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A New Politics for an Age of Crisis: George Monbiot

"We need to radically reorganise politics from the bottom up": in these videos George Monbiot explains some of the ideas behind his new book, Out of the Wreckage: A New Politics for an Age of Crisis.

Verso Books21 September 2017

A New Politics for an Age of Crisis: George Monbiot

George Monbiot's powerful new book (40% off until October 1, 23.59 PST) looks at how democracy and economic life can be radically organised from the bottom up. In these videos, he argues that the "society-crushing system of neoliberalism has destroyed our natural capacity for altruism", and that we must fight against it to create "a politics of belonging that revives community and returns land to the people as a source of common wealth". We need meaningful participatory democracy, a political agenda "that isn’t destined to destroy the living planet", and power given back to people so that wealth isn't continually distributed to the rich.

Watch the videos on our YouTube page, or below.

Watch the full interview:

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A toxic ideology of extreme competition and individualism has come to dominate our world. It misrepresents human nature, destroying hope and common purpose. Only a positive vision can replace it, a new story that re-engages people in politics and lights a path to a better future.

George Monbiot shows how new findings in psychology, neuroscience and evolutionary biology cast human nature in a radically different light: as the supreme altruists and cooperators. He shows how we can build on these findings to create a new politics: a “politics of belonging.” Both democracy and economic life can be radically reorganized from the bottom up, enabling us to take back control and overthrow the forces that have thwarted our ambitions for a better society.

Urgent and passionate, Out of the Wreckage provides the hope and clarity required to change the world.

Out of the Wreckage
Today, our lives are dominated by an ideology of extreme competition and individualism. It misrepresents human nature, destroying hope and common purpose. But we cannot replace it without a positiv...