Introduction: Lessons from the school of radical change (notes of a slow learner) -- Part one. Empire versus Earth in the Necrocene. Ecological thinking and the crisis of the Earth -- How an anarchist discovered the Earth -- Education for the Earth or education for empire? -- The summit of ambition: the Paris Climate spectacle and the politics of the gesture -- Against resilence: Hurricane Katrina and the politics of disavowal. Part two. Another world is actual. Homage to Lacandonia: the politics of heart and spirit in Chiapas -- Lessons of the Rojavan Revolution -- Papua Merdeka: the indigenous struggle against state and corporate domination -- Power to the community: the Black Panthers' living legacy of grassroots organization -- From the movement of occupation to the community of liberation. Part three. The awakening of consciousness. Another Sun is possible: thoughts for the solstice -- Do you know what it means? Reflections on suffering, disaster, and awakening -- Buddhism, radical critique, and revolutionary praxis -- Rumi and the fall of the spectacular commodity economy -- Regionalism and the politics of experience. Part four. Power to the imagination (fifty years later). In search of the radical imagination: two concepts of the social imaginary -- The spectacle looks back into you: the Situationists and the aporias of the Left -- Happy birthday, utopia! (You deserve a present) -- Carnival at the edge of the abyss: New Orleans and the apocalyptic imagination -- Postscript: Oikos and poesis: on Earth and rebirth -- Appendix: Emergency heart sutra.
Summary:
Focuses on the crucial position of humanity at the present moment in Earth history. Clark shows that conventional approaches to global crisis on both the right and the left have succumbed to processes of denial and disavowal, either rejecting the reality of crisis entirely or substituting ineffectual but comforting gestures and images for deep, systemic social transformation. It is argued that a large-scale social and ecological regeneration must be rooted in communities of liberation and solidarity, fostering personal and group transformation so that a culture of awakening and care can emerge. In this critique, Clark explores examples of significant progress in this direction, including the Zapatista movement in Chiapas, the Democratic Autonomy Movement in Rojava, indigenous movements in defense of the commons, the solidarity economy movement, and efforts to create liberated base communities and affinity groups within anarchism and other radical social movements. In the end, the book presents a vision of hope for social and ecological regeneration through the rebirth of a libertarian and communitarian social imaginary, and the flourishing of a free cooperative community globally. --Adapted from publisher description.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.