ALL THE WAY DOWN
posting by Jana
I've been coming across this phrase, 'all the way down' in my PhD reading. It's about tracking a principle - such as a commitment to diversity - at every level in theory and practice.
'All the way down' came to mind when I read an opinion piece in the Guardian this week by Martin Lukacs: 'Neoliberalism has conned us into fighting climate change as individuals.'
I couldn't agree more with his main argument, fully captured in the article title. And I appreciate how he unpacks this.
“The political project of neoliberalism, brought to ascendence by Thatcher and Reagan, has pursued two principal objectives. The first has been to dismantle any barriers to the exercise of unaccountable private power. The second had been to erect them to the exercise of any democratic public will.”
I also agree that "it is time to stop obsessing with how personally green we live – and start collectively taking on corporate power." As Lukacs puts it, "while we busy ourselves greening our personal lives, fossil fuel corporations are rendering these efforts irrelevant." Yep.
Ecozoic Living is definitely about "the (inextinguishable) impulse of humans to come together" and therefore it is about "collectively taking on corporate power."
How can we inspire, connect, and equip each other to live our earth love via collective action and collective resistance?
But Ecozoic Living is also a framework for living our earth love 'all the way down.' It's about the personal as well as the collective, since these are not separate realities.
And it isn't about 'busying ourselves greening our personal lives' or even imagining that by greening our lives we are 'solving' the climate crisis.
Ecozoic Living is about participating as best we can - individually (as in according to our desires and gifts) in the flourishing of the whole community of life on earth. There's a sense in which this is highly personal...and the personal is always political.
Learning to be present to the planet in a mutually beneficial manner takes us inward to a deeper green heart, and leads us outward to connect with others so that "our individual choices will most count" by fighting together for "an economic system (that) can provide viable, environmental options for everyone—not just an affluent or intrepid few."
I'd love to hear your thoughts and responses to the article and to my reflections. Comments welcome!
