How Did We Get Into This Mess?: Politics, Equality, Nature

by George Monbiot

Overview

“A primal account of an unstifled world.” —Bill McKibben
“A dazzling command of science and relentless faith . . .” —Naomi Klein

A wide-ranging collection of essays from leading environmental commentator on how politics and big business threaten our daily lives, our society, and the planet

Without countervailing voices, naming and challenging power, political freedom withers and dies. Without countervailing voices, a better world can never materialise. Without countervailing voices, wells will still be dug and bridges will still be built, but only for the few. Food will still be grown, but it will not reach the mouths of the poor. New medicines will be developed, but they will be inaccessible to many of those in need.

George Monbiot is one of the most vocal, and eloquent, critics of the current consensus. How Did We Get into this Mess?, based on his powerful journalism, assesses the state we are now in: the devastation of the natural world, the crisis of inequality, the corporate takeover of nature, our obsessions with growth and profit and the decline of the political debate over what to do.

While his diagnosis of the problems in front of us is clear-sighted and reasonable, he also develops solutions to challenge the politics of fear. How do we stand up to the powerful when they seem to have all the weapons? What can we do to prepare our children for an uncertain future? Controversial, clear but always rigorously argued, How Did We Get into this Mess? makes a persuasive case for change in our everyday lives, our politics and economics, the ways we treat each other and the natural world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781786630780
Publisher:	Verso Books
Publication date:	04/25/2017
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.70(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

George Monbiot writes a weekly column for the Guardian and is the author of a number of books, including Heat: How to Stop the Planet Burning; The Age of Consent: A Manifesto for a New World Order; Captive State: The Corporate Takeover of Britain; and Feral: Rewilding the Land, Sea and Human Life. He recently helped to found Rewilding Britain, which seeks to redefine people’s relationship to the living world.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Part 1 There Is Such a Thing as Society

1 Falling Apart 9

2 Deviant and Proud 14

3 Work-Force 19

4 Addicted to Comfort 23

5 Dead Zone 27

6 Help Addicts, but Lock Up the Casual Users of Cocaine 32

Part 2 Lost Youth

7 Rewild the Child 39

8 The Child Inside 43

9 Amputating Life Close to Its Base 48

10 'Bug Splats' 53

11 Kin Hell 58

12 The Sacrificial Caste 62

13 A Modest Proposal for Tackling Youth 67

14 Pro-Death 72

Part 3 The Wild Life

15 Everything Is Connected 79

16 Civilisation Is Boring 88

17 End of an Era 99

18 The Population Myth 103

19 The Dawning 108

Part 4 Feeding Frenzy

20 Sheepwrecked 119

21 Ripping Apart the Fabric of the Nation 123

22 Drowning in Money 130

23 Small Is Bountiful 139

Part 5 Energy Vampires

24 Leave It in the Ground 147

25 Applauding Themselves to Death 152

26 The Grime behind the Crime 160

27 Going Critical 164

28 Power Crazed 169

Part 6 Riches and Ruins

29 The Impossibility of Growth 175

30 Curb Your Malthusiasm 179

31 Kleptoremuneration 184

32 The Self-Attribution Fallacy 188

33 The Lairds of Learning 193

34 The Man Who Wants to Northern Rock the Planet 198

35 The Gift of Death 203

Part 7 Dance with the One Who Brung You

36 How the Billionaires Broke the System 209

37 Plutocracy's Boot Boys 213

38 How Did We Get Into This Mess? 217

39 Going Naked 222

Part 8 Out of Sight, Out of Mind

40 The Holocaust We Will Not See 227

41 The Empire Strikes Back 232

42 Unremitting Pain 236

43 Bomb Everyone 241

Part 9 Holding Us Down

44 A Global Ban on Leftwing Politics 249

45 Innocent until Proved Dead 254

46 The Paranoia Squad 258

47 Union with the Devil 263

Part 10 Finding Our Place

48 Someone Else's Story 271

49 Highland Spring 275

50 A Telling Silence 280

51 The Values of Everything 285

Acknowledgements 291

Notes 293

Index 333

Editorial Reviews

A dazzling command of science and relentless faith in people . . . I never miss reading him.”
—Naomi Klein

“George Monbiot is always original—both in the intelligence of his opinions and the depth and rigour of his research.”
—Brian Eno

“His passion for social and ecological justice is undimmed by twenty-first-century cynicism. His desire for knowledge across the widest gamut of subjects (scientific, historical, political and cultural) enables him to reach places which are foreign territory to many of us.”
—Herald (Glasgow)

“What most impresses in Monbiot’s clever, elegant writing is the way he strives to think beyond protest towards realistic, representative solutions to the problems of world politics and trade.”
—The Times

“A writer of eloquence and passion.”
—Observer

“An excellent critique of much that is wrong with modern society.”
—Tablet

“Does an excellent job of articulating the cultural dearth of our times and suggesting ways to counteract its causes and expressions, whilst resisting defeatism . . . [Monbiot] leaves his reader with a sense of hope, empowered to help build a better future.”
—Marx & Philosophy

From the Publisher