Societal Breakdown

     Many of you have probably read the novel The Road by Cormac McCarthy, or have seen the movie version. It is a grim tale of a father and his son travelling to the coast after a major disaster has completely destroyed U.S. society.
     Of course we have known such tales since we were very young, especially tales of nuclear disaster in the United States. Do you remember the movie The Day After? I took some young people from a shantytown in Lima to see that movie years ago. Afterwards their comment was, “ So… what’s so special? That’s life every day!” In recent weeks I have posted two reflections on the economic crisis we are currently going through and the possibilities of finding our way through it. But the problem is actually much bigger and much more complex than the financial difficulties we are facing. I follow a website called Truthout. It covers news in the U.S. mainly from a progressive stance. Lately there have been several significant reflections on the emergence of the Tea Party and its significance. There is concern that this phenomenon exposes the tip of the iceberg of a major trend in the extreme right to turn to violence to vent their anger at the current U.S. administration. Several books have been published recently that try to outline the crisis of democracy in the U.S. and its implications globally. Among these are Democracy Incorporated by Sheldon Wolin and Democracy Inc. by David S. Allen. In a Canadian context there is Global Showdown by Maude Barlow and Tony Clarke. There are significant American political analysts who suggest that American society has become totalitarian in a sense at least as rigorous as that of Germany or Italy in the late 1930s with the significant difference that society is managed so that there is no need for an overwhelming repression of the general public. However, they point out that this model may be reaching its limit as access to resources becomes limited.
     In The Upside of Down, Canadian author, Thomas Homer-Dixon, argues that we in North America are reaching a point where there could be synchronous failure, that is to say a point where several major systems that sustain the North American way of life could collapse. These include not only the financial system but also things like social services, electrical grids, energy sources, terrorist attacks, climate change, etc. While the possibility that any one of these could enter into a major crisis is becoming increasingly probable, there is also a possibility that several could occur at once and that we would not currently be prepared to respond adequately. Our whole social structure could collapse.
     So far I have been speaking of the situation in North America. What then also about the rest of the world? The region I know best is Latin America. As you are certainly aware, Latin America went through a horrendous period of dictatorships military repression and civil wars between the 1970s and 1990s. More recently there has been a flowering of relatively people-centered governments even as most Latin American countries opened their doors wide to the entry of major transnationals, like Canadian mining companies. Now it appears that, as the people in general become aware of the extent of the damage being done to their territories by these transnationals, a U.S.-based military, juridical and economic response is being implemented. The recent coup in Honduras, the expansion of U.S. military bases in Colombia and the virtual take-over of Haiti by the U.S. military (all protests to the contrary) are significant examples.
     This is leading many social activists from a variety of sectors to question the approaches they have been following to social change and to ask themselves whether or not a profound reassessment may not be required. The point is not to become overwhelmed by the immensity or complexity of the current situation but to try to find the cracks and contradictions that will allow us to burrow in and open up paths that allow people to continue living in and building societies of compassion, solidarity and justice.
     Is it possible? There are many who think so. Thomas Homer-Dixon is one, Quebec Solidaire; a Quebec-based political party is another. The local, regional, continental and world social forums are still another place where that analysis and mobilization is taking place
     This is certainly not the time to be sitting back to “see what happens,” but rather a time to make sure that what we are doing supports a very deep and long-term vision of a path to change.