Ludwig waged war against the oil and gas industry following the poisoning of his family. The documentary that tells his story is free to watch for readers of Biocentric for a limited time.
Thanks for sharing this fascinating and heartbreaking story. I was not familiar with Wiebo Ludwig and his experiences, and I feel this invites me to a lot of reflection and processing.
I see it all as an addiction problem. More addicts than the planet can handle. We are all addicts. As addicts each an everyone of us is the problem. We are human animals, as animals we burn more carbon calorie (gas, coal, oil) just to drive to the grocery store than the food calories we bring home in a bag. And that is not even counting the carbon calories required to plant, harvest, transport, process, market, transport again, store it, refrigerate, freeze it, light it, heat it, heat and or cool the store, open the door for you and your cart. In fact, when you put all those carbon calories numbers together, they outnumber the calorie number of the food by a ratio of 5,000 to 1 food calorie. So, now the addiction problem turns into a survival problem. The system of money wins over any religious or spiritual connection. It's with a heavy heart that write this, but I have spent a lot of my quite time attempting to think my own way out of my own carbon addiction. And there is a way, but it will be very painful and unforgiving. Which in turn automatically makes it politically unpalatable. Thanks, MAX for posting this link to a video that should make us all ask and answer these very difficult questions.
You're welcome! I agree, there's definitely an addiction component here. But there's also a sense in which none of us chose this path; we were simply born into the system as it currently exists, more or less. And, like you say, we don't have much individual choice to participate or not. It's very, very difficult to not participate, to the point that doing so probably means both breaking the law and living completely destitute. So I think the individual addiction comparison falls apart, becuase the problems at root are social and not individual. I think you're right, however, that we're in for some painful and unforgiving times in the future, mostly not by choice, simply because of consequences...
Thanks for sharing this, Max, and for those links, too. I think that I saw that film back around the time it came it, but, if so, I really look forward to seeing it again. I also look forward to talking about your discussion questions with you and your readers, some time. This is a great idea for a series!
Thanks for your contribution, Linda. I don't think it's my place to dictate feminist strategy to women, but I agree that zero tolerance is a really important baseline.
I think you're exactly right, Sue. Patriarchy is in many ways the dominant and most unquestioned ideology of our culture as a whole, and collapse-aware and environmentalist communities have been educated into this way of thinking and being just like the rest of us have.
Thanks for the comment. For my part, I don't consider myself part of a broader "collapse community." Others might lump me in there. I have friends who are figures in the collapse awareness, preparation, and hastening wings of the movement, and some might consider me a part of it, but I think there is a big distinction between what the internet has created — affinity groups based on shared ideas and values, virtual "communities" — and real community that is built around face-to-face relationships. And I think this causes a lot of problems, for all sorts of reason - not least because real accountability, as well as healing and integration, are very difficult via the internet. I've seen the misogyny from certain public figures and also everyday, non-public-figure men across all sorts of communities, virtual and physical — collapse, environmental, indigenous, anti-racist, even in my own family. Hell, even in me. I was raised in this woman-hating culture too, and despite my and my family's best efforts, that seeps in, insidiously. Patriarchy is deeply rooted and it's something we have to take seriously.
Thanks for that, Sue. It can be tough living in a rural area, and attempting to transform virtual community into real community. But, I think it's really important to try to do that where possible. Have you ever thought about using your land as a teaching location, bringing people out there for land-based and biocentric programs of some sort?
Thanks for raising that issue, SueC. One of the things that I have been fortunate to experience in the Indigenous Earth/Water protector and other Indigenous activist movements for a few decades now, is that we have had mostly women leaders in our organized efforts (unlike back in the `70s and `80s). I grew up in more of a matriarchal family (led by both of my grandmothers) but my father and other male role models had been thoroughly influenced by the patriarchal dominant culture, and I am sure that deeply affected me, too. I also got caught up in a patriarchal religious alternative community back in the `70s, which took awhile to shake loose from. Because patriarchy and misogyny are so thoroughly pervasive in "western" societies, resisting its infiltration into our own psyches has to be a life-long "work-in-progress."
This has me in tears. What brave and persevering people.
Powerful, wasn't it?
Where can we view after the 17th?
Thanks for sharing this fascinating and heartbreaking story. I was not familiar with Wiebo Ludwig and his experiences, and I feel this invites me to a lot of reflection and processing.
I see it all as an addiction problem. More addicts than the planet can handle. We are all addicts. As addicts each an everyone of us is the problem. We are human animals, as animals we burn more carbon calorie (gas, coal, oil) just to drive to the grocery store than the food calories we bring home in a bag. And that is not even counting the carbon calories required to plant, harvest, transport, process, market, transport again, store it, refrigerate, freeze it, light it, heat it, heat and or cool the store, open the door for you and your cart. In fact, when you put all those carbon calories numbers together, they outnumber the calorie number of the food by a ratio of 5,000 to 1 food calorie. So, now the addiction problem turns into a survival problem. The system of money wins over any religious or spiritual connection. It's with a heavy heart that write this, but I have spent a lot of my quite time attempting to think my own way out of my own carbon addiction. And there is a way, but it will be very painful and unforgiving. Which in turn automatically makes it politically unpalatable. Thanks, MAX for posting this link to a video that should make us all ask and answer these very difficult questions.
You're welcome! I agree, there's definitely an addiction component here. But there's also a sense in which none of us chose this path; we were simply born into the system as it currently exists, more or less. And, like you say, we don't have much individual choice to participate or not. It's very, very difficult to not participate, to the point that doing so probably means both breaking the law and living completely destitute. So I think the individual addiction comparison falls apart, becuase the problems at root are social and not individual. I think you're right, however, that we're in for some painful and unforgiving times in the future, mostly not by choice, simply because of consequences...
Thanks for sharing this, Max, and for those links, too. I think that I saw that film back around the time it came it, but, if so, I really look forward to seeing it again. I also look forward to talking about your discussion questions with you and your readers, some time. This is a great idea for a series!
Thanks for your contribution, Linda. I don't think it's my place to dictate feminist strategy to women, but I agree that zero tolerance is a really important baseline.
I think you're exactly right, Sue. Patriarchy is in many ways the dominant and most unquestioned ideology of our culture as a whole, and collapse-aware and environmentalist communities have been educated into this way of thinking and being just like the rest of us have.
Thanks for the comment. For my part, I don't consider myself part of a broader "collapse community." Others might lump me in there. I have friends who are figures in the collapse awareness, preparation, and hastening wings of the movement, and some might consider me a part of it, but I think there is a big distinction between what the internet has created — affinity groups based on shared ideas and values, virtual "communities" — and real community that is built around face-to-face relationships. And I think this causes a lot of problems, for all sorts of reason - not least because real accountability, as well as healing and integration, are very difficult via the internet. I've seen the misogyny from certain public figures and also everyday, non-public-figure men across all sorts of communities, virtual and physical — collapse, environmental, indigenous, anti-racist, even in my own family. Hell, even in me. I was raised in this woman-hating culture too, and despite my and my family's best efforts, that seeps in, insidiously. Patriarchy is deeply rooted and it's something we have to take seriously.
Thanks for that, Sue. It can be tough living in a rural area, and attempting to transform virtual community into real community. But, I think it's really important to try to do that where possible. Have you ever thought about using your land as a teaching location, bringing people out there for land-based and biocentric programs of some sort?
Thanks for raising that issue, SueC. One of the things that I have been fortunate to experience in the Indigenous Earth/Water protector and other Indigenous activist movements for a few decades now, is that we have had mostly women leaders in our organized efforts (unlike back in the `70s and `80s). I grew up in more of a matriarchal family (led by both of my grandmothers) but my father and other male role models had been thoroughly influenced by the patriarchal dominant culture, and I am sure that deeply affected me, too. I also got caught up in a patriarchal religious alternative community back in the `70s, which took awhile to shake loose from. Because patriarchy and misogyny are so thoroughly pervasive in "western" societies, resisting its infiltration into our own psyches has to be a life-long "work-in-progress."