Alliance of Responsible Citizens
What is a Responsible Citizen?
The ARC Forum ‘Vision’ video, is subtitled ‘Hope in the Age of Permacrisis’. Despite this promising subtitle, Jordan Peterson introduces the ARC vision by firmly asserting there is no permacrisis, thus:
“We at the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship, do not believe that humanity is necessarily and inevitably teetering on the brink of apocalyptic disasters.”
According to ARC, it seems that the essence of being a responsible citizen is a resolute refusal to accept any responsibility for the reality of new phenomena like global pandemics, heat-domes, melting ice-caps, floods that kill thousands, severe droughts, and far worse to come according to the science. Peterson employs a commanding evangelical tone to overcome reality; invoking collective ‘belief’ in a shared delusion.
Peterson goes on to reassure us that, from the ARC perspective, we are not dominating or damaging our environment. “We do not regard ourselves or our fellow citizens as destructive forces living in an alien relationship in a pristine and pure natural world.”
The other contributors reveal closed-minds and a shared reluctance to contemplate profound culture change going forward. The ARC organisation seems to be a testament to the mindset of the white supremacist. In summary they are telling us that our cultural heritage is wonderful, we have done no wrong, and we just need to resurrect all the old ideas and somehow do them better.
The theme throughout is anthropocentric; there is no recognition of the needs of other life forms, nor human civilisations that do not match the favoured form of growth economics and entrepreneurship. Therefore, the two billion people whose lifestyles revolve around subsistence farming do not feature at all in this vision. We should bear in mind that the subsistence farmers are the ones who are suffering most from losing reliable weather patterns. In this way ARC will ensure that the injustices of the past are perpetuated for as long as possible.
Other Voices Chiming In
Alan McCormick employs a softer tone; he also rejects both the growing cries that the future is dangerous, and that humans are in any way to blame. “There’s this sort of cataclysmic belief that the future is dangerous and somehow we are to blame.”
The contribution from psychoanalyst, parent-coach and author Erica Komisar, identifies a mental health crisis; attributing this to a confusion over values. In her view family is paramount, irrespective of the ecological crisis. “There is an epidemic mental health crisis worldwide, in great part due to the breakdown of the social fabric and confusion over values where economic prosperity, work and materialism is prioritised over family.”
Jonathan Pageau, who is an orthodox Christian artist, gives no guidance on consumerism. “And so the despair that we see around us, right, the breakdown of all these social connections is related to a vision of the human being which sees the person as just a consumer. Promoting that, reducing humans to consumers, or criticising it and criticising humans for being parasites on the world.” This vague comment, sadly lacks the profoundly wise guidance offered recently by the Pope in the Apostolic Exhortation.
The inaugural speech delivered by Baroness Philippa Stroud revealed a Judeo-Christian preference, and an overall intention to avoid profound culture change. Her contribution in the trailer, disguises her narrow vision. “But what is a better story? What is a better story that we can tell? That will enable us to walk forward the way we need to walk forward as societies and nations? That is really going to be the big theme.”
The contribution by Sir Paul Marshall, makes it clear that he believes the Western civilisation is wonderful and above criticism. “And it’s time to bring a more optimistic vision and to believe in ourselves, in our civilisation, and the things that made it such an extraordinary civilisation.”
The narration then goes to an Australian politician John Anderson, who appears to be firmly behind the ‘West is Best’ philosophy that perpetuates the business-as-usual mindset. “The rejection of our traditional beliefs have not produced viable alternative narratives, only deconstructionist theories. We must reinvigorate our sense of citizenship. We must encourage one another to serve, to step up, to lead with courage wherever leadership is needed. The ARC network that I am a part of will seek to address these goals and more.” Evidently, courageous leadership in his mind would not involve rejecting any traditional beliefs, this constrains us to business-as-usual going forward.
The narration then goes over to Miriam Cates who is a British politician. Cates talks about negative and positive trends, but we have no way of knowing to what she is referring. “If we get this right, if we can give people confidence again in our identity as people and communities and nations, then we’ll start to reverse some of the more negative trends that have accompanied the more positive ones. So hopefully it can have a very long-lasting impact.”
Welcome Aboard the Ark
The final section by Jordan Peterson in a painfully evangelical style, is full of admirable concepts which combine to encourage optimism. No genuine justification is offered for the optimism. All the indications are that ARC advocates are enamoured of the old culture. Despite this, they are somehow expecting a ‘new culture’ to emerge. Furthermore this will result in all sorts of good things for humans; nothing is mentioned about the ecological toll involved.
“ARC is emerging already as a wonderful community of people who are just full of hope for the way forward and want to bring in a different culture and a different vision for where we can go as a people. I believe in great minds meeting and looking together for solutions. It takes a lot to overestimate the impact of an idea. There is a great narrative we can all chime in on, the things we all want together, which is human flourishing, human prosperity, human well-being, and more to come. We posit that men and women of faith and decisiveness, made in the image of God, can arrange their affairs, care, and attention, so that abundance and opportunity could be available for all. We hope to encourage the development of an alternative pathway uphill, out of both tyranny and the desert, stabilizing, unifying, and compelling to men and women of sound judgment and free will.”
Conclusion
The ARC exercise is a demonstration of how gullible humans are when a clever salesman is at the helm. In this instance, the culture they are selling us is the one that we have already got, in a shiny new wrapper. It will do even more ecological damage than the one we are lumbered with right now. The Gordon knot of growth economics gets tighter every day.
Barbara Williams is the architect of the UN Charter for Ecological Justice
