous divisions opening up.

Challenges Galore!

At home, the Government has done a great job in keeping us safe from the coronavirus. Yet the challenges certainly continue. While this Government has also most commendably passed the Zero Carbon Act, we have heaps more to do to help effectively combat global warming. In the NZ spring, our nation experienced some quite unseasonal wildfires. One blaze at Lake Ohau sadly destroyed the village there. Thankfully, there was no loss of human life, or even injury.

But our culture is getting more callous it seems. Over 300 sheep and lambs died horribly in the blaze and this barely registered a passing footnote in our media. During August, and then later on in 2020, we regularly saw on our TV screens the terrible wildfires raging through California and a number of other North American states. Coupled with the dark orange skies over California during daytime, the inferno of wildfires was indeed evocative of the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust.

Social Justice And Survival At Stake

Meantime, the US is at growing risk of being torn apart in a horrible race war. Under Trumpism, American hubris and hypocrisy have been striking home in recent years on an unprecedented scale. A host of issues running wild in America have their ramifications and echoes in Aotearoa/NZ too. Again, we have a lot more to do in tackling our own problems of institutionalised racism and social deprivation. We even have to properly and comprehensively address food insecurity for poorer people in a country brimming with food and related exports!

CAFCA and Anti-Bases Campaign (ABC) members certainly have had a beef with the first Labour-led Coalition Government (elected into office in late 2017) on a variety of issues - such as defence, trade, and the Overseas Investment Office (for the last mentioned see: "Must Try Harder: CAFCA's Report Card On Government & Foreign Control", Murray Horton, Watchdog 153, April 2020:). As indicated, we want our second term Labour-led "Coalition-lite" Government, recently re-elected in October 2020 with partner the Greens, and minus NZ First, to be a lot more transformational. We will have to work hard!

To expound on the previous situation: the first Labour-led Coalition had NZ First as part of the policy mix. This very conservative Party acted as a crippling brake on innovative policies to tackle social justice, environmental, and anti-nuclear/peace issues. With the removal of this hand-brake, we are looking forward to better outcomes in the future. But big obstacles remain. In order to help us understand the nature of the globalist capitalist beast in the very belly of which we live, and the crucial politico-economic forces operative within the West and so our own country too, we have to trace how the values at the fulcrum of the class struggle are contested.

Deep Media Manipulation By Murdoch & Co.

During the 1980s, globalism's most powerful and influential media mogul Rupert Murdoch and his News Corp empire were fervent backers of the Reagan/Thatcher phalanx and their agenda for capitalist pillage and plunder [aside from some quibbles re. Thatcher!] ("Rupert Murdoch: An Investigation Of Political Power", David McKnight, Allen & Unwin, 2012). "Ronald Reagan and Reaganism were the most important influences on Rupert Murdoch's political world view" (ibid., p76).

Murdoch's own passionate ambition for wealth and power was reflected in the policies and practices of News Corp and its influential impact on world affairs, especially within both America and Britain, and client countries like NZ. He heartily embraced the most extreme wing of the US Republican Party. "(President) Reagan's second term confirmed Murdoch as a spokesman of partisan American nationalism" ("The Murdoch Archipelago", Bruce Page, (Simon & Schuster, 2003, p330).

After the Reagan era of the 1980s, "Murdoch was later remarkable for his enthusiastic support of George W Bush and the Iraq invasion, and for the notorious Fox News and his media's hostility to US President Barack Obama" ("Rupert Murdoch", op. cit., pp76/7). Fox News has been the leading cheerleader for the evil antics of President Donald Trump and his Republican coterie.

Rupert Murdoch is certainly a very ugly Rightwing extremist and through his media has done enormous damage to the prospects for a cooperative and sustainable future for humankind. More specifically, "Murdoch is a supporter of a very particular part of America: its wealthiest and most conservative forces, whose values and voices dominate his news media" (ibid., p13).

As a white racist and imperialist, Rupert Murdoch set out early in his career to systematically attack the political Left. "The Australian (newspaper), which Murdoch set up in 1964, has had a broad ideological agenda for many years. Just after the 2003 Iraq invasion it published a triumphalist editorial that gloated over the initial military victory of the 'Coalition of the Willing'" (ibid., p14).

It contemptuously dismissed what it labelled in accordance with the editorial's title: the "Coalition of the Whining (Who) Got it Wrong" (ibid.). Besides the conflict between the West and radical Islam, this editorial also identified another opponent it wanted to knock out. The Australian's editorial put it like this: "Of course, there is another war of values, and it is the culture war being fought within the West. This is the war between those who feel that on the whole our values and traditions are sound, and those among the intellectuals who argue they are simply a cloak for racism and brute power" (my emphasis) (ibid.).

And Culture Wars Courtesy Of The Malign Murdoch & Co.

In his cultivation of "culture wars", Rupert Murdoch fused together propaganda on both the domestic and international fronts. For instance, it was "striking that Newscorp's contribution to the Iraq war of 2003 was a unanimity scarcely matched by any other body - involved - not, for instance, (even) the Pentagon" ("The Murdoch Archipelago", Bruce Page, Simon & Schuster, 2003, p480).

"Culture war" is an American term, and the Australian carried out its own vicious culture war in the controversies/debates about the treatment of Australia's indigenous people, the Aborigines. The "Stolen Generation" (Aboriginal children separated from their parents) controversy, in particular, lit the fuse of white racism. There was "a savage response from a group of intellectuals associated with the conservative magazine Quadrant and the free market think tank, the Institute for Public Affairs. Murdoch columnists and journalists, launched a public onslaught against the recognition of this historic injustice", using "the most vicious and extravagant language, time and time again" ("Rupert Murdoch", op. cit., p15).

Later in the US, Murdoch media like the New York Post blazoned the same kind of pernicious vitriol as freely disseminated throughout the News Corp empire. More specifically, the Post's "unique contribution to the 1990s was in fostering the deeper ideological offensive of the culture war by showcasing a counter-Establishment of conservative intellectuals" (ibid., p150).

For example: "A prominent feature in this was a regular column by Pat Buchanan [the hero of Pakeha reactionary Amy Brooke! - see earlier], the Presidential hopeful of the militant Right. In his column, he talked about 'winning the culture war'. He ... opposed multiculturalism, which he defined as an 'across-the-board-assault on our own Anglo-American heritage'" (ibid.). Rupert Murdoch's political affinity with Donald Trump is intimate indeed, with Fox News being the President's biggest cheerleader!

Culture wars continue to rage, even hitting home today in Aotearoa/NZ from Murdoch-generated globalist broadsides. For instance, following Labour's sweepingly decisive win in the October general election, the far Right ideologues of Fox News and The Australian attacked the new Jacinda Ardern-headed Government. "Fake news" and lies have abounded, along with the usual nastiness, courtesy of Murdoch & co.

The Impetus Of The Capitalist Technological Imperative

Ever since the Industrial Revolution, global capitalism has thrived on technological innovation. In 1986, Murdoch had embarked on a bitter conflict with the print unions. To be sure, he made open war on them, ruthlessly introducing labour saving new technology. His assault closely followed that of British PM Thatcher against the coalmining unions during 1984-85.

Press baron Rupert Murdoch "wanted to shuck off his old workforce as cheaply as possible and get the maximum possible return from his new plant immediately. Every penny was needed for the outrageous Fox financing, and every moment of time needed for setting up the new American network. Patient and humane reorganisation of (then) News International's production system was a luxury not to be considered" ("The Murdoch Archipelago", op. cit., p384).

It was also part of Murdoch's anti-Left crusade. It is pertinent to note here too that the Murdoch empire was built to a very large degree through cleverly calculated and systematic tax avoidance around the globe. This "entrepreneur" drew on his inherited wealth in a continuing greedy saga of enrichment, employing every technique in the capitalist toolbox he could muster.

Technology, and technological innovation, is a two-edged sword for our species. It is central to both capitalism and industrialism in general. The torch of technology has come to burn bright around the planet, whatever the damage that its red-hot beams, scattering embers, and waste heat may have done. As a means of seemingly controlling Nature and evidently giving us even "super-powers", the tool-making naked ape has got quite carried away with his/her own cleverness.

Progressing Where And To What?

"At the beginning of the 20th Century, Americans and western Europeans believe they live in a golden age of progress. The (so-called) second Industrial Revolution has transformed every aspect of modern life. Everything is bigger, better, and faster than it had been before. Mass production creates a mass society, making more goods available to more people" ("The Story Of All Of Us: Mankind", Pamela D Toler, Running Press, 2012, p383).

What followed, of course, within a very short time was a horribly dramatic series of events. "Mankind's" bent for self-destructive behaviour exploded - through two World Wars and a host of other armed conflicts. American historian Pamela Toler declaims: "War comes naturally to humans. Over the course of 6,000 years, we have fought more than 14,000 wars, costing at least 3.5 billion lives. We have gone to war over land, gold, salt, cattle, and dynastic succession", among other reasons, pretexts, or causes" (ibid., p393).

For certain: "Humans have been in an arms race from the beginning (of our emergence as a species), using our ingenuity to develop new weapons and different ways of going to war" (ibid.). In the study just quoted, Pamela Toler goes on to review the development of nuclear weapons, their horrific use in World War II (WWII), and the terrifying prospect of human extinction in all-out war.

But her book ends more or less by posing a bizarrely perverse choice for the future. According to her outlook, we face the choice between progressing further towards a technological utopia, or self-annihilation from nuclear war. What is so striking is how her study continues the capitalist hegemonic theme of active ignorance and denialism on the environment. And after all this time, and the crushing, accumulated weight of scientific evidence!?

Global Capitalism Crashing Out!

In her exposition, Toler is very light on environmental problems and the huge challenge of anthropogenic climate change. Instead, she concludes her book in this vein: "For 150,000 years, humans have adapted, improvised, and invented. Today, we stand poised to explore both the far reaches of space and the most basic building blocks of life. We now have the power to transform our planet and ourselves in ways that our ancestors would never have imagined possible. We are exploring new sources of energy, the shape of the human mind, and the possibility of life in space" (ibid., p429). Yeah, well right! We are certainly transforming our planet for the worse and now stand trembling on the brink of climate disaster, etc.

What Pamela Toler - and the multitude of all those like-minded - envisage as technological utopia is in reality destructive to the Earth. In the end, this paean of achievement is a celebration of the drive of Western civilisation to conquer and plunder Nature. It essentially comprises an exultation of evolutionary overshoot! (see "Pentagon Of Power", op. cit.).

For them, our fortuitously blessed Goldilocks planet is just a stepping-stone to a kind of god-like "sci-fi" saga of further transformation, coupled with exploration and exploitation of the resources of the universe ("Human Universe", Professor Brian Cox & Andrew Cohen, William Collins/BBC, 2014). It amounts to so much fantasy day-tripping - a religious type indulgence of possible human transformation or metamorphosis and eternal rebirth, even evoked in the film "2001: A Space Odyssey".

"Medical miracles and space exploration were both made possible by another technological revolution - the rise of the computer" ("The Story Of All Of Us: Mankind", op. cit.). In our times, the computer is king and societal "lockdowns" due to the Covid-19 virus have even reinforced the rule of the Internet and electronic-mandated behaviours, given the enormous communication, intelligence, and control advantages. There is yet a host of problems embedded in all of this.

"High-Tech" Road To Heaven Or Hell?!

The kind of technological world vision and view of future prospects - as promoted by Pamela Toler and so many others of this mindset - leaves some of us, at least, absolutely cold. Speaking for myself here, aside from the looming threat of evolutionary overshoot, I would far prefer to live on a planet in tune with its natural ecosystems, and all the other creatures in a thriving symbiosis. I would certainly want to explore and understand this Goldilocks planet Earth as much as possible but wish our touch to be as gentle, loving, and nurturing as possible.

Nowadays, we see the religion of technological transcendence in the touted transmogrification of humankind, or at least a favoured minority, via a computer-engendered singularity, "biotech" fixes, or the epiphany of space travel. A lot of the issues started to be canvassed back in the 1960s (see e.g., "Technopolis: Social Control Of The Uses Of Science", Nigel Calder, Panther Science, 1969/70; "The Biological Time Bomb", G Rattray Taylor, Panther Science, 1968/9).

In her book on "Mankind", Pamela Toler actually finishes her final sentence of the last chapter titled "Oblivion Or Eternity" with the phrase "the Goldilocks moments of the future", as shaped by human creativity. Apparently, a lot of humans get off on this sort of thing. But it is really a lot of illusory stardust - or just vacuous bulldust! This has been bizarrely highlighted by NASA's robotic spacecraft mission to collect rocks off an asteroid. In October 2020, it was reported that this "precious cargo is leaking back into space, and scientists are in a race against time to save it" ("$1.5b Mission Leaking Asteroid Rubble Cargo", Press, 26/10/20). Talk about getting your rocks off . . .

Moonstruck!

Weirdly, again, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced the same month that it had determined there is water on the Moon and so future astronauts would hopefully be able to access it in setting up living facilities. Our TV channels and other media hyped up this discovery. Nothing better could demonstrate the stupidity of our so-called civilisation! Meanwhile, down on Earth, smart "high-tech" and artificial intelligence (AI) stuff is obviously here to stay. The UN is even eagerly embracing the new smart information systems, especially in the wake of the coronavirus catastrophe.

If there are obvious benefits provided by this communication technology in such circumstances and many other situations, we still must look at how these systems can be made both far more sustainable and socially fair in application and use. Furthermore, in our increasingly Orwellian world, authoritarian security surveillance and consequent political control becomes a real danger!

Thus, the proclaimed "Fourth Industrial Revolution" with its digital orientation has its own specific set of mounting human and environmental costs. Overall, we need to plug our computer systems and their multiple applications into far more genuinely sustainable development programmes (see, e.g., "The End Of Trash: Can We Save The Planet By Reusing All The Stuff We Make?", National Geographic (NG), March 2020).

Corporate "Sci-fi" Vs Real Sustainability For The Future

An exemplar of the AI-digital economy is Derek Handley, a New Zealander with both quite a high international and national profile as an "entrepreneur" and "futurist" (Wikipedia). Handley is very much the trendy Silicon Valley-type model capitalist that the media love to celebrate and promote. I don't want to level personal criticism here but to point to his cultural role as symptomatic and so illuminatingly illustrative of our technologically blinkered times.

Derek Handley has built a richly lucrative career in the global mobile marketing, advertising, and media industry, especially via the vehicle of a company called The Hyperfactory, which he co-founded with his brother. This company specialises in promoting major TNC brands like Coca-Cola and Blackberry. As well as assiduously boosting American corporate-cultivated consumerism, Handley has also been into the global online sports and racing business, and a board member of Sky Television NZ (ibid.).

Derek Handley airily talks about digital high-tech education for the "Space Age". Appropriately enough: "He is an aspiring astronaut, having purchased a ticket on Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic" (ibid.). At the same time, unlike the majority of his confreres, he does aspire, admirably enough, to so-called "social entrepreneurship" in tackling the problems of inequality and the environment. For a brief time, he was an informal adviser to the current Government during its first term, and had even looked likely to get an appointment as the national AI/high tech guru.

Whatever might be the social conscience and its manifestations on the part of high-tech capitalists like Derek Handley and some others, so much of what they represent is totally the opposite in reality to an alternative genuinely sustainable and socially just vision of the future. Technological innovation is ravaging the natural world in so many ways inimical to this particular vision.

We desperately need a commitment to a circular-type economy that conserves and recycles resources efficiently, and so safeguards our natural heritage with maximum ecological awareness. For more than the span of a generation, the corporate mainstream media have systematically suppressed properly meaningful discussion and debate on such alternative choices for the future of our society, and indeed the rest of the world.

Neo-liberalism has pervasively and systematically suppressed the public discussion of alternative options for the future. Meantime, celebrity super-rich, high-tech "entrepreneurs" such as Elon Musk and Richard Branson are caught up in the huge contradictions of their posturing, pantomime contortions. Their narcissistic exhibitionism, as expressed in space-borne and other sort of excesses, symbolise the human trashing of planet Earth.

Overshooting Planet Earth!

The gigantic central contradiction at the core of all this cultural "high-tech" exuberance is expressed, above all, by "space exploration". In the context of evolutionary overshoot, it signifies the ultimate human folly of self-immolation. At the end of August 2020, TV1 presented a BBC item on NASA's venture again to Mars (1 News At Midday, 31/7/20). You see, NASA has joined the space race to the red planet, emulating China and, weirdly enough, the United Arab Emirates (UAE). NASA, of course, had led the way to Mars back in the 1970s.

"Both the USA and the USSR have sent space probes to the Moon and beyond. Possibly the most exciting were the American Viking probes which landed on Mars in 1976 to look for life, though in the event none was found" ("The Collins Concise Encyclopedia Of Knowledge: Facts From A To Z", ed., Michael Dempsey, Collins, 1986/88, p215).

Flash forward again to August, 2020! Enter: "The biggest, most sophisticated Mars rover ever built - a car-size vehicle (named Perseverance) bristling with cameras, microphones, drills and lasers - blasted off for the red planet . . . as part of an ambitious, long-range project to bring the first Martian rock samples back to Earth to be analysed for evidence of ancient life" ("NASA Launches 'Humanity's First Round Trip To Another Planet'", Press, 1/8/20). To use an image I have employed before, one might well imagine some distant future space probe by an alien intelligent life form (i.e. if any can survive for long enough in our violent universe!), looking for signs of previous life on planet Earth.

Sinister Space Spray Gun Syndrome

When placed in context within the unfolding global crisis faced by humankind, the whole NASA space project, along with similar ventures across planet Earth, can be seen as stunning in their egregious perversity. Relatively minute nationalist elites are bent on fostering their own grossly perverse self-interest and ambitions. This is all coming at the expense of the overwhelming majorities of their own citizens, so many of whom are now suffering from the societal and international failure to meet basic human needs. But ruling elites have continually demonstrated throughout history how easy it can be to distract the masses with displays of power and ingenuity. The ancient Roman emperors were expert at it.

For how long will the peoples of the world tolerate such perversity? In the TV documentary "Blue" on the plight of our oceans, pioneer marine explorer Valerie Taylor laments the money and resources expended exploring space rocks [and now water!] on the Moon, etc. Instead, we should have been exploring, understanding, and conserving the oceans which cover most of Earth, and which have been the source of our life ("Blue", Northern Pictures, 2017, Maori TV, 20/10/20).

"The industrialisation that has occurred in the oceans over the last century mirrors the events that triggered mass extinctions on land. Industrial-scale fishing, habitat destruction, species loss, and pollution have placed the oceans in peril. The very nature of the sea is being irretrievably altered" (ibid.). For sure, "the marine world is on a precipice"! (ibid.).

Ironies Of Innovative Scientific Thinking

Pathfinding environmentalist Rachel Carson, author of the famed "Silent Spring" (Penguin Books, 1962/65), was a marine scientist who wrote several hauntingly evocative books about "Mother" ocean (collected in one volume titled "The Sea", MacKibbon & Kee, 1964). I am lucky enough to still have a treasured copy. As one of the iconic figures of the international environmental movement, the completely innocent Rachel Carson became a target for viciously malign attacks driven by the pesticide industry and other capitalist forces.

A former regular anti-Green Press columnist Dr. Bob Brockie recycled such nasty crap, among other rubbishy opinions (see: "Denial Rides Again: The Revisionist Attack On Rachel Carson", ch. 7 in "Merchants Of Doubt: How A Handful Of Scientists Obscured The Truth On Issues From Tobacco Smoke To Global Warming", Naomi Oreskes & Erik M Conway, Bloomsbury, 2010).

For a long time before it saw the shining Damascus light of global warming, Stuff's stable of newspapers and other media assiduously peddled the climate change scepticism and anti-environmentalism of Brockie, Bjorn Lomborg, and Matt Ridley. This kind of stuff was practically de rigueur for the Western media for many years! (ibid.). To recap, the vicarious distraction and waste of resources involved in the latest space race are enormously damaging. Underlying it all of course, and so intimately interconnected, are the increasing preparations for space war, and so WWIII.

This sinister zombie syndrome is signified here in Aotearoa/NZ by the ongoing mainstream media cheerleading for US-owned Rocket Lab (see Murray Horton's excoriating examination elsewhere in this issue). The American TNC's pernicious militarism means death to our supposed nuclear free zone, now just pretty much a transparent fig leaf!

A Shining "Sci-Fi" City On A Hill (Or Down In A Valley!?)

The shining light on a hill as lit in 1620 by the Plymouth Pilgrims, the Puritan founding fathers of America, has been ever since one of that country's most enduring myths. Its symbolic message has taken many forms but the predominant one in the modern era has been that of freedom - both for American citizens themselves, and for the peoples that the US purports to defend.

As the years have gone by, more and more the shining beacon on the hill radiating out into the rest of the world looks like Silicon Valley. Mind you, though, even in Trump's America capitalist regulators can get a bit grumpy. "Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google (are accused of being) engaged in monopoly-style tactics to evolve into four of the world's most powerful corporate behemoths, according to US Congressional investigators, who have called in a wide-ranging report for sweeping changes to federal laws so that Government regulators can bring Silicon Valley back in check" ("Big Tech Could Face Controls", Press, 8/10/20).

American billionaire "entrepreneur" Elon Musk is the celebrated "big gun" Silicon Valley high-tech pioneer blazing the way for the private exploration and touted development of space. In particular, as signalled above, space travel for the few is being promoted - however bizarrely! - as something wonderful for the future of humankind.

The growing competition for resources on Earth is even extending into near space, with ideas floating about of mining planets and perhaps asteroids, even though the benefits for the many would obviously be minuscule. Indeed, as observed earlier, a US space probe snatched rocks off an asteroid far out in space during October 2020, and left to return with an ironically unfolding problem! ("$1.5b Space Mission Leaking ..." op. cit.). It's making a rocky return . . .

Correspondingly, a bit earlier, the Anglo-American media celebrated "the first astronauts launched by Elon Musk's SpaceX company" to and from the International Space Station (e.g., "Storm Will Not Stop Splashdown", Press, 3/8/20). The space industry is now a booming big business sector in the countries concerned. At the same time, this burgeoning private enterprise both facilitates and serves as camouflage for various warfare preparations. Historically, of course, it all stems from competitive nationalist geopolitics.

Post-Covid Overshoot Into Outer Space!

This syndrome includes Aotearoa/NZ as the trajectory of evolutionary overshoot goes ballistic. According to a media article on Christchurch's prospects as a "Survivor City: NZ's emerging space industry can play an important role in Canterbury's post-Covid economy, experts say" (sub-heading to "Space flights could help city's Covid-19 recovery", Press, Steven Walton, 31/7/20).

The Press item featured in particular a company called Dawn Aerospace, which has "unveiled the Mark-II Aurora - a space plane with the goal of being the first aircraft capable of more than one return trip to space in a day" (ibid.). Dawn Aerospace is beginning flight testing in 2020, and then intends to put up an experimental payload from Colorado in 2021 (ibid.).

The company's chief technology officer Stefan Powell enthuses that: "This is really just the tip of the iceberg" (ibid.). His image is certainly telling indeed! Earth is in a cryosphere meltdown, as ice disintegrates from the Arctic to the Antarctic while global warming rages. As we happily destroy the only habitable "Goldilocks" planet we will ever have, American capitalism is exulting in its final "endless" frontier while the vast majority of the world's human population continue to slide down into the misery of the global Covid/climate change/environmental crisis. Most ominously to reiterate, Covid-19 came out of this turmoil and ecological destruction.

Writing back in the late 1960s, Professor Lewis Mumford succinctly declaimed: "The moon rocket is the climatic expression of the power system: the maximum utilisation of the resources of science and technics for the achievement of a relatively minuscule result: the hasty exploration of a barren satellite" ("The Pentagon Of Power", op. cit., photo 11: "Space Rockets as Power Symbols"). This particular project was driven by "military pressure" as part of nationalist geopolitical rivalry.

Mumford goes on to describe how the delusion of god-like power, as embodied in the culture of Western civilisation and its constant technological innovation, essentially comprises a dehumanising process which disconnects us from the vital bonds we should have as a species with the natural world. "Space exploration by manned rockets (and all the other space devices aimed at reaching further out into the universe) enlarges and intensifies all the main components of the power system" (ibid.). Rocket science is programmed to be ultimately suicidal.

Plutocratic And Profit-Driven Power Perversely Applied

Mumford lists the main components of this system ultimately oppressive to both humankind and its planetary habitat as: "increased energy, accelerated motion, automation, cybernation, instant communication, remote control" (ibid.). These are all things fulsomely lauded in our modern world! And the striving for more of all this is always ongoing . . .

The ideology of the machine and the whole mechanical message of Western civilisation is to go faster and further; grow bigger; manufacture more efficiently; produce and consume ever greater quantities; become bio-tech beings; ever reach heavenwards for god-like powers, etc. It is an ideology that systematically devastates and lays waste a viable human habitat, and perverts and distorts our relationship with Mother Nature. We have sadly forgotten the message of the Icarus story!

Moreover, it is not just an ideology of the West since it is manifest in communist societies, and even in certain ancient societies. In the case of the last mentioned, take the example of Egyptian pyramids as monumental "dehumanised megastructures" built to glorify deified autocrats presiding over enforced mass subservience. Thus, these towering stone structures fusing heaven and earth in their mega-architecture are expressive of the excesses of power let loose on ordinary people (photo 10: "Autocratic Technocracy", ibid.). The few grossly benefited and thrived at the expense of the many.

Such huge architectural expressions of power have their replications in the modern era. "Though the power system can be adequately represented by abstractions, the concrete form of the Pentagon in Washington serves even better than its Soviet counterpart, the Kremlin, as a symbol of the absurdity of totalitarian absolutism: all the more because this particular megastructure combines a pathetically Renascence plan with the current wasteful and inefficient facilities for mono-transportation by private car" (photo 7: "Pentagons Of Power", ibid.). And, of course, it is a military tribalist headquarters devoted to the ultimate catastrophic self-destruction of humankind.

Spaced Out!?

In the Press article cited earlier, the local space industry "in Christchurch's burgeoning science and technology sector" is touted as having "lift-off" ("NZ's Emerging Space Industry", op. cit.). Dawn Aerospace is promoting its Aurora spacecraft for "satellite manufacturers"; and for "gathering data from space, (for) people who want to know stuff about climate or want to provide services from space, Internet from space", and even eventually manufacturing "things in space, such as computer chips and super drugs" (ibid.).

In context of yawning socio-economic inequalities and deteriorating ecosystems, the plethora of such space ventures worldwide amounts to esoteric gains for the elitist minority at the expense of the many. For decades, human energies and material resources have been directed at space in the exuberance of planetary overshoot while hundreds of millions of people have starved and suffered dire deprivation. Their basic needs have been treated with contempt.

One has to only look at the damning Anglo-American imperial record. Some of the poorest countries in the world are persistently savaged by Western rocketry and war planes! It is certainly most damning of Western, and, above all, Anglo-American perfidy that Yemen continues to suffer the world's worst humanitarian crisis. As the initial testing-ground for American drone warfare, Yemen continues to be the victim of US and British armed persecution, via their proxy Saudi Arabia and Persian Gulf allies. "Children in Yemen are facing a daily struggle to survive in what is the world's worst humanitarian crisis".

"After five years of conflict, around four in five children - 12.3 million - are in desperate need of aid. Tens of thousands of children have died, both as a direct result of the fighting and from indirect causes like disease and malnutrition ... with more than 35 front-lines active across the country. The nation's health services are on the verge of collapse and the economy has been ravaged" (UNICEF Report: "Yemen Five Years On: Children, Conflict And Covid-19", June 2020). The arrival of Covid-19 is worsening an already dire situation.

Meantime, the media silence on Yemen is utterly damning in its enormity, yet another testament to the evil hypocrisy of the West, and above all. the Anglo-American axis. The US-led persecution of Yemen via proxy Saudi Arabia and the allied Gulf states is expressive of the deep barbarity at the heart of our civilisation. When will we genuinely honour and testify to the values we claim to uphold?!

Geopolitics Grasping Heavenward

The space industry has been driven from the start by geopolitical competition and militarist tribal wargaming. A lot of the new wave of private space ventures are implicated in technologies with dual use applications, i.e., with both civilian and military potentiality, as well as delivering payloads of the two types specified a la Rocket Lab. "NZ Space Agency head Dr. Peter Crabtree says the emerging space industry can grow and play an important role in the post-Covid economy" (ibid.). He points to the $1.69 billion contributed by this industry to NZ's economy during 2018-19, adding that this "number can go at least five times higher" (ibid.).

Dr. Crabtree even exults in the idea that: "There is no inherent limit to NZ scaling in this area" (ibid.). Evolutionary overshoot exuberance is integral to the space industry. At present, Canterbury's manufacturing industry, especially its engineering sector, is growing and seeking out such opportunities. As a spin-off of the American military-industrial complex, the NZ Space Agency is keen to help facilitate as many projects as it can, whether in Canterbury or elsewhere in the country. "ChristchurchNZ, the city's economic development agency, is on a similar trip, identifying the "aerospace and future transport" sub-sector as one of four "supernodes" in fostering future "economic prosperity" (ibid.).

Just "Supernoding" Around!?

NZ's Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) is keenly promoting Christchurch to be "at the centre of NZ's aerospace industry by 2025" (ibid.). At present: "Dawn Aerospace is just one example of innovations that, post-quake, have found their home in Christchurch's burgeoning science and technology sector. Others include driverless shuttles at the local airport, flying (Cora) taxi trials reportedly funded by Google founder Larry Page, and a virtual reality company allowing medical students to 'deliver a baby' without stepping a foot inside a hospital" (ibid.).

Instead of being a cause for celebration, such high-tech developments are outrageously screwing NZ's socio-economic priorities away from cooperative, egalitarian programmes to address the basic needs of the many and implement real sustainability. Silicon Valley-type hype and fantasy is taking over as the US military-industrial complex drills down on "little ole NZ"!

Most obviously and egregiously, the bulk of this type of high-tech development is geared to consolidate the privileged position of the "uber-rich" of the world. A mere relative handful of these people already control over half of the world's wealth! Roger Dennis, a futures strategist and businessman welcomes the supernodes in Christchurch. "Dennis hopes research and development (R&D) teams from the likes of Boeing (sporting planes and weapons!) and Airbus will come to Christchurch soon, 'rather than being stuck in their own countries stressed out about whether they can actually drive to work or not'" (ibid.). Most ironically, too, Dennis also cites NZ's Covid-19 free status as "an 'extraordinary opportunity" (ibid.).

Flights Of Futurist Fancy

In like vein, "Sir Peter Gluckman, Director of research group the Centre for Informed Futures and formerly Chief Science Advisor to the PM, wrote in a May 2020 report that NZ's Covid-free status makes it more "attractive" for corporate entities with R&D and intellectual assets" (ibid.). So, more TNCs and super-rich should set up shop within Aotearoa/NZ according to this view. They would increasingly set the domestic and foreign policy agendas for our nation. Former Labour PM Helen Clark is a cheerleader for this sort of stuff. After all, she played a major role in getting us back in the clutches of the American military-industrial complex!

Given recent Covid-19 outbreaks in NZ, starting again in August 2020, this kind of attitude is yet another example of how our whole social system is immersed in its own blindly contrived bubble of smug, self-interested denialist ignorance and wishful thinking about the state of our planet. While we can be proud of our record in coping with the coronavirus, we should not delude ourselves about what is needed for long-term viability.

It is still certainly true that NZ is far better placed than most countries to host international inputs. But instead of narrowly competitive thinking along conventionally nationalistic lines, our team of five million could be seeking out sound opportunities to foster international cooperation on real sustainability and fairness. We should firmly reject "pie-in-the-sky" capitalist fantasies! It is mindboggling that the best scientific research knowledge on the planetary condition is just a few keystrokes away on a computer screen but so many people seem incapable of taking it all on board. Humankind is now in the overshoot trajectory curving down. Get real for Earth's sake!!

So, there you have it. Despite Covid-19; global warming; rampant geopolitics; resource conflicts; declining biodiversity; dying seas; increasing water problems; etc., our leading gurus are still high-tech corporate "futurists", enthusiastically locked into the curve of evolutionary overshoot. What is so horrendous is that humankind in general seems to be getting more deeply than ever locked in this curve when we need a whole new alternative vision and relevant action.

Opportunities Missed And Beckoning Again

So very poignantly, Professor Lewis Mumford laid out the choice for a viable future back at the end of the 1960s, the decade in which environmental awareness really first started to register. Most ironically, in the light of subsequent history, Mumford observed that: "During the last decade, fortunately, there has been a sudden, quite unpredictable awakening, to the prospects of a total catastrophe".

"The unrestricted increase of population, the over-exploitation of mega-technical inventions, the inordinate wastages of compulsory consumption, and the consequent deterioration of the environment through wholesale pollution, poisoning, bulldozing, to say nothing of the more irremediable waste products of atomic energy, have at last begun to create the reaction needed to overcome them".

"This awakening has become planet-wide. The experiences of congestion, environmental degradation, and human demoralisation now fall within the compass of everyone's daily life" ("The Pentagon Of Power", op. cit., p412). Note here incidentally, once again, how the neo-liberal National Party's answer in 2020 to congestion from the proliferating private car is to build yet more roads and tunnels!

Lewis Mumfold saw an awakening that would hopefully move to rapidly take "counter-measures" in dealing to the looming catastrophe (ibid.). However, so very unfortunately, capitalist forces moved quickly at the time and thereafter to stifle an appropriate response. But with the impact of the coronavirus, we now have an unprecedented opportunity - as tragically presented as it may have been - to implement an international programme of cooperative sustainability and fairness.

Some Urgent Vital Things We Need To Do

William E Rees, a Human Ecologist and Professor of Ecological Planning at the University of British Columbia, has "pioneered ecological footprint analysis". In 2008, he gave a succinct summary of what we need to do to positively and constructively tackle the global Earth System challenge. Under the heading of "Essential Steps To Sustainability", Professor Rees first stated the necessary general commitment and prescription for action: "New cultural 'memes' must be developed to override expansionist instincts and replace today's destructive global development paradigm" ("The Seventy Great Mysteries Of The Natural World: Unlocking The Secrets Of Our Planet", ed., Michael J. Benton, Thames & Hudson, 2008, ch.70, p290).

Rees listed "the steps to sustainability" as follows (in my slightly "abridged" form):

• "The human enterprise is a fully contained, totally dependent subsystem of a finite ecosphere;
• There are biophysical limits to the growth of the aggregate human economy";
• By 2008: "The world had already exceeded its long-term carrying capacity by about 22% and must reduce its total ecological footprint by at least that amount;
• Sustainability requires greater social equity;
• High-income countries must reduce energy and material consumption by 80% (my emphasis) to open up the ecological space for necessary consumption growth in developing countries" (ibid.).

As Professor Rees puts it: "The (un)sustainability conundrum clearly poses the ultimate challenge to human intelligence and awareness. Rising fully to this challenge would finally separate humankind from species that remain slaves to crude survival instincts" (ibid.). Such "crude survival instincts" are directed with only short-term focus. Humans have to swiftly and collectively develop a long-term survival focus.

Endless Economic Growth As The Overriding Obsession

Although not as badly misconceived in its plans as the National Opposition, our current Government, despite doing a number of positive things on the environmental front, is still quite somewhat off track. It too is substantially focused on building roads to nowhere as the major part of its infrastructure programme. So much of this sort of infrastructure building is premised on the assumption that the economy will pick up again to pretty near normal in the not so distant future.

Our Government has, unfortunately, been prodded along in this regard by National, which is truly locked into a mindset of massive road-building - indeed, on a super-scale! Roadbuilding was actually touted by National as the centrepiece of its 2020 election campaign, aimed at the touted "economic recovery". All this feverish preoccupation with faster and more efficient private transportation reflects the unsustainable rocket-like trajectory of Western capitalist civilisation, as so brilliantly identified and analysed by Lewis Mumford (op. cit.). With global warming, our civilisation is on the brink of actually burning out.

China meanwhile pursues its own crazily utopian "One Belt and Road" policy, along with all the various related infrastructure activities. Yet a host of conflicts are unfolding - from Hong Kong versus the "Five Eyes" Anglo-American club to violent skirmishes with India in the Himalayan region; and from a series of confrontations with rival claimants to the hydrocarbon riches of the South China to increasing imperial competition on the African continent.

The Central Crunch Question

Ironies and contradictions abound in these times about our prospects for the future. The established media have long been rife with this compounding syndrome. For instance, the central question that the American National Geographic (NG) posed in its December 1988 issue was: "Can Man Save This Fragile Earth?". This question on its terms was surely answered by the advertisements surrounding its centenary editorial musings on the fate of the Earth and its inhabitants.

Take an advert for Citicorp, the huge transnational investment bank and financial services conglomerate, headquartered in New York City. Citicorp is owned by "Citigroup (or Citi), the holding company for Citibank, as well as several international subsidiaries" (Citigroup, Wikipedia). Such a conglomerate is bristling with investment vehicles inimical to many people and to the environment.

Then there were ads for cars like Chrysler and Dodge. Overall, the cost of cars and other vehicles, along with roading, petroleum, etc., to the biosphere is enormous. Incidentally, both these well-known American brand vehicles are now manufactured by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV, an Italian-American car manufacturer "registered in the Netherlands, with headquarters in London, UK, for tax purposes" - a classic case of corporate globalism at work! (Chrysler, Wikipedia). Citigroup and Fiat Chrysler both thus aptly demonstrate the processes at work of corporate globalisation and concentration.

The December 1988 NG Citicorp ad proclaimed that Americans, above anyone else, "are guaranteed the freedom to succeed" (op. cit.). Its motto is: "Because Americans want to succeed, not just survive" (ibid.). The ad's banner headline asserted that: "From sea to shining sea, the will to succeed is part of the American spirit". At the same time, Citicorp boasts that it proudly serves many millions of customers in countries across the globe. So, conquering the Earth and reaping material rewards comprise the very essence of the American Dream. Similarly, the Chrysler ad proclaims it has "the key to everything" (ibid.). Hubristic globalist capitalism is surely the very overshoot vehicle of planetary destruction!

Growth Recovery, Or Covid-19/Climate Change-Induced Collapse?

The key word that reinforces neo-liberal common sense is of course "growth", which has been deemed to be "the entire aim of economy" (Doreen Massey, Opinion, Guardian, 11/06/13). This word is certainly dominant in NZ Parliamentary debates with constant jousting between the Government and the National Opposition in nitpicking over whether growth rates are adequate or not. Such discussion still goes on in the Covid-19 era. National and its junior partner ACT might as well be on another planet altogether! In all, it can be well said that much Parliamentary debate today is still pretty well surreal given the worsening state of the world we live in!!

For many years, the hegemonic discourse in the West has been indeed quite surreal in terms of the accumulating realities of our planetary environment. There are so many examples to choose from. But take one theme widely endorsed and promoted as to how by embracing Western capitalist lifestyles many millions in what used to be called the "Third World" have supposedly been lifted out of poverty.

Not only is this lifestyle ultimately unsustainable but more and more it is proving unsustainable in the West itself. Covid-19 has, of course, hugely impacted these assumptions and greatly aggravated the underlying problems. For a more specific illustration of some of the dire implications involved, I quote here science writer and Greenpeace advocate Peter Brookesmith, writing in the late 1990s.

In warning about the spread of dengue fever and other tropical diseases, Brookesmith puts forward several major matters of concern. Among these matters of concern or causes of worsening problems, Brookesmith mentions "the loss of traditional ways of life and the spread of consumerism in the Third World (which) have contributed to the spread of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes and an increase in their populations.

For example, most consumer goods are packaged in non-biodegradable plastic, which is discarded indiscriminately. By holding pockets of water this litter creates ideal habitats for Aedes aegypti larvae (and so the spread of disease)" ("Future Plagues; Biohazard, Disease And Pestilence - Mankind's Battle For Survival", Brown Books, 1997, p134).

Drowning And Burning Up In Our Own Waste

A huge irony is that all the plastic containers that have proliferated for hand sanitisers to help counter Covid-19 will add to the kind of artificial habitats conducive to the propagation of mosquitoes and the diseases they spread. Moreover, all the single-use plastic masks used to combat the spread of Covid-19 are now also aggravating the problem of polluted oceans. The world is already drowning in plastic waste and its pernicious pollution throughout food chains and ecosystems in general. From the greenhouse gases pumped into the atmosphere to nitrate-contaminated freshwater ecosystems, we are constantly increasing and compounding the waste problems generated by our civilisation.

"(Furthermore): There has been a dramatic increase in the number of trucks and cars in developing countries, and used tyres are dumped everywhere; they too make ideal breeding grounds for mosquitoes. (As well), increased commercial air travel has provided a perfect mechanism for moving dengue viruses in infected travellers from one population centre to another in the tropics" (ibid.). Meantime, with global warming disease hotspots are growing. The advent of Covid-19 near the end of the second decade of the 21st Century surely heralds a deepening environmental crisis and unprecedented challenges for humankind. We have to grasp the nettle indeed!

Harnessing Machine Power

Let's hark back for a moment to the observations of another great analyst and chronicler of Western civilisation. Some analysis follows from Karl Marx in the 19th Century. All the technological optimism to date is rooted historically very much in the development of capitalism and its ongoing search for profits. "... the aim of the capitalistic application of machinery ... is intended to cheapen commodities ... In short, it is a means of producing surplus value" by passing on a greater proportion of the gains from increased productivity to the entrepreneur ("Capital: A Critical Analysis Of Capitalist Production", Karl Marx, Wordsworth Classics of World Literature, vols. 1 & 2, 2013, p256).

In examining the powers of tools versus machines and their relationship to economic endeavour, Karl Marx observed that one proffered "explanation of the difference between tool and machine is that in the case of a tool, man is the motive power, while the motive power of a machine is something different from man, as for instance, an animal, water, wind, and so on" (ibid., p257).

But Marx averred that: "All fully developed machinery consists of three essentially different parts, the motor mechanism, the transmitting mechanism, and finally the tool or working machine" (ibid.). Marx went on to observe that: "The machine, which is the starting point of the industrial revolution, supersedes the workman, who handles a single tool, by a mechanism operating with a number of similar tools, and sets in motion by a single motive power, whatever the form of that power may be" (ibid., p259).

Merging Marx And Mumford?

In expounding his thesis on the importance and function of the machine, Marx observed: "Increase in the size of the machine, and in the number of its working tools, calls for a more massive mechanism to drive it; and this mechanism requires, in order to overcome its resistance, a mightier moving power than that of man, apart from the fact that man is a very imperfect instrument for producing uniform continued motion" (ibid., p259).

He went on to invoke powerful imagery indeed. "An organised system of machines, to which motion is communicated by the transmitting mechanism from a central automaton, is the most developed form of production by machinery. Here we have, in the place of the isolated machine, a mechanical monster whose body fills whole factories, and whose demon power, at first veiled under the slow and measured motions of his giant limbs, at length breaks out into the fast and furious whirl of his countless working organs" (ibid.).

Having worked for a number of years feeding wool into a constantly churning wool scour (breakdowns or other out-of-the-ordinary stoppages aside), I can personally testify to how it feels to be a cog in such a monster machine operation. But behold today on a societal scale, even a global scale: what the prophetic environmentalist Lewis Mumford called the "Megamachine" in his landmark study "The Pentagon Of Power" (op. cit.). For Mumford, the Megamachine combines human organisation and technology in a system ultimately oppressive to both the planetary ecosystem and humankind.

Mumford strongly contested the Marxian vision for its embrace of "mechanical progress" and so an ultimate utopian dedication to the underlying "power complex" (ibid., p353). The premise of inexorable technological progress was however roundly rejected by the anarchist movement. Western man, with his worship of technology in the conquest of Nature in the New World of the Americas, came to exemplify the mechanistic syndrome. Such Westerners were "the later exponents of a new life framed in conformity to the Machine" (ibid., p11).

They "overlooked the appalling losses and wastages, under the delusion either that the primeval abundance was inexhaustible (an idea still pushed by corporate groups like the NZ Initiative today!), or else that the losses did not matter, since modern man through science and invention would soon fabricate an artificial world infinitely more wonderful than that which Nature had provided - an even grosser delusion" (ibid.). But, again, as I have repeatedly noted and emphasised, a very common one!

Neo-Liberal Boost To Economic Expansion

There has been a relatively recent extra historic impetus behind all of this. By the mid-1990s, the new wave of capitalist globalisation spearheaded by TNCs driving economic growth had been gathering real momentum. In 1995, what was known as the Uruguay Round, operating within the international trade and investment framework of the General Agreement on Tariffs & Trade (GATT), resulted in the establishment of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), replacing the GATT itself. So-called "free trade" became the main vehicle for corporate global reach.

Meetings of the World Economic Forum (WEF), bringing together corporate and political leaders and all their various associates, became the celebratory expression of this TNC-driven globalisation. Neo-liberalism became the reigning Western doctrine. At this point in my exposition, it is fitting to give a voice to one its leading organs of dissemination so we can more closely examine the primary assumptions informing this particular capitalist creed.

Let Matthew Bishop of the Establishment's revered free market magazine the Economist spell it out. Writing in 2000, Bishop was an Economist specialist on economics and business. He drew on what is called "Neo-Classical Economics", a theoretical approach "that markets tend toward equilibrium" ("Pocket Economist", Matthew Bishop, The Economist Books, 2000, see relevant entry on p166). Bishop observes that "this theoretical approach was attacked by (John Maynard) Keynes and became unfashionable during the Keynesian-dominated decades after WWII. But, thanks to economists such as Milton Friedman, many neo-classical ideas have since become widely accepted and uncontroversial" (ibid.).

This kind of theory formed the social "pseudo"-science platform for neo-liberal economic growth policies, particularly those promoted by the Anglo-American axis. How to increase growth and productivity became major preoccupations, with technological innovation figuring large. For instance, in the US, rising growth rates during the 1990s were attributed to "a revolution in productivity, largely because of rapid technological innovation ...". (ibid., see entry for "Growth", on p108).

Truncated And Blinkered Theory!

So, what then did the Economist's Matthew Bishop have to say about the environment and environmental limits, if anything substantive? Under the entry of "Environmental Economics", Bishop launched forth in this fashion: "Some people think capitalism is wholly bad for the environment as it is based on consuming scarce resources. They want less consumption and greater reliance on renewable resources. They oppose free trade because they favour self-sufficiency (autarky), or at least so-called fair trade; and because they believe it encourages poorer countries to destroy their natural resources in order to get rich quick" (ibid., p78).

Bishop then commented: "Although few professional economists would share these views, in recent years many attempts have been made to incorporate environmental concerns within mainstream economics" (ibid.). His ensuing commentary demonstrates just how detached the Economist and the free market/trade brigade is in reality from planet Earth! (ibid., pp78-80).

But Matthew Bishop poses the crucial question as he sees it in his book under the entry "Growth: What economic activity is all about, but how can it be made to happen?" (ibid., p107). So, no environmental limits for the Economist. Mind you, Bishop does note that: "Much of the damage done to the environment may be a result of externalities.

An externality can arise when people engaged in economic activity do not have to take into account the full costs of what they are doing" (ibid., p79). For instance, car drivers do not have to bear the full cost of making their contribution to global warming, even though their actions may one day impose a huge financial burden on society. One way to reduce externalities is to tax them, say through a fuel tax (ibid.). NZ National Party, etc., please take note!

Guttering Globalisation

Matthew Bishop goes on to consider what he calls "eco-international markets". For example, "people in rich countries might pay people in poor countries" to desist from things that the former "disapprove of, such as chopping down the rainforests" (ibid.). Such international environmental cooperation has been happening in various ways over the years. With regard to the rainforests, the crisis of the Amazon has become an especially inflammatory issue, given the current continuing devastation of this marvellous wonder of biodiversity and vital planetary climate regulation.

Of course, the Economist's presentation of what is at stake is sly and devious in a host of ways. The "Pocket Economist" has no entries for terms like "imperialism" and "exploitation". For certain, any Western capitalist responsibility for harm dealt out to poorer countries is avoided at every turn. For instance, we saw earlier how poorer countries might be destroying "their natural resources in order to get rich quick" (ibid., p78). There is no mention at all here about how the rich countries gained so much of their wealth and geopolitical position over centuries by the plunder of these very same resources! And, of course, they keep on doing so.

A Brain-Zapped Syndrome

Bishop goes on to pose a very big question as he defines it: "Choices on environmental policy, notably on measures to reduce the threat of global warming, involve costs today with benefits delayed until the distant future. How are these choices to be made?" (ibid., p79). So, very ironically too in light of current global meltdown, Bishop continues his contemplations in this vein about weighing up the costs and benefits of when and what to do. His remarks, even in light of the known scientific knowledge at the time in 2000, illustrate denialist ignorance and are most disturbing. And remember, too, global warming is an environmental issue that he acknowledges to be of importance.

One problem, he says, is "uncertainty. We know nothing about what the state of the world will be in 2200 (my emphasis). The other is how much people today are willing to pay in order to raise the welfare of others who are so remote that they can barely be imagined, yet who seem likely to be much better off materially than people today" (ibid., pp79/80).

The capitalist contradictions here are riveting. Obviously, Matthew Bishop dismisses global warming, despite all the mounting scientific evidence by this time of the enormous danger enveloping humankind. At the same time, Bishop is mad enough to still think that by 2200 people would "be much better off materially than people today" (ibid.). This is indeed a most graphic example of how hugely irrational such capitalist pundits can be!

In Aotearoa/NZ, the fundamentalist free market loonies are exemplified by the ACT Party and its leader David Seymour. This mindless and egregiously and narrowly self-interested mob were given a free and easy pass to Parliament by the crony corporate media. For instance, the Murdoch-trained Andrea Vance has even portrayed Seymour as "a loveable dork", so very thematic of the media treatment indulged for ACT ("Winston's Loss Seymour's Gain", Press, 26/10/20). The potential neo-fascist jackboot is sure getting some polishing these days!

Global Warming And Covid-19 Change Everything!

In the words of writer Naomi Klein, global warming "changes everything"! The predictions and warnings have only got more dire and the call for action desperately urgent (e.g. "The Uninhabitable Earth: A Story Of The Future", David Wallace-Wells, Crown Publishing Group, 2019). The sudden emergence in late 2019 of a coronavirus plague that rapidly spread worldwide has only greatly increased the challenges ahead for us all.

The scientific consensus on the dangers presented by anthropogenic global warming had already been formed by the mid-1990s ("Merchants Of Doubt", op. cit.). Some commentators have even gone further. Journalist Nathaniel Rich maintains that by 1979 humankind had pretty well all the knowledge necessary to alert it to take urgent precautionary and pre-emptive action to properly tackle the emergent challenge of global warming ("Losing Earth: The Decade We Could Have Stopped Climate Change", Picador, 2019). We could have very well acted in the nick of time.

More generally, of course, and ever so sadly, it has been argued that the human brain is not wired to recognise environmental threats like anthropogenic climate change (e.g., "Don't Even Think About It: Why Our Brains Are Wired To Ignore Climate Change", George Marshall, Bloomsbury Press, 2014/15). Besides evolutionary proclivities, and cultural factors like the media's sense of balanced debate for seemingly controversial issues (however biased in practice!), the pervasive syndrome of Rightwing denialism/scepticism clearly shows the significance of perceived self-interest. And this has been deeply endemic in most of the capitalist media.

Capitalist Circus In A Global Spin

Lamentably, "our species' tolerance for self-delusion" is apparently limitless (ibid.). More specifically, during the crucial lost decade of the 1980s, the fossil fuel industry - spearheaded by ExxonMobil and other major oil TNCs - working in collusion with Reaganite politicians, mounted their destructive denialist campaign. 2020 saw US President Donald Trump again signalling his belligerent stupidity on climate change. His brain-dead behaviour was grossly on display at the special climate change session held during the meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland in January 2020. Trump dismissed the threat of global warming and environmental collapse as so much empty talk of doom-mongering catastrophe.

By August 2020, the Trump circus had plummeted to new depths of black comedy by calling out NZ for its comparatively very small community outbreak of Covid-19, which was soon controlled. In stark glaring contrast, the US has continued to suffer many thousands of new cases per day and a horribly mounting death toll. Just a few days out from the American election, Covid-19 was rampant in the US while Trump was still proclaiming defeat of the virus.

Capitalist ideology is certainly geared to deny the obvious when it suits. Let's take again, for instance, the Asia NZ Foundation Te Whitau Tuhono, which is basically motivated by milking commercial opportunities on offer in Asia (see: "Lessons From Asia As NZ Rebuilds", Simon Draper in the Press, 17/8/20). Draper acknowledges "that these are extraordinary times. We need to take the opportunity we have to do some long-term planning for NZ's future" (ibid.). We can say "Amen" to that!

As well, Draper recognises "that thinking we will go 'back to normal' is understandable, but essentially wishful, thinking. Permanent economic and societal changes are happening... (Furthermore), For the first time in living memory, the political debate is not about whether the Government should spend money. The question is: Spending on what?" (ibid.). So far, so good, Simon!

Tunnelling Down Into The Depths Of Dungeons And Dragons

Draper then proceeds to examine the problems in the Government's and Opposition National Party plans for "building tunnels, bridges, roads, and (for something completely different) looking after young children" (ibid.) "Manufacturing capacity" has shifted overseas to China and South Korea, and we lack "cutting-edge technology" (ibid.). He then points to how Korea has grown from an agrarian nation thanks to: "Technology transfer from other countries, alongside a hefty investment in research and development ... into a global leader in innovation" (ibid.).

For example, "South Korea (now) builds trains for the world" (ibid.). We can note here that projects can yet go off the rails at times due to technological misalignment, let alone ultimate environmental damage. Sydney, in Australia, even ordered a batch of trains from Korea that were too wide for the local tracks there! At bottom, the essential message of Draper and of his Foundation is the same sci-fi fantasy driving Western civilisation and evolutionary overshoot in general - embrace more technological innovation to pursue economic growth in the ruin of our Goldilocks planet!

Roads To Oblivion

So, the Asia NZ Foundation has for all intents and purposes absolutely no awareness of Earth's hugely escalating environmental crisis at all!! It is firmly fixated on economic growth and the opportunities for such growth as it sees them. To be sure, despite the positive sounding stuff that Draper had outlined in the earlier part of his article, by the end of it he has completely lost the plot. He is, in fact, fully on track for a return "back to normal".

He pushes the case that: "Technology transfer helped Asian economies grow, and it continues today with North Asian countries transferring their knowledge to Southeast Asian ones". He next opines what is the best option for NZ. According to Draper, we need to "extract as much intellectual property as possible in the contract process" in our programme "for Covid-19 recovery initiatives, including infrastructure projects designed to keep people employed" (ibid.). In his opinion, our "tertiary institutions" should be focused in this manner, at least to some considerable extent.

Expounding on in this vein, Draper concludes that: "Given that Asian countries have undertaken massive infrastructure developments in the last decades, and seen a commensurate rise up the value and innovation chains, they may be able to teach us a few lessons on how to ensure taxpayers end up with the most value for their money. And in this case, value doesn't necessarily mean cheapest" (ibid.).

Spiralling Down Into A Black Hole!?

So, it is not just business as usual for Draper & co. Indeed, they would step up the rape and pilIage of the natural world on an ever-increasing scale. It is eminently clear that such people haven't a clue about the realities enfolding them. They are hellbent on destroying a viable human habitat in their dedication to evolutionary overshoot!

At a public meeting with 11 political candidates present in the small West Coast town of Reefton on the 7th October 2020, most of these political aspirants spoke out strongly in favour of traditional coalmining. Historically, of course, Reefton - as the very name suggests - grew up as a mining town. But the obvious lack of awareness displayed about the dire implications of global warming was stunning. Even NZ Big Business is now signalling the urge to change (e.g., "Big Business: It's Time To Ditch Coal, Petrol, Diesel", Press, 14/10/20).

While Government Minister Damien O'Connor supported some judicious mining, he clearly did not call for more coalmining, unlike the National MP Maureen Pugh who even showed real enthusiasm for this particular option. Pugh was also strongly opposed to the recent regulations to try and clean up our waterways, as well as being against proper protection for conservation land, etc. Interestingly, she rejects the use of pharmaceutical drugs, preferring chiropractic treatment - something which strongly suggests a suspicion of accepted science. Maureen Pugh's general attitude, beliefs, and values are quite typical of a lot of National MPs - one way or another.

Taking Up The Gauntlet!

So far, Governmental measures on improving our environment are well short of those wanted by advocate/activist organisations like Greenpeace NZ and NZ Forest & Bird but the National and ACT Parties would even brazenly and stupidly roll back such moderately progressive measures. Both these Parties, especially ACT, are rife with climate change scepticism, revelling in their denialist ignorance. As emphasised earlier, this sort of vandalistic attitude is indeed symptomatic of their hardline capitalist approach to the management of NZ's and the Earth's ecosystems in general.

All over the world, peoples are committed to their traditional lifestyles, even in the face of very evident problems like unprecedented droughts, wildfires, floods, and hurricanes. There is a host of reasons to explain this kind of commitment - socio-economic, cultural, political, psychological, etc. We urgently need a host of new initiatives.

To stop societies from disintegrating, we will require socio-economic innovations like a basic income (or equivalent provision) as of right; far greater commitment to re-use and recycling of goods and materials; cooperative and environmentally benign forms of employment; dedicated protection and rehabilitation of natural ecosystems; adoption of appropriate technology according to evolving challenges and life cycle history: - to be sure, the list is long and demanding!

At the same time, we have to grapple constructively with the ever-pressing threats of global warming, disease outbreaks like the current Covid-19 pandemic, etc. One way or another, enormous change is coming upon us. We must very quickly learn to work together pre-emptively, positively, and adapt as necessary, otherwise we will be surely trampled by the tides of events unleashed.

We Must Keep Moving Forwards For A Better Future

Overall, there is yet very little understanding that global capitalism in all its various forms epitomises the extremes of the human assault on the planetary livelihood basis of our species' survival. Perceived short-term interest; emotional identification with one's lifestyle; aspirations for betterment along well-worn tracks; culturally extolled values and status; and so on - the motivations are multitudinous as embedded in modern society.

One has only to look at what is regularly shown on TV to comprehend the constant parade of greed, conspicuous consumption, status-seeking, materialist consumerism, etc., and so indoctrination of the masses! This cultural conditioning is pervasive throughout our societies. To be sure, in terms of the process of evolutionary overshoot, such materialist exuberance can be seen as the natural peaking of this process in action. Currently, given the continuing Covid-19 crisis, the debate about the future is more heated and contested than ever before. On the Green Left, the huge constant challenge is to move public discourse in a far more pre-emptive, adaptive, and positive direction.