A Total Green Future government?

As previously discussed, a Total Green Future government is at heart a technocracy: in other words, a group of people who have genuine expertise to course-correct the environmental crisis. That discussion introduced two possible pathways to such a government — reformation or transformation of the current political process — that we should begin to explore further. Of course, all such discussion is highly speculative, and what follows is finger-in-the-air stuff based on combining the current mood of geopolitics, a balance between what is desirable and achievable, and plausible-but-unprovable insights into the psychology of the masses (that’s us!).

Let’s look first at the reformation of the current political process. It is obvious after decades of inaction, that the current nexus of Big Business and governments has no inclination to take the kind of proportionate response necessary to course-correct the environmental crisis. Consequently, reformation of the current political process is not about convincing mainstream political parties to be more environmentally aggressive. Nor is such a reformation about pinning hopes on the various national Green parties gaining power, because they too have had their chance and failed to scale due to the masses not finding their political message compelling.

So reformation of the current political process probably involves a new entrant into mainstream politics. At the moment, the most likely contender would be some form of populist party that managed to strike the right balance between prioritizing the environment and addressing the socio-economic requirements of “regular folks” — certainly, a contestable phrase — who were open from the start about implementing an environmental “state of emergency” and the temporary curtailments to “democracy” that would involve. While it has many problems, The Five Star Movement in Italy is an example of how such a populist party can emerge with surprising speed.

There are various difficulties for such a populist reformation of the current political process. First, mainstream political parties — both left and right — along with most international institutions and the progressive mainstream media have done a fine job of framing populism as right-wing extremism. This has limited the viability of populism in the public imagination. Second, and consequently, those who embrace the term “populism” tend to be right-wing, which means that any populist political reformation is likely to be of this persuasion, and what we need is a solution that spans the political divide.

Let’s turn now to the transformation of the current political process. Of course, many on the left have spent decades holding out hope for a revolution. As previously discussed, it is indeed possible to overturn the political status quo, and while there is no recent precedent, this time is different. The environmental crisis is so big and relevant to so many, that it is entirely plausible for a movement to cause a social disruption of significant historical importance. However, given the current strength of the political establishment, any such attempt to revolt would be met with profound pushback from a state that not only controls the regular military, but an increasingly militarized police force, and even a private military force (such as the security firm Blackwater, now known as Academi).

The key word here is the current strength of the political establishment. The most likely pathway to transformation of the current political process is to allow it to weaken due to its own incompetence. The unfortunate reality is that the environmental crisis will soon start to result in large losses of life, whether from food and water shortages, floods, fires, or any number of other catastrophes. Once such losses of life happen and the masses finally and genuinely understand the extraordinary dereliction of duty on behalf of the political establishment, the government will be profoundly weakened, and may even collapse. This will leave a large power vacuum that can be filled.

Of course, the only people who profit from a power vacuum are those who can actually fill it. And here lies the short-term work of those interested in building a Total Green Future. It is necessary to normalize the ideas required to create something approximating a Total Green Future government, the seeds of which can be found in the Total Green Future Manifesto and Platform. It is necessary to empower people with hope and the belief that solutions on the necessary scale can be implemented. It is necessary to work toward building some kind of organizational infrastructure so that when such a power vacuum occurs, it can be filled by the good guys.

How much time do we have before such a power vacuum occurs? Of course, we remain in highly speculative territory, but a timeframe of 5–10 years seems entirely plausible.