We are facing the end of the world as we know it, but it doesn’t have to be the end of the world. Our task is to bring people together in a spirit of mutual aid, and to cultivate the Living Democracy that is the only alternative now to authoritarianism, says a new book, “Living Democracy” by Tim Hollo.
This book is subtitled “An Ecological Manifesto for the End of the World as we Know It”. It is a very important and timely contribution in the face of an interacting series of changes that are threatening the very survival of our human species.
The author is the Executive Director of the Green Institute in Canberra, who worked previously as an Associate of former Greens leader, Christine Milne.
He argues that we must cultivate a new kind of “Grassroots Democracy and sharing economics, embedding ecological values through community, and building projects as a critical path to urgent action.”
The crux of the problem, he says, is that governments and corporations, working hand in glove, have blatantly, undermined the integrity of both the state and the market. Corporations have co-designed international trade agreements while citizens have no such right, and citizen trust has been profoundly damaged.
And the story of capitalism-that the market will take care of things if we all follow our own self-interest; that eternal growth on a finite planet is possible, and that we are separate from and superior to the natural world – all of this is exposed as absolute nonsense.
We are facing the end of the world as we know it, but it doesn’t have to be the end of the world. The author says that our task is to bring people together in a spirit of mutual aid, and to cultivate the Living Democracy that is the only alternative now to authoritarianism.
He says that while grief can lead us to act, “doomism” and “survivalism” shut off the possibility of action. They assume that there is no longer any chance of preventing catastrophe and that there is nothing left to be done.
The closing words of the book include these. “By far, the biggest challenge is to believe we can do it, and to trust in ourselves and each other enough, to start, and stick at it.
“If we do it really well, we will thrive in a flourishing, new political and economic system, built around ecological principles as the destructive system withers away.”
“All of a sudden then, the impossible will have become inevitable. And then it will happen. Before we know it, we’ll be Living Democracy.”
Hollo writes with engaging candour and infectious enthusiasm for the task ahead. There is no doubt in my mind that his analysis is sound. The book urgently needs a very wide readership.
Em Prof Bob Douglas, AO is a retired Public Health Academic and a committee member of The Council for The Human Future (CHF) and The Canberra Alliance for Participatory Democracy (CAPaD).
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