SEEDS OF A NEW PARADIGM?

Paris Attacks and Climate Change Push Us to Fix a World of Broken Systems; The rise of ISIS, the “war on terror,” the attack on Paris—these are symptoms of a civilization in its twilight. But the displays of global solidarity show that the seeds of a new civilizational paradigm are being planted.

Nafeez Ahmed, November 19, 2015 (Yes! Magazine)

“… President Hollande’s response [to the Paris terrorist attacks]—bombs away abroad and permanent emergency at home—is premised on the idea that ISIS subsists inexplicably in a sort of barbaric no-man’s land outside the sphere of civilization...He is wrong. ISIS is a product of civilization, through and through…There are many explanations, but one perhaps stands out: oil…Assad’s repression of his own people was exploited by foreign powers to fan the flames of this proxy war for black gold. But the popular discontent was amplified by deeper systemic factors…Food crisis, water scarcity, and climate change are not worsening together by accident. Unfortunately, they are symptoms of global system failure…Yet the response promised by Hollande looks set to repeat the same actions that helped inflict the regional trauma by which ISIS was midwifed to power…The rise of ISIS, the “war on terror,” the attack on Paris—these are all symptoms of a civilization in its twilight, but still in denial; a window into the bleak future of business-as-usual…But they also reveal that the vast majority of ordinary citizens across the Western and Muslim worlds do not buy into this bleak future, reject violence on all sides, and embrace each other simply for being human. The countless vigils held around the world, the gestures of mutual love and compassion between people of all faiths and none coming together in rejection of the Paris atrocity point to a different approach…In such displays of solidarity, the seeds of a new civilizational paradigm are being planted.” click here for more

click to enlarge

Tweet