What do Climate Change and the English Civil War have in common? Levellers!

       We have a unique perspective now about how climate change can unfold in the years to come. During a recent interview, former President Jimmy Carter pointed out that “the US is an oligarchy with unlimited political bribery.” This is also true for many western nations and the foreign governments they prop up around the world.

The situation is similar to England in the 1640s, when large groups of royalists were in control. The royalists were used to getting their own way on all matters; no matter how outlandish, extravagant or silly their demands, they were in charge. We are at the same point: members of our own ruling class—with outlandish, extravagant, and silly actions and views—sometimes even dream of how to profit from climate change.

This is one reason why sustainable development projects are running into trouble around the world. For more on how some plan to capitalize on climate change, read This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate by Naomi Klein.

Many leading western democracies are also moving toward the command and control of civil media and telecommunications via the NSA and the Five Eyes Alliance. This same Cromwellian method of ruling was used during the English Civil War, where the term originated in Oliver Cromwell’s dictatorial control over England.

If and when climate change hits with full force, democracy will give way to state control by the military, just like the ineffective royalists fell to Cromwell’s military rule. This is wrong and doomed to failure from the start; full climate change will demand a general mobilization equal to that of World War II. The two real tools we have to unite behind is a political system of true democracy, inclusive of all people, and the technological universe that open source has become.

We need to become Levellers, demanding equality and basic human rights for everyone rather than the privileged few. We cannot hope to win until the ruling classes and governments understand that we all must be Levellers and stand together.

AUTHOR

Up dated by Robin E-H. Hoard, Program Manager,

H&S.CO – Climate (from GMIBS Project)

ID. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7960-9780

References – figure

Gerrard Winstanley, A DECLARATION from the poor oppressed people of ENGLAND, 1649.  Copyright – gabriella giudici, Une école où la vie s’ennuie n’enseigne que la barbarie https://gabriellagiudici.it/gerrard-winstanley/

What do Climate Change and the English Civil War have in common? Levellers!