Entitled simply “Eco-Stalinism”, this anonymous revolutionary plea for eco-Stalinism circulating in the dark web belongs to the literary genre of so-called “rants”, which flourished in Scotland in the 17th and 18th centuries, e.g., the 1700 “MacPherson’s Lament” (aka “MacPherson’s Farewell”) made famous by Robert Burns 88 years later (and sung by The Corries in the 1970s). Given its communist inspiration and copyright status, I publish it as my own, so as to exemplify vividly what happens to common goods under legal and economic regimes based upon the institutions of private property and individual self-maximisation.
Who or what, if not combined State power, can force the current economic agents into a 100% sustainable order? Who or what, if not combined State power, can make a squeaky-clean system of extraction, transformation, transportation, consumption and disposal the daily norm for all businesses on Earth? Who or what, if not combined State power, can take an emergency response for a global pandemic and turn it into a new normal, until all productive systems have been made green thoroughly and unfailingly? Who or what, if not combined State power, can challenge, and stand a chance at beating, the corporate juggernauts dominating the world’s global markets, often threatening small nations’ governments with costly litigation, and regularly escaping the truly progressive rules of big nations’ governments by fleeing into the small nations?
The Green Strongman—that’s the Leader we need. It does not have to wear a moustache—brown, grey, or green, for that matter. Hairy or smooth, the face we imagine and call for is that of an enlightened despot for the 21st century. Let’s not be shy about it. This is the only credible answer left on the table. I’m sorry, devout democrats. Your time is over.
Think about it. 20th-century democracy has been tested again and again. It was tested in the 19th century, for that matter, and it gave us Napoleon III. Then, it gave us Mussolini and Hitler. Not to mention the Republican buffoons, who allowed the US 1920s to roar. The Great Gatsby, again. There’s a token of a leaping tiger turned into a sacrificial lamb, if there ever was one. Then the buffoons returned, and more and more tigers-turned-into-lambs started populating the planet’s stock-exchanging habitats. And when these habitats get screwed over, no other habitat is safe. This very strange animal, once its metamorphosis is over, takes the whole flock along, no matter where the ovine’s favourite hiding place may be.
It’s difficult not to have dyed wool pulled over one’s eyes, I know. There are sheep all around. And it is not their fault, often. The propaganda of stock prices having to go up and up and up and up and up is, to be frank, merciless. Newspapers, TV stations, default desktop settings and expert talks regurgitate these mind-numbing mantras without solution of continuity. Democracy, certainly, cannot put a stop to it. Wherever you look, the democracy that today’s soft leftists cheer for has done nothing but giving us timid, meek servants of the capitalist class. Sheep ruling over sheep, in the interest of the only lions, or wolves, roaming around, i.e., the capitalists and their testosterone-filled top managers.
I am willing to admit that the post-war generation of the 1950s, coming from the battlefield, had a bit of guts, whether they had fought as soldiers or partisans. As of the 1960s, though, the decline started becoming more and more evident. By the late 1970s, crazy market-worshippers started appearing once more, until they became the normal political crop of all nations. That’s the legacy of the generations living and voting during Thatcher’s, Clinton’s and Berlusconi’s years.
After 2008, some countries came finally to their senses, but it was too late. By then, the economic interests that are overwarming the planet and dooming us all had become too entrenched and too powerful. Guys, and gals, accept it. Democracy’s hypothetical ability to sway human fate is lost. Ballots have no balls. Rifles and cannons do. Let’s use this kind of balls, then. At least, let’s use the threat of them, like our grandparents did. Now, since we want life to flourish, re-education is the first option. At all times. I am with you on that. We would rather have new citizens than dead citizens. Come to our schools. Come to our summer camps. Even in Siberia, these days, the climate has gone tropical.
If you don’t really get it, though, then we will have to do like a doctor does with his or her medicines; or like the immune system does with the pathogens it encounters. Killing whatever kills you has always been justified. It is called self-defence. As to the Christians, Tolstoians, Gandhi-types and like-minded pacifists at all costs, they can have their meetings and parades. Who are we to stop them? I mean, they are their own stop. Have you ever seen a lion, or a wolf, fearing a toothless challenger?
Throw flowers at the enemies and they will use them to decorate your grave. Beautiful souls have never mattered, really, and they never will. Big changes in history are made by way of brutal means for aims that can be as brutal; or not. Changes can be for the worse; I don’t deny it. Yet they can also be for the better—so much better. The latter is what we pursue. We shall employ whatever means are at our disposal, violent ones included, in order to secure the survival of our species, its offspring, in environmentally sound conditions. Be ready.
Our Leader will be green, but not unexperienced. It could be Pope Francis, Naomi Klein, John McMurtry or some Martian, as long as they go along with the plan. We are not too choosy. There’s plenty of intelligent people who have been sounding the alarm for ages. For goodness’ sake. Eventually, even John Stuart Mill did it, and back in the 19th century! Hans Jonas, despite his Nazi mentorship, did it again one hundred years later. I mean, there’s been no shortage of words of warning and words of wisdom. We need action. Words don’t cut it, because it’s the overabundance of normalised egotism that has been the problem. We must stem it in. We must do it now. We must do it radically.
Tough tools are called for. No more voluntary schemes. Only voluntary servitude will do. People at all levels must bow to the higher purpose and the supreme imperative of human survival, even if it means having no Mars bars, flying nowhere for ten years, having 20 litres of gasoline per head for the next two decades, and changing jobs as required by the Council of the Wise that our Leader will establish. Einstein, who was a socialist as well as a genius, had already thought of this solution back in the 1930s. How could he be wrong? A thoughtful Veblenite, Einstein believed that the Soviet of Engineers would do a better job than the usual democratically elected politicians, whom he saw bought and sold like canned beans. What he didn’t get, however, is that the Engineers need rifles and cannons, as well as a Leader coordinating their action.
The transition will be hard. Rations and retreating from Nature’s bleeding sores will be rough to force through. Lovelock’s path to salvation is the narrowest that you can imagine. There shall be little gaiety on Gaia. It will not be easy; but it is necessary. Lest you long for Mad Max. Most people, fortunately, don’t. Prepare yourselves, then, for a host of great hurdles are to be overcome. Among them, there will be the inertia and the resistance of covetous schemers, coward collaborators, close-minded imbeciles, selfish bastards, and unimaginative souls. They will have to be defeated.
Don’t expect much love or recognition. Posterity will shower us with gratitude. Not this generation of hapless sheep, who cannot even wear a protective face mask when asked politely. Not this bunch of card-maxing drones who have been bamboozled with adverts since their infancy. Not these cretins who measure their worth in paycheques, motor engine size, fashion fascism and many other stupid forms of competitive emulation. Re-educate. If hopeless, shoot. When all other “Rs” fail, the one stating “remove” comes in very handy indeed.
Note ~ This article is one of a series, as follows:
Eco-Stalinism: A Tongue-in-Cheek Manifesto
Part 1 -
The Barking Madness
Part 2 -
Left and Right
Part 3 -
Magicians and Medics
Part 4 -
The Green Man of Steel
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Born in Genoa, Italy, Giorgio Baruchello is an Icelandic citizen and works as Professor of Philosophy at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences of the University of Akureyri, Iceland. He read philosophy in Genoa and Reykjavík, Iceland, and holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Guelph, Canada. Since 2005 he has been the editor of Nordicum-Mediterraneum: The Icelandic E-Journal of Nordic and Mediterranean Studies. He has authored several books, including Why Believe? Approaches to Religion with Garrett Barden. His publications encompass several different areas, especially social philosophy, theory of value, and intellectual history. Northwest Passage Books has published five volumes of his collected philosophical essays.
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