u/muddywormmy

From the moment we gain the ability to think, we are told that it is our civic duty to cast a ballot for a specific party during times of national and even local elections.

However despite everything you are told, this action does not solve the issue, rather it is apart of the root issue.

Party Politics, regardless of their side of the isle, left or right, are held up by two pillars: Centralized Heirarchy and Industrial Civilization.

A primary issue with Political Parties is that theyre Inherently heirarchical, whether a party claims to be "For the People" or "For bettering the Economy" they all still operate on a top-down structure, Those at the top make decisions, and the Rank-And-File members are expected to follow, and if they fail to do so, they are booted.

And eventually these decisions impact the citizens when these parties enter a position of power.

Heirarchy is a virus, a disease, a tumor. Once you create a position of power, you will always get people who want to obtain it and most importantly they will want to keep it for as long as they can. This leads to the inevitable cycle of corruption, where instead of making things better, the primary focus becomes staying in power for as long as physically possible.

By partaking and participating in party politics, we validate the idea that we need masters to tell us how we must live.

Now, if you look at every partys platform, they all promise one thing: "Perpetual Economic Growth"

Under our current system, our success is based entirely aroud GDP ("Gross Domestic Product"). For a political party to be "successful", the economy must grow.

However, on a planet with very limited and finite resources, it is absolutely impossible for an economy to grow endlessly and infinitely, it is a physical impossibility! And this is precisely where party politics fail the earth.

These parties, most commonly but not limited to, the green parties, often push for some form of "Green Capitalism" or "Environmental Legislation"

Now I have made my critique on legislation and reform in my prior essay, so I will save you the time by saying simply.. Green Capitalism is a scam, and legislation is a band aid on a raging and infected open wound.

They say "Buy more solar panels!" And "Buy our recycled plastic product!" But ensure that mining operations, some of which even utilize child labor, and oil drilling at sea (which i shouldnt even have to tell you the risks of..) all remain.

These two things are not your savior, they never will be, and it is foolish and childish to say such.

Now for the next topic subject to my attacking.

The Destruction of Local Autonomy.

When focusing on national, and even international, party politics we lose all connection to the very land that we actually live on. The decision on matters such as a forest or a waterway in a given area are often, if not always, made by a suit wearing politician in the distant lands known only as a parliament building, a senate, or a congress. Usually by people who never set foot in the regions home to these forests or waterways, distant and completely detached, sometimes even unaware of the ecosystems that surround these areas.

Party Politics offers us a "One Size Fits All" solution onto diverse cultures and environments.

Bioregionalism, the idea that human society should fit and be organized within natural geographic borders, because unlike borders drawn on a map, natural borders (such as where a biome begins and ends, mountain ranges and so on) actually exist! And it is something communities should utilize.

Rather than party politics, we need to move towards a world where the people who will be most affected by a decision regarding their local ecosystems, are the ones who get to make the decision.

For those unaware, this is a major essential part of anarchism; not chaos, but rather a high level of communal responsibility.

No rulers does not mean no rules.

Communes having a shared resposibility for the land they live on and share life with, is much like caring for one of their own, nature is alive, it is not a source to be profitted off of, once we treat it as such, we will better be able to treat eachother as such. This obviously is a dire need if we take one good hard long look at the rest of the world.

Finally, Party Politics just has a psychological toll, many people have begun to view politics as simply a sport, we all pick a team, Red Blue Green or Yellow, Tory or Labour, and just cheer them on from the sidelines. This creates us the false sense of accomplishment. Those who post a political meme, or cast their vote for what they deem as the "Lesser Evil" of the many options on a ballot, feel as though they have done their part, they go home afterwards and the day goes on..

This.. Passivity is very dangerous, it keeps us from building the skills we need to survive outside of the state system. By telling us that the party we voted for will "Fix Everything" and we all just sit on our couch and expect just that every issue is to disappear before our eyes.

But as reality shows and will always show, this "Everything" never gets fixed, and then the next elections arrives and each party promises a fix, like a hivemind we cast our votes and the endless cycle continues once more.

By providing us the verbal comfort of "fixing everything" we drop our intentions and dreams of change simply because the person on tv that we voted for.. promised to do that.

And it never happens, and we always fall for it.

It kills revolutionary spirit because "this candidate said they'd give us this and that, and because we voted, we have nothing to worry about!"

Do not let the system keep lying to you like this, it keeps you subdued with these ideas because it knows what youre capable of if you keep that spirit high and you actually use it.

The Psychological Toll of this never ending electoral cycle, is just that, never ending.

Party Politics can't and won't save you, and they never intended to.

This started off as something well thought out and ended a bit rambly, but oh well.

The modern Leftist political establishment has consistently marched under the banner of reform, for decades promising an increased carbon tax, social safety nets, the promises they offer have and will always be the same: "We can fix the system without tearing it down."

To these reformists the state is a tool that we can utilize for good, for the better of humanity.

However, to those like me, a green-anarchist, these pledges and promises are nothing but decorative bandages.

Our environmental crisis is not an accident or a mishap of capitalistic powers, it is the result of hierarchy and power dynamics as a whole, of course the state-capitalist industrial engine is the most guilty of these crimes against nature. But by trying to reform these wreckless institutions they inadvertantly strengthen the very structures that cause these damages to begin with, just because you tax a couple businesses for their increased carbon emissions doesn't mean you instantly save the planet, if anything.. you'll just make these businesses more sneaky in their methodology.

You aren't dismantling a damned thing by raising a few taxes.

In order to truly "reform" and protect the biosphere one must move past simple political slogans and ballot boxes and confront the real culprits, authority and greed.

One of the few platform points of leftist reformism is the belief that the government can regulate itself out of a world-ending ecological collapse, advocating for a centralized hierarchies, international treaties, and a switch to renewable energy. And while these goals seem noble and admirable even, they completely ignore and disregard the inherent nature of the state.

The state is simply nothing more than a centralized hierarchy that exists entirely to maintain order and protect only the interests of those in power within that state.

Historically the industrial capitalist complexes have grown and malformed into an ugly and deranged single organism, the state.

The state requires a taxable and growing economy to further fund its military industrial complex and its bureaucracy, meanwhile corporations rely on protections (laws, police, and infrastructure) to extract and aggressively violate earth and its natural resources.

When a reformist "environmental" law/bill passes, rarely does it ever directly challenge the core logic of the extractions being committed, rather they establish a system of "Controlled Destruction"

An example being Carbon Trading Schemes dont stop pollution; rather they turn pollution into a commodity that can be bought and sold on a whim.

By working through the state, these reformists validate the notion that a mere handful of rich elites get to decide how nature gets to fill their pockets, because their reform.. isnt reforming or fixing the issue, it places a simple band-aid over the problem and expects it to go away.

True and genuine ecological balance and sustainability can only occur through intense decentralization. Where local communities, those being the people who actually live on said land, have the Direct power to protect said land.

Another issue is that reformists often are supportive of the illusion that is "Green Capitalism"

Believing that if we just.. subsidize electric cars and build more wind turbines that we can simply just move on from the issue and climate change will just end! This illusion is a very VERY dangerous illusion.

Capitalism itself REQUIRES infinite growth.. on a Finite planet.

No matter if an industry is powered by coal or eletricity, their logic remains the exact same: "Produce more, Sell more, and Grow or Die."

This idea and reality is fundementally at odds with the biological limitations of Mother Earth.

Even if we 100% switch over to renewable energy, the sheer amount and volume of stuff the industries produce still requires mining operations to be preformed, still requires the destruction of habitats for new factories to be built, and of course.. the endless creation of waste.

Production should only be for a community and ecological needs rather than consumerism and profit.

The environment and humanity are one, by hurting the ecological state of earth, you also damage humanity in the process, killing us both slowly and agonizingly.

A lot of Reformist strategies rely on "Representative Democracy" the idea that we elect people to make choices on our behalf, this system inherently de-radicalizes the movement.

Someone could simply just promise to change things, not change a damn thing, get booted out and replaced by someone with the exact same intentions, and the cycle continues on.

We even have examples of this happening! Just look at ANY politician in the United States.

The State also uses reform to pacify the public, by producing small wins like.. creating a new park or banning plastic straws, the state provides the illusion that it is working, which inherently prevents people from seeking deeper structural change.

Reformism and its followers often seek to replace "Bad" leaders with "Good" Leaders, however this maintains the system of "man over man" is entirely intact.

Murray Bookchin (i will always use him, because hes my GOAT) states that the way we treat the environment is a reflection on how we treat ourselves and eachother. If we live in a world where we are set with the belief that some people can hierarchically dominate others, no matter if it be through race, sex, gender, or religion, that we will inevitably believe that we as humans have the right to dominate and destroy the natural world and its resources.

The health of our Earth is ticking down everyday, legislative reformism can only get us so far, and no matter what is reformed it will NEVER be far enough.

The solution isnt to sit in parliament or congress and swivel in your chair trying to make the system more green-friendly, its to take down completely and build off the weak shells of what once was.

Liberty, Equality, and Ecology:

That is our solution, and the state will not willingly hand it over.

Thank you.