All systems go

Over the weekend, I spent time reading Ecocide: Kill The Corporation Before It Kills Us by David Whyte. 

I'll be honest, it made me feel sick to my stomach given: a) our unholy fascination with the corporate vehicle; and b) the damage it's wrought and continues to do so, unabated. 

Think about it. We talk about climate change, environmental degradation and sustainability but, save for regulation that might kill off the capitalist ideal - it's never going to happen on my watch - it's the company that's responsible for all the egregious harm to mother earth and her people. 

I've not yet finished the book but I do know from a video that I watched to launch the book that towards the end there is a manifesto of sorts, and I'll be interested to see what David Whyte says about systemic change or rather what comes next if we don't want to see the very ground of our divination wiped away in the next 100 years (it could be less; and if you want to know more, I highly recommend you read David Wallace-Wells' book, The Uninhabitable Earth).

I suppose the thing that troubles me most, though, particularly in the midst of a pandemic, is that despite the hollow exhortation about how companies and their systems could be made better, when you think about it, how likely is it, apart say from the behemoth oil companies who are well and truly in the dock, that any company is going to be brought to heel by anything more than, say, shareholders looking for something a little greener or perhaps direct action? In short, qua the need to grow, companies will continue to harm the planet, whilst the majority of us work inside and for them. 

I appreciate that this isn't a simple message to unpack or decipher but without trying to big up the book, I think there's a very clear message that needs airing; namely, if we don't invite those members, directors and leaders to reexamine what a more beautiful world looks like - and hopefully not some technical utopia shorn of nature or anything natural - then we really are screwed. 

Like so many of the issues that I seem to alight on in an attempt to make sense of my life and my life's work - or what remains of it - I've much to consider, not least how I can continue to be part of a corporate system that has no soul, less still a heart. 

Blessings,

Julian 

PS. This is a short introduction to the book that you may like to watch.