Star Wars : The Environmentalists Version

3 Responses to Star Wars : The Environmentalists Version

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2. Vin says:

   October 15, 2009 at 2:37 pm

   That video is quite funny and well made but politically irrelevant IMHO.
   It’s too caricatured and holds no ground on reality.
   It’s nothing but potshots, some less accurate than others, at those who do try to make a change.
   It’s advertising some radical ecologist site at the end, which says a lot, really…

   I think those radical ecologists are even more remote from having any sort of tiny impact and are themselves so incredibly divided, incoherent and, well, juvenile that it’s hard to take their simplistic criticism seriously.

   I reckon we should embrace and promote most of what can be seen as a step in the right direction, even if it’s a tiny step and even if it doesn’t come from 100% pure aggressive revolutionary don’t-listen-to-anyone punk arses.

   Vin
3. @ndy says:

   October 16, 2009 at 5:03 pm

   Vin,

   I agree that the video is funny, and well-made, but I don’t think it’s politically irrelevant. On the contrary, I think it points, in a humourous manner, to what is politically ineffectual in the ideological paradigm of the (‘mainstream’ of the) environmental movement. It is aimed, I think, not at denouncing those armed with good intentions, but at underlining the fact that good intentions are insufficient to obtain desired ends. What the link at the end of the video does — or what I assume it’s intended to accomplish — is to enable the viewer to obtain further information on the subjects referred to in the actual body of the video.

   I also don’t agree that radical ecologists have had no impact upon environmental discourse. It seems to me that what radicals do, by definition, is attempt to get to the roots of a problem or situation; to locate symptoms of environmental dis-ease in the fundamental structure of contemporary society, whether these are conceptualised in terms of consumerism, capitalism, or industrialism. In addition, the kinds of critiques being advance by radical ecological thinkers may well be wrong, but they are hardly juvenile.

   Beyond this, I would suggest that the kinds of criticisms being put forward by ‘radical ecologists’ with regards political process and social change echo those which have previously emanated from a range of social movements, including, especially, the labour movement. So: leaving aside any other question, I reckon what ‘we’ should do is critically analyse the current situation, be informed by past experience, and attempt to construct a future that is in accord with both human survival and desire.

   (And blow up The Death Star.)