On Totalitarianism in the Anthropocene

I fear an inevitable chaos coming for this planet. Based on modeling projections, I know the relationships between sea level rise, fire regimes, habitat migration and human population densities may overwhelm the music of this planet I tried to capture in my vision for The Blued Trees Symphony. I anticipated my own fears when I wrote about totalitarianism in my book, launching June 28.

Excerpts from “Divining Chaos”:

p. 24

Patriarchy, defined here, is not about gender, although it does privilege gender. As it is used in this text, the term refers to a social system ruled by powerful men that tends to prioritize property ownership and rigid masculine roles and can lead to totalitarianism. Patriarchy is the common denominator linking some conventional marriages to learned helpless- ness, fairy tales, fascism, and ecocide for everyone. Feminist writers have pointed out since the 1970s that romantic fairy tales can glamorize sexist abuse, including marital rape and child marriage. In real life, fairy tales can give only shallow, simplistic answers to daunting problems, such as parenting, joint property, and intimacy. But fairy tales are seductive.

p. 263

The very nature of transdisciplinarity plays in the liminal sphere be- tween ideas. Play has allowed me to see where copyright and eminent domain might eventually overlap and define a new area for potential case law about ownership. The Blued Trees Symphony became my lodestone to find my way out of the nightmare of living in a country tilting toward oligarchic totalitarianism while the planet went to hell in a handbasket.

p. 277-8

I fear sea-level rise and its impact on all coastal communities.

A far larger new worry is the worldwide resurrection of fascism, with its implications for global justice. The seduction of fairy-tale narratives of simple solutions is profound, powerful, and tenacious. Jane Austen’s world may not be so far from Margaret Atwood’s in The Handmaid’s Tale. Fascism and totalitarianism are the siblings of extractive patriarchies. I would defend the personal narrative I have recounted here as a reflection of ecofeminist resistance in many people’s lives to the abuse of power. Addictions, some forms of religion, and strongman politics have always offered tantalizing fairy tales of safety to the unhappy and defeated. Now is no different. I understand all too well.

The goal of totalitarianism is economic prosperity for a few regardless of the cost to the many. It is not a with system of government. Eventually the bill for short-term prosperity for a few tends to come due, with interest, for the many. Neither fascism nor totalitarianism represents a civil society that fosters much art, let alone science. What is civilization without art or science? I believe people yearn for civilization as much as freedom.

The strongman of this hour is the golem who will inevitably manifest Dunlop’s statistics: Trump, Bolsonaro, or Putin. Strongmen in reality are as seductive as the supermen and superwomen of fairy tales.

I’m not a super anything. Even if theory as a systems change might save the world, mine is based in a belief in the power of art, which, no matter how powerful, is still just candlelight in the dark.

Arendt, Hannah. The Origins of Totalitarianism. New York: Harcourt, 1968.

Bernholz, Peter. “Art and Science in Totalitarian Regimes and Mature Ideocracies.” In Totalitarianism, Terrorism and Supreme Values: History and Theory, 97–115. Cham, Switzerland: Springer, 2017.