Integrated Activism

This stimulating book might equally have been called systemic activism, taking into account the linkages between ecology, economic, politics and the ideology of progress, which our culture tends to take for granted. To be systemic is to be aware of the fallout and 'side-effects' of certain courses of action and to take these into account. Not to realise this is to be what the author calls non-conscious and therefore unaware of the deep roots of our social and ecological problems in terms of sustainability, class divisions (including patriarchy) and the influence of ecology over social society. This last point is elaborated in detail and shows how resource shortages not only lead to conflict but also to authoritarian social structures and loss of civil liberties. The author projects that we will have to learn how to live with economic contraction, which will have many of the same effects. The recent biofuel controversy clearly shows the trade-off between feeding cars and feeding people. He sees modern consumption as based on ecological destruction: throughput creates an illusory equation between annihilation and economic vitality. The status quo is kept in place by powerful vested interests and a conformity engendered by factory education.

In common with many other ecological thinkers, Zeigler advocates the devolution of power and economics, community scale and cooperative use: localising an economy that we can control and which enables us to direct our social evolution in a conscious way. I found his chapter on population growth quite fascinating. He is critical of demographic transition theory, arguing instead that the roots of population growth can be found in colonisation and Catholicism. Indigenous peoples tend to limit their population within the constraints of their immediate environment. Colonisers were looking for an increased supply of labour and soldiers, while the ideology of Catholicism discouraged contraceptive practices. Zeigler's educational vision is based on that of John Dewey - it is a process of living not a preparation for future living. In the future, he sees civil unrest arising from escalating commodity prices leading to food riots, something one can already see from our experiences of 2008 and since. His solution is the integration of grassroots social movements generating what he calls constructive panic so that we join the dots and consciously choose to create a sustainable society on all levels.