politics
Coronavirus Capitalism, Naomi Klein
In this short clip, Naomi Klein applies the conclusions from her book The Shock Doctrine to the current crisis, showing how this disruption could either be an catalyst for transformational change, or yet another opportunity for the wealthy and powerful to enrich themselves.
"Instead of rescuing the dirty industries of the last century, we should be boosting the clean ones that will lead us into safety in the coming century. If there is one thing history teaches us, it’s that moments of shock are profoundly volatile. We either lose a whole lot of ground, get fleeced by elites and pay the price for decades, or we win progressive victories that seemed impossible just a few weeks earlier. This is no time to lose our nerve. The future will be determined by whoever is willing to fight harder for the ideas they have lying around."
Transcript here.
Where Our New World Begins, by Kevin Baker
A great article from Harper's about the Dust Bowl days and the New Deal; how a man-made environmental crisis got so bad that it gave rise to serious public action on an unprecedented scale, drawing the obvious parallel to climate change and the sweeping vision of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez' Green New Deal. It's a long read, but it's well worth reading, both to be reminded of the weight of resistance from entrenched interests that a big change like that needs to overcome, and of the power to accomplish the unthinkable that lives in a historic moment like the one we're facing now.