Thelma Young Lutunatabua
There is no doubt that January 2020 was a foreboding and intense start to the decade. From the catastrophic bushfires in Australia, to the U.S. and Iran flirting with war, and then the new Coronavirus (to just name a few). If you’re already feeling heavy from the start of the year, just know this — the future doesn’t have to be terrifying. There are things we can do to stop business as usual and intentionally make some abrupt shifts to the dominant order of things. The truth is we have no option but to get a bit uncomfortable and push for a restart. Even from just a climate perspective, numerous key scientific reports are showing how this decade is make or break. We either rapidly decrease carbon emissions or get stuck into perpetual cataclysmic decline. Incremental change is not going to cut it.
There are unjust, dangerous systems that need to be undone. There are debilitating mindsets and world views that must be reworked. Some have been around for hundreds of years, while some have just recently emerged.
What is often limiting us is our own vision of the new world we can build. It doesn’t take much digging to realise that alternative possibilities have been thriving in many places for a long time. I used to think that the only options were communism vs capitalism, and that the only option is this dichotomous worldview. The reality is that the truth has long already been here. We just need to push aside all the distractions corporations are throwing at us and get a glimpse of the way things can be.
We have no option but to push for a re-coding of this decade. Here are a few things you can do to get going:
Relationships matter and are the entangled core of any positive change that will happen. Not only is community the way we can create the monumental shifts we need — it is also the way we will survive. There will be terrifying moments in this decade; there is no doubt about it. But through all the disasters and horrific moments to come, it is our community that will see us through. The legendary Detroit activist Grace Lee Boggs once said on Democracy Now, “the only way to survive is by taking care of one another, by recreating our relationships to one another.” If you live a life that considers the needs of others, it will have widespread ramifications. Start with just the little things if you can. Don’t let a friend who is sick order delivery; go and bring them some soup yourself.
Building community is an active and sometimes exhausting process. It requires radical hospitality, making space for difficult conversations, showing proper respect and so much more. If you look to almost any indigenous community, there is prescribed within them how rich communities can be sustained.
Eco-capitalism has long told us that individual actions can help create a friendlier world. So we see ads for a new reusable mug on our Facebook feeds. Around New Years we also get hammered with reminders of our individual resolutions we should set for the upcoming year. The path of individual action is helpful and necessary — but it is not enough. Only by coming together and learning to be together can we generate the momentum needed. The “Not Me, Us” slogan of the Bernie Sanders campaign has been a beautiful example of rebuilding our ways of being together.
Has your local church set a goal for how they will support the refugee community this year? Are you part of a campaign in your city to stop fossil fuel infrastructure and invest in renewable energy? Are you part of a local or national community organisation? If not, find one near you and start getting involved.
One of the most detrimental beliefs that pervades outward from Western capitalism is that our self-worth lies in what we have. Erich Fromm in one of his seminal works, says, “As long as everybody wants to have more, there must be formations of classes, there must be class war, and in global terms, there must be international war.” We are inundated constantly with ads, and our data is mined so that we can all be sold more things. It’s this endless pursuit of having that will strip us of chances of peace or a sustainable future.
Furthermore, what I also see more and more (especially in activist circles) is the emphasis on doing. We ARE our to-do lists. We ARE the number of exciting events we’ve attended. We fill up every moment of our day, whether it’s scrolling through Instagram or achieving whatever comes next.
I still remember the day before I was to pick up my first smartphone. I was riding the bus through Washington, just looking out the window. I knew distinctly that after getting the phone, my attention would shift, and I would no longer just take the time to be and watch a city go by. People often like to deride or make snide comments about “Fiji Time” — many cultures and countries have their own version of this, but basically it comes down to not sticking to prescribed rules around when moments will start. It can be an enlightening aspect of life, though, reminding us to move away from a life packed with the drum of productivity.
Being is more than just sitting and doing nothing. It is all the active ways we replenish our souls, honour relationships and respect our environments. Every day, we can make a decision on what kind of culture we want to build.
Corporations want us to believe that their products and political systems are the only way that societies can effectively function and grow beyond perpetual poverty. They will never show though the true cost of the ever-consuming way of life.
However, real alternatives are already operating in bounteous ways — we just have to look around us. On January 1, Fiji instituted a ban on single-use plastic bags. Similar bans have already taken place around the Pacific. While some took this as an opportunity to freak out, others have used it to show that plastic bags are actually quite new — whereas traditional baskets and bags have long been a sustainable way that folks have carried their produce.
We can look to our own ancestors and parents to learn better ways of being. My mother taught me to have a fierce skepticism of fast fashion and instead of buying lots of poorly made clothes to instead sew my own, as well as invest in a few quality pieces. What skills did your grandparents have that you wish you still knew how to do? You can also look to movement elders. The work to build just societies has been a long ongoing struggle with so many wins and losses. So many of our battles are the same as what they were 30 years ago or more.
If you live in a settler state, have you taken time to build relationships with and understand the indigenous community of the land? What are their traditional structures around managing resources? If this information isn’t written down, take the time to respectfully and humbly learn.
There are so many organizations on the frontlines of climate justice already building the solutions we need. One group is Uprose in New York City. Listen to this great podcast about community-led renewable solutions here.
This decade is also the perfect time to get creative. Just as scarcity is the mother of invention, so can courage be. Rebecca Solnit, in her book ‘Paradise Built in Hell, ’ documents the creative resiliency of communities during disasters. She says, “What you imagine as overwhelming or terrifying while at leisure becomes something you can cope with when you must-there is no time for fear.”
It’s also important to remember that not every solution is based on new technology. We need possibilities that are accessible and sustainable.
None of the work we’re doing to build a more open, democratic and sustainable world will matter if we don’t also address the root issues of racism, colonialism and patriarchy. We cannot push this battle aside in the name of diminishing CO2 levels. It’s all part of the same multi-headed beast.
Now is the time to reach across the aisle, broaden our understanding and be good allies. It’s not enough to just retweet; we also have to physically show up for each other.
This can be an invigorating time ahead. A moment when we can discover the true ways we want to be — and not just the ways companies tell us to be. In 2001, at the World Social Forum in Brazil, community leaders all over the world to declare that “Another World Is Possible.” Then in 2005 a powerful group of women presented a vision, “Another world is necessary, another world is possible, another has already started.” We should bring back this anthem and carry it forward beyond 2020.