One Way Or Another This War Is Going To End

“One way or another, Neo, this war is going to end. Tonight, the future of both worlds will be in your hands… or in his.” - The Oracle, Matrix Revolutions

“It is necessary, with bold spirit and in good conscience, to save civilization. The bare and barren tree can be made green again. Are we not ready?” - Antonio Gramsci

The leaders of my generation are quickly coming to a sobering realization: the actions they take within the next few years will determine whether future generations will be alive to enjoy the gift of life on earth.

I often think how special a gift it is that I’m alive. Despite the improbability of my existence, given that my life could have ended long ago; that my life might have not even begun - or that my parents might have birthed a different person; that if my parents, or grandparents, or great-parents, or any one of my ancestors had not existed, then I would not have; that human history could have went in any of an infinite directions which would have prevented my birth; that humanity might not have evolved the way it did; that just a few less or a few more mutations in our ancestral species would have meant humans would have not existed; that any removing any single species form which we evolved - all the way back to single-celled organisms - would have meant we wouldn’t be here; that we exist on a habitable planet, the only planet we thus know of on which life can be sustained; and that the universe developed in such a way that this entire process could begin; despite all of this, I am here. This several-billion year chain of events is, to say the least, quite humbling. It is that humbleness that should lead us to end global warming: to save humanity, to protect the environment, and to ensure the survivability of the only life-bearing planet we know of. This is our generational task.

Gary Bauer, the archconservative candidate for the GOP nomination for the presidency in 2000 bluntly described how he sees political struggles in the United States: “We are engaged in a social, political, and cultural war. There’s a lot of talk in America about pluralism. But the bottom line is somebody’s values will prevail. And the winner gets the right to teach our children what to believe.”

The only problem with the truth value of this statement is that it doesn’t go far enough. As the Oracle in The Matrix said, one way or another this war is going to end. We are engaged in what can only be described as a war. And the stakes are higher than they’ve ever been before. If we win, we can usher in a revolutionary democratic, participatory economic, feminist, intercommunalist, and ecologically just society. Should we lose, it will quite literally mean the deaths of millions and the displacement of billions, with increased levels of genocide, war, poverty, hunger, disease, and all manner of social ills on a yearly basis. While this dichotomy is overly-simplified, our choice is quite literally utopia or dystopia.

Which one do you want?