Thom Hartman’s book is depressing. In its short 240 pages, he breaks down the different ways in which western culture is destroying the planet in near irreparable ways. In what can be called an antithesis to the Thomas Friedman approach of bottomless zeal, his bleak outlook focuses mostly on the unsustainable nature of western culture and the uncontrollable growth imperative of our capitalist system. By laying out these problems bare, he hopes that readers change the fundamental ways in which they see themselves as humans on this planet and adjust their lifestyles and systems of government for the better.
At the core of Hartman’s book is the fact that people have come to see themselves as something wholly apart from nature. Be it because we believe we have evolved past our animal brethren or because we believe God “created” us to be special, this preordained sense of superiority has led us to ravage our planet, grow to unwieldy numbers and scoff at the responsibility of fixing our mistakes. He argues that this sense of biological hegemony has also led us to devalue women, create wildly profligate and irresponsible economies, and harm the environment. At the root of these behaviors is culture, which means that a turnaround is possible only if we undergo a paradigm shift in thought and self awareness.
It becomes instantly clear that Hartman has a scathing dislike of modern conservatives, mostly because of their blind devotion to the so-called “free market”. Not only does he frequently bash popular whipping boys such as Ronald Reagan, Alan Greenspan, Milton Friedman and Ayn Rand, but he routinely praises the efforts of government action in the fostering and nurturing of local economies. In fact, the majority of the book would be anathema to the Republican Party. He believes that neoliberal policies that demand free trade for all countries unanimously lead to disaster; that protecting and promoting the growth of infant industries through tariffs on imported goods is a good thing; that all the Reagan tax cuts need to be reversed; that ultra rich CEO’s must surely be sociopaths, etc.
Hartman’s solutions to such a broad problem are equally broad. He calls for the restructuring of our economy so its inspired by biology, meaning 100% sustainability, no harmful waste products and an ever present conscientiousness towards the biosphere of which we are part. Accompanying these reforms would be a sharp increase in taxation, using Denmark, a country with high taxes but where most every social service is free, as a fitting benchmark. Among many other suggestions, he implores that we build schools, not bomb craters, in the countries of our enemies (he even specifically mentions Greg Mortenson’s work from Three Cups of Tea).
Although I agree with a lot of Hartman’s ideas, there were moments in the book where I thought he was being a bit too pedantic, even hypocritical. At one point, he complains that Republicans enjoy calling senators from the Democratic party “Democrat Senator” to minimize any connection to the word “democracy”. However, he repeatedly refers to the Great Depression as the “Republican Great Depression”, which is basically doing the same thing. Despite these childish moments though, it’s a great starting point for an introspective look at our culture and the pressing need to change it.