290) The hidden subtext of Mark Carney’s WEF speech, and how it shows that while “everything is changing,” nothing is changing — (Also, Reason #38 to revolt against Predatory Capitalism)

I’ve been reflecting on Mark Carney’s speech, looking for what was left unsaid, the deeper meaning that hides around the edges.

It was an excellent speech.  It portrays the world more realistically than literally any speech I have ever heard by a politician on the world stage.  Ever.  It was brilliant, and yes, courageous. It was Canada standing up to the schoolyard bully and saying, “Screw you; we’re making friends with everyone else, and you can go suck it.” It was a necessary speech, and put Canada firmly on the world stage as we head into the future, more empowered, more aware, and with more friends than ever before.

But what hides around the edges is terrifying, because if we stare hard enough at this “new world” we’re heading into, look at the parts that are trying to hide behind the shiny rhetoric, expose them to the light, what we will see SHOULD radicalize all of us to fight, like hell, against the New Hegemony that is being built around us.

Because in many ways, this “new world” is the old world, just one that has radically de-centered the United States.  Which is necessary.

But the old world?  The one of alliances based on mutual interest?  The one that puts economic cooperation front-and-center?  We’ve always lived in that world.  It was just streamlined through the American economy and military-industrial might, and as Carney astutely pointed out, that world has ended.  But the underlying subtext, the world of capitalistic dominance that has been killing the planet and treating human lives, indeed entire species, as numbers on a spreadsheet — that world we have always lived in, and it remains untouched, unthreatened, unchanged by this new multi-national world of diversified trade that Carney laid out for everyone to applaud.

That world has not exactly been a good world.  From at least the time of colonial expansion half a millenia ago, through to the economic speedrun on the world’s remaining ecosystems of the last half-century, that world is the same world we have been desperately wanting to change, if we care about, you know — Life.

That world led to Naomi Klein in the 1990s writing about sweatshops and the human-rights-free horrors called “export processing zones”, where the residents of the so-called “Third World” laboured for pennies under slave-like conditions, to give rich consumers the shoes and other goods they wanted to buy at their stores.

It led to Naomi Klein in the 2000s writing about the massive anti-globalization movement that was crushed by tear gas and riot shields and the clubs of police officers who are supposed to protect the public but actually protect the companies that use the government in order to “maintain order” (i.e., maintain profits).

It led to Naomi Klein in the 2010s writing about the civilizational collapse that is being engineered through the mechanisms of climate change, itself caused entirely by the system of resource exploitation that feeds the ever-desirous appetites of the already-rich, at the expense of Everything We Love.

It led to Naomi Klein in the 2020s writing about the political polarization and paranoid conspiracy theory culture that marches lock-step with right-wing and racist ideologies, accelerating us towards the global take-over of Authoritarian governments that rule through force, lies, and an ever-widening gap between those in power who make up the Reality their cult members spread on the internet, while the rest of us who wonder what the hell is going on and try our best to believe we still live in a world where there’s hope for the future.

This world of Predatory Capitalism gave us rapidly disappearing Native cultures, displaced by the juggernauts of resource extraction companies, backed by guns.

That world gave us rapidly disappearing biodiversity, Gaia, or Mother Earth, or The Web of Life, whichever you prefer, shot and stabbed so full of holes that she bleeds out before our eyes, more than HALF of “Nature” exterminated in one human lifetime, and a global climate so destabilized that scientists have been telling us for at least 40 years, with evidence, that we are approaching a tipping point where organized human society collapses and civilization as know it becomes a memory whose echoes will disappear over time.

That world gave us a booming stock market and luxury yachts and vacation resorts,, and pockets of the world controlled by warlords who never seem to find it difficult to buy more weapons.

A world where the self-sustaining food supplies of cultures for countless millennia were replaced by homogenized farms that run on chemicals, and leave starving populations dependent on the export prices of whatever crop the agri-businesses companies had forced onto their lands.

A world where “human rights” is a nice-sounding phrase to believe in, but it is forgotten as soon as Saudi Arabia or China or whatever country has enough money to attract investor interest, wants to cut a deal.

* * * * *

I applaud Mark Carney for his speech, for throwing down the gauntlet, for taking a sttand against the fortress-like, impoverished world of “great powers” dominating everything.  It was a powerful, epoch-shifting speech, and brilliant in its pragmatism.

But the world of depraved corporate greed that puts profit over people, over Life, over rights, over love, remains firmly in place.  Just diversified. And he was right, as far as his argument goes. We DO need to diversify, to become more self-sufficient, to bond together with a wider array of countries for mutual protection.  We do.

But we also need to radically TRANSFORM the system of capital exploitation that underlies this “new world” just as solidly as the 20th century world that accelerated all the problems that we’ve been dealing with for all our lives. And maybe this wasn’t the time for that speech.

But WHEN IS THE TIME? Because it never happens. Ever. The politicians on the world-stage gather together to talk about the crises of the day, and make promises, and set policies to ensure that “productivity” never flags, and “trade” remains supreme, but they NEVER get together to talk about ushering in a truly sustainable, post-capital, post-military world. The kind of world that astronauts wax poetic about when they fly around our little blue marble and realize that We Are All One. The kind of world that Star Trek made us think would be possible someday. The kind of world that activists go to jail, get beaten and even die for.

That world never takes center stage. It’s “not practical” to talk about the evolution of humanity towards wisdom, apparently. It’s “not practical” to talk about 7-generations in the future and how to create a world of beauty and abundance and peace for them. It’s “not practical” to talk about how to SCALE BACK the economic juggernaut and listen to the laws of atmospheric physics and ecological limitations, in order for civilization to endure.

No, it’s only practical to talk about preserving the profitability of the capitalist system, so the wealthy stay wealthy and the poor don’t get too “uppity” and overthrow things. THAT is “practical”. But creating a world for everyone? No. That never gets talked about.

Carney’s speech doesn’t change the fact that biodiversity is still collapsing, because of the capitalist beast whose teats at which we all suckle.  It doesn’t change the fact that economic expansion must transform into a 7-generations vision of long-term sustainability.  (Although he did say the word “sustainability”, so kudos for that?)  It doesn’t change the fact that the Haves still run the world for their own benefit, while the 99% still toil as wage slaves in the 21st century’s plantations known as “companies”.  It doesn’t change the fact that while humanity dithers and argues and makes agreement for economic cooperation, our life support system remains unplugged and increasingly inoperative.

And it doesn’t change the fact that the next wars will happen where the poor die for the interests of the rich (and the current ones continue), the next genocides will happen (and the current ones continue), the next mega-prison systems will be built (and the current ones remain profitable), the next crisis over refugee flows, and racism, and starvation, will unfold (and increase over time as ecosystems continue to collapse), and the next Authoritarian government will brutalize its people (as the current ones continue to do).

In fact, those Authoritarian governments that brutalize their people? Canada is going to be business partners with them, so long as we share common (economic) interests. Because THAT is the strategy that keeps us strong.

So this is what I wonder about, as we applaud Canada’s brave and brilliant leadership.  It IS brave and brilliant.  But we still are on a planetary Titanic, we’re still betraying our Ancestors and our Descendants, and this ship, oh-so-beautiful and grand, is still sinking.