Bozeman News

New West Book Review

Paul Hawken’s “Blessed Unrest”

By David Nolt, 8-10-07

Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw it Coming
by Paul Hawken
Penguin Books, 352 pages, $24.95

The premise of eco-capitalist Paul Hawken’s new book is as audacious as the book’s title is long. The source and momentum of this “movement” consists largely of environmental organizations, social justice organizations and indigenous peoples. According to Hawken, their goal is nothing short of “reimagining” the world and ultimately bringing about environmental equilibrium between people and the planet, economic equality among all peoples, and, of course, peace on Earth. 

To be candid, I am actually a fan of environmental equilibrium between people and our planet, economic equality among all peoples, and that dreamiest of dreams, peace on Earth. But the book’s title just begs the question: If the largest movement in the world is dedicated to the aforementioned goals, why do we still find the world embroiled in war, injustice, inequality and approaching large-scale environmental collapse?

“The state of the world suggests that [given so many organizations and people], the movement has not been effective,” Hawken responds. “The counter argument is that globalization’s depredations have had a nearly 500-year head start on humanity’s immune system. The exponential assault on resources and the production of waste, coupled with the extirpation of cultures and the exploitation of workers, is a disease as surely as hepatitis or cancer. It is sponsored by a political-economic system we are all a part of, and finger pointing inevitably comes back to self…In essence, the environmental movement can be seen as humanity’s response to contagious policies killing the earth, while the social justice movement addresses economic and legislated pathogens that destroy families, bodies, cultures and communities.”

Hawken is obviously not pulling any punches, and one cannot help but admire it in this significant piece of writing. “Blessed Unrest” is an attempt to define, quantify and connect these many organizations, and it is also a repudiation of “top-down” corporate globalization and the environmentally destructive economic systems keeping these organizations so busy and plenty. Hawken’s contention is that these seemingly disparate groups are working as a natural immune system to our own species and the Earth. It is a hard thing to pin down, and some would probably disagree whether these groups are even helping anything at all. I think they are. I think their intentions are probably golden and their effects tangible. Still, it is hard not to look at the state of this little world of ours and not feel the bubbling tremors of dismay.

Hawken’s position is a positive one, though, and he envisions a future in which the best of humanity’s potentials rise to the day. The best being our capacity to create, sustain and live symbiotically with one binding thread throughout this movement, according to Hawken.

“Life is the most fundamental human right, and all of the movements within the movement are about creating the conditions for life…” Hawken states.

True enough, but allow me to play the cynic. There are not many organizations out there with the stated mission of “destroying life, wherever and whenever possible, and by whichever means necessary.” In fact, these days it seems everybody is an environmentalist. Hell, Exxon is even in on the game. Caring is hip, like a trendy bracelet we wear in lieu of any sort of personal action. Everybody laments the genocide in Darfur, yet four years and 400,000 lives later the crisis there still rages. A majority of Americans now at least give credence to the possibility that perhaps pumping the atmosphere full of heat-trapping gasses might not be the best idea, yet Congress still cannot even pass the most meager of CAFE standards to increase the fuel efficiency of our vehicles. And so on down Status Quo Avenue we go. Worldwide, globalization surges ahead leaving exhausted natural resources and anyone in its way in its wake. To quote one Marvin Gaye, “mercy, mercy me.”

None of this is news to Hawken. He has been at the forefront of various environmental movement for nearly 20 years, and “Blessed Unrest” is testament to this. The book is painstakingly researched, and Hawken describes the state of the world and the “movement” with a passionate articulation only someone deeply involved in and inspired by could. Equally important, his common sense business approach should get through to more than a few.

Hawken writes, “As a uniform trading system sweeps over the world, the monetary gains are called GDP, but losses experienced by communities even in the industrialized West, much less in the Third World, are not tallied except in repetitive stories of misfortune, as if one were recording sales at the cash register but ignoring thefts at the back of the warehouse…The rural poor provide a supply of labor for factories that make anything anytime for anyone anywhere, just as they did at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution.”

Hawken goes so far as to say those in opposition to this type of globalization “are the most efficient social entities in the world, outstripping corporations and institutions such as the World Bank manyfold in how effectively they deploy resources… more effective precisely because they are poor.” Again, the state of the world might suggest otherwise, which is not to mention the fact that this multitude of poor organizations are often all competing for the same fundraising dollars. How does this make them more effective?

Still, the revolt against this First World, money-driven system is real and was no more palpable than in Seattle in November, 1999 when protesters converged en masse on the World Trade Organization (WTO) summit. Hawken brutally exposes the media’s distortion and misrepresentation of the WTO protesters. He responds to the characterization of the protestors as destructive anarchists by providing detailed descriptions of the populous, diverse, peaceful makeup of the masses. Finally, Hawken hits the nail on the head by explaining their grievances did not call for an end to globalization, but advocated a truly democratic globalization. He speaks of a “corporatization of the commons.”

“The commons that are being subsumed include the human genome, seeds, water, food, airwaves, media, and more,” Hawken writes. “In a deeper sense, the commons include culture, place, self-determination, and democracy…It is not an anti-globalization movement but ‘globalization from below.’”

Hawken is right that the opposition to business-as-usual can no longer be ignored in the world.  It is not a Democrat or Republican or American issue. It really is, as Hawken states, a question of life. It is a question of what is good for the many and for the Earth.  It is a question of decency, of dignity, of compassion and strength. Are we doomed to forever forget history, to not learn or act until problems bring us to breaking points? Does our intelligence give us the chance to live like true kings and queens or only as cogs in the gear of an everyone-for-themselves world order? What does the future hold?  Hawken is hopeful:

“If anything can offer hope it will be an assembling of humanity that is representative but not centralized, because no ideology will ever right the wounds of this world....The immune system is the most complex system in the body, and the body is the most complex organism on earth. The most complicated assembly of organisms is human civilization. And the movement is the most complex coalition of human organizations the world has ever seen. An organized, resistive and imaginative response to the wrongs in the world would not appear as anything seen before, because problems are complex and numerous, but in order to thrive such a movement might appear innocuous in order to become ubiquitous without counter-resistance.”

In other words, Hawken is saying the scattered, diverse, seemingly ineffective nature of this movement — “why no one saw it coming”—is in fact the strength of a pervasive and evolutionary consciousness. It is an interesting proposition, and its reality and merit will unfold with time. We have come a long way, but we have a long, long way to go. One hopes this view of humanity does not lead to the assumption that the “movement” is as efficient as a real immune system and we need only send our dollars and a few volunteer hours to these organizations in order to save the world. In a recent piece in Orion magazine, Curtis White adds a yang of skepticism to Hawken’s optimistic yin, pointing out our culture’s refusal to step outside market logic. White writes of the practice of carbon trading [purchasing carbon credits to offset the continued use of fossil fuels]:

“Environmental destruction proceeds apace in spite of all the warnings, the good science, the 501(c)(3) organizations with their memberships in the millions, the poll results, and the martyrs perched high in the branches of sequoias or shot dead in the Amazon….we are so frightened by the prospect of stepping outside the market system on which we depend for our national wealth, our jobs, and our sense of normalcy that we will let the logic of that system try to correct its excesses even when we know we’re just kidding ourselves.”

White is right, but hopefully Hawken is too. Despite our brutish and nasty tendencies, I still believe us to be a beautiful species capable of grace, brilliance, equality and successful societies. But circa 2007, I’m still singing “Mercy, Mercy Me.” Though it has its dry moments, “Blessed Unrest” is still a thought-provoking read of the history and current state of this “good fight.” The book consistently and effectively reminds the reader of their profound and mysterious existence in this world, it tells an amazing story about some of the greatest leaders in recent times (most were not presidents or prime ministers) and it lays out proactive, hopeful plans for the future. It will remain up for debate whether or not these plans are manifestations of a natural human immunity designed to heal the world’s wounds. If they are and this movement is for real, I, for one, wish it would move faster, because one thing is for sure: there has to be a better way.

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