Kari McGregor caught up with Helena Norberg-Hodge – new economy activist, founder and director of Local Futures, and producer of award-winning documentary The Economics of Happiness – for a glimpse at the journey that led her to conclude that the future is necessarily local.
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A new initiative has sprung up to bridge the chasm that separates activism and the necessary transition to a sustainable economy from the sphere of mainstream politics.
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An academic who doesn’t stake his career on pleasing the establishment, Ozzie Zehner dares to put forth a down to earth and rigorously scientific response to our culture’s obsession with technological fixes.
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If we really want to see change, then to paraphrase Gandhi, we have to be the change. Grassroots movements offer up a multitude of creative and inspiring ways for ordinary folks to get involved in changemaking, both from the bottom up, and as a conversation space through which we can come to terms with our own power to make a difference.
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We as civil society have passed the ball to the polluting corporations, and allowed them to set the parameters of discussion. We believed the mantra of ‘sustainable development’ lodged in the public consciousness since the Rio Earth Summit of 1992, and some still believe this despite the continuing downward trajectory of planet earth.
We have allowed Big Green groups to drink, dine and collude with Big Business leaders while shafting any meaningful action needed to change the trajectory. Radical reimagining of the way we live – with radical simplification of lifestyles – would result in the radical plummeting of corporate profits and power.
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The environment movement has thus far failed to enact any meaningful systemic change, failed to stop the abuse of life on earth increasing at an alarming rate. I’ve been part of this but am determined for it to change. Preaching to the choir is vital. The choir is large enough to enact systemic change. But it must sing better, louder, more forcefully.
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In our individualistic, identity-asserting culture of conditional worth and comparative selfhood, it can feel as though every triumph and tribulation is scrutinised as a defining fault of personal character. As activists and global citizens, we face enough pressure from reigning ideologies and the media telling us how to live and be A Worthwhile Person that it’s sometimes difficult to differentiate when we’re helping the world from when we could be hurting it, and by reflection, ourselves.
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Far from the one-size-fits-all stereotype, activists come in all shapes and sizes, each bringing their own set of skills to the movement to shift the paradigm. Carving out a niche for activism in our everyday lives is easy once we’ve discovered our own activist superpowers. The trick is to find your natural pace of ‘active being’, and then commit with purpose.
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Coal, Australia’s #1 export and much-touted bringer of economic growth, is at the centre of controversy in Australia’s rural heartland, and the movement to take on Big Coal is gathering steam.
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Artists don’t come much more independent than David Rovics, whose resolutely political music belongs to no record label, and who answers to no one. Shunning the norms of the industry, Rovics makes all of his music available online for free, along with his lyrics and sheet music, encouraging its use for non-profit purposes. The message is clear: this is not just art for art’s sake; there are stories that need to be told, and heard.
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SHIFT magazine 