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A review by caseyreaderson
Desert by Anonymous
The planet is on a path toward ecological destruction and the human species will eventually go extinct. This will likely happen sooner than it would have otherwise as a result of the extractive, short-sighted systems we've put in place during our time here. ("Our," in this case, is not simply humans. I can reasonably narrow it down to mostly just power-hungry white dudes throughout history.) Further, any "utopia"—be that of anarchists, communists, democratic socialists, white nationalists, black separatists, whatever—is realistically out of reach on this timeline.
The important thing is to not let this realization create a defeatist outlook where no fight is worth our time. What this means is that the stakes are different. In a way, truly, "the only thing to lose is your chains." Pain is real, suffering is real, and the logic of the systems in place has a way of delegating these things to the least deserving, and keeping this fact out of sight and out of reach. This fact will continue, though it can be fought. It might not look like utopia in your (our, humans') lifetime, but pain and suffering can be curbed during the time of humans on Earth... if you still fight. This fight is worth it.
It seems some research in this book was out of date and a little misguided (namely that plenty of food is *produced* to feed the Earth, and the problem instead lies in getting it to who needs it), but I'm a fan of its underlying ideas.
The important thing is to not let this realization create a defeatist outlook where no fight is worth our time. What this means is that the stakes are different. In a way, truly, "the only thing to lose is your chains." Pain is real, suffering is real, and the logic of the systems in place has a way of delegating these things to the least deserving, and keeping this fact out of sight and out of reach. This fact will continue, though it can be fought. It might not look like utopia in your (our, humans') lifetime, but pain and suffering can be curbed during the time of humans on Earth... if you still fight. This fight is worth it.
It seems some research in this book was out of date and a little misguided (namely that plenty of food is *produced* to feed the Earth, and the problem instead lies in getting it to who needs it), but I'm a fan of its underlying ideas.