BTW, this is the same person, different account. 😊

It is centred on Ireland's responsibility, but without omitting to emphasise the global-ness and the general magnitude of the crisis for which Ireland's has a responsibility. I don't want to mischaracterise the book. A lot of what Ireland has to do would apply elsewhere. We're all connected.

Thanks for asking for the rest of us.

Our governments have failed us. They are, in fact, complicit. What's the point in continuing to beseech them? We have radical and wholesale change *immediately*, *two decades ago*, OR we only have each other.

Your presence would be deeply appreciated here in Ireland, George, if you ever have the time.

Oh, 100%! I commend the volunteers! I just feel that they are deserving of contributions towards their livelihoods while the rest of us benefit. On one hand, it's rarely the rich who dedicate time to these sorts of causes, but on the other hand, there are many of us who can't afford to.

This is work worthy of payment. Imagine the valuable gains that could be made if people were employed at scale to do this work. Instead we are forced into socially and environmentally destructive jobs void of meaning.

Sure, you can replace them, nationalise everything, have a supremely powerful state, but what about the state itself? If it is a tool of supreme power, it's always going to be a temptation for corrupting influences and would-be despots. What do we do to prevent that? Who is the "good authority"?

Layers of epiphytes 😍

Power to the people

The problem is the state is in bed with corporate interests when it is not one and the same thing. You need to wrest power from them violently, because I can't see them giving it freely, can you? And then there's no guarantee that any future concentration of power will not be corrupted.

.. listening to each other and showing each other that WE are the ones WE need, and they're nothing without our compliance.

Divest from the rich and powerful whose ultimate aims are always the preservation, if not accumulation, of their own wealth and power. We can get nothing really meaningful done as long as they pull our strings. We have to reclaim physical space, access to resources, so we can start...

Hope is synonymous with the drive to survive. It's what keeps generation upon generation of myriad organisms evolving, despite some really shitty times in Earth's history. When it comes to life, hope is good strategy. If you only save one tree in the forest, what a precious and glorious tree!

I think it's fairly clear at this stage that we're heading for civilisational collapse. A controlled transition would've been better, but that boat has sailed, and the only way I see a rapid enough transition happening is through what would amount to a revolution in the next few years.

I don't share either of those views, but I respect that you hold your views, and I think that in itself is an essential step for us (and I have in mind, in particular, leftists and liberals) to enter into meaningful, productive dialogue because, one way or another, we are in this shitshow together.

I hear you. I don't want to be part of this effort to rudely gang up on you and make presumptions about your views. Whether on the left, right, or centre, once we start name-calling, deriding, and stop listening and engaging in honest, rational dialogue, we're already sabotaging ourselves.

Perhaps it's unrealistic to think that this is the end of history. That it's all capitalism and nation states from here on in. Innovation is ok, but evolution or revolution are not? Unprecedented things are always "unrealistic" until they happen, and unprecedented things are always on the horizon.

Excited to begin!