Between Earth and Empire focuses on the crucial position of humanity at the present moment in Earth history. We are now in the midst of the Necrocene, an epoch of death and mass extinction. Nearing the end of the long history of Empire and domination, we are faced with the choice of either continuing the path of social and ecological disintegration or initiating a new era of social and ecological regeneration.
The book shows that conventional approaches to global crisis on both the right and the left have succumbed to processes of denial and disavowal, either rejecting the reality of crisis entirely or substituting ineffectual but comforting gestures and images for deep, systemic social transformation. It is argued that a large-scale social and ecological regeneration must be rooted in communities of liberation and solidarity, fostering personal and group transformation so that a culture of awakening and care can emerge.
Between Earth and Empire explores examples of significant progress in this direction, including the Zapatista movement in Chiapas, the Democratic Autonomy Movement in Rojava, indigenous movements in defense of the commons, the solidarity economy movement, and efforts to create liberated base communities and affinity groups within anarchism and other radical social movements. In the end, the book presents a vision of hope for social and ecological regeneration through the rebirth of a libertarian and communitarian social imaginary, and the flourishing of a free cooperative community globally.
Author(s): John P. Clark
Year: 2019
Language: English
Pages: 385
Front Cover......Page 1
Title Page......Page 4
Copyright......Page 5
Contents......Page 8
Foreword—By Peter Marshall......Page 10
Preface—Some Basic Concepts......Page 24
Introduction—Lessons from the School of Radical Change (Notes of a Slow Learner)......Page 36
Part I: Empire Versus Earth in the Necrocene......Page 44
1. Ecological Thinking and the Crisis of the Earth......Page 46
2. How an Anarchist Discovered the Earth......Page 65
3. Education for the Earth or Education for Empire?......Page 86
4. The Summit of Ambition: The Paris Climate Spectacle and the Politics of the Gesture......Page 100
5. Against Resilence: Hurricane Katrina and the Politics of Disavowal......Page 107
Part II: Another World is Actual......Page 130
6. Homage to Lacandonia: The Politics of Heart and Spirit in Chiapas......Page 132
7. Lessons of the Rojavan Revolution......Page 161
8. Papua Merdeka: The Indigenous Struggle against State and Corporate Domination......Page 175
9. Power to the Community: The Black Panthers’ Living Legacy of Grassroots Organization......Page 189
10. From the Movement of Occupation to the Community of Liberation......Page 197
Part III: The Awakening of Consciousness......Page 208
11. Another Sun Is Possible: Thoughts for the Solstice......Page 210
12. Do You Know What It Means? Reflections on Suffering, Disaster, and Awakening......Page 216
13. Buddhism, Radical Critique, and Revolutionary Praxis......Page 228
14. Rumi and the Fall of the Spectacular Commodity Economy......Page 241
15. Regionalism and the Politics of Experience......Page 254
Part IV: Power to the Imagination (Fifty Years Later)......Page 264
16. In Search of the Radical Imagination: Two Concepts of the Social Imaginary......Page 266
17. The Spectacle Looks Back into You: The Situationists and the Aporias of the Left......Page 288
18. Happy Birthday, Utopia! (You Deserve a Present)......Page 315
19. Carnival at the Edge of the Abyss: New Orleans and the Apocalyptic Imagination......Page 325
POSTSCRIPT Oikos and Poesis: On Earth and Rebirth......Page 351
APPENDIX Emergency Heart Sutra......Page 353
Acknowledgments......Page 355
Index......Page 360
About the Authors......Page 368
