Sonic the Hedgehog is the Leftist Role Model We Need

Dismantling industrial capitalism is way past cool.

Our world is in crisis. Every year, millions of tons of greenhouse gases, pollutants, poison and smoke are pumped into our oceans, soil and atmosphere. Scientists predict that unless we radically change our system of global production within the next few years the Earth will become uninhabitable in the next hundred.

Whose fault is this? A deadly cocktail of overconsumption, profit-driven global capitalism and a sprawling, unchecked industrial system is mostly to blame (but, sure, quit using straws if you want). Just 100 companies are responsible for as much as 70% of global greenhouse emissions. Capitalism is, quite literally, ripping the planet apart and selling it to us in pieces.

In these drastic times, an increasing number of radicals are turning to drastic measures — engaging and fighting the expansion of predatory capitalism in the real, physical world, where you have the power to confront it. From pipeline protests at Standing Rock to occupying Exxon offices to sabotaging construction equipment, direct climate action is becoming an increasingly powerful weapon in the hands of an angry and rightfully scared lower class. This kind of direct, physical resistance is the only functional and short-term workable way to save our fragile world from the blind, thrashing greed of industrial capitalism.

Who, then, is going to lead us into this new era of climate radicalism? We need someone with applicable experience and an understanding of anticapitalist organizing. Someone who’s recognizable, outspoken, fast, and blue.

Sonic the Hedgehog is, at its (his?) core, a game about radical climate action. Not content to try voting away the destruction brought on by Robotnik’s capitalist means, Sonic takes to occupation and sabotage. He doesn’t stay home and buy a more efficient car or start recycling. He acts.

The Oil Oceans and Chemical Plants of the world, hubs of environmental exploitation, are just sitting around chugging out smog when we arrive. They’re vulnerable to anyone willing to put forth the effort, protected from destruction only by the idea that we shouldn’t cross that fence or turn this valve.

Sonic’s brand of industrial sabotage isn’t a destructive action, it’s a protective action. He liberates the animals trapped by the construction of capital oppression (represented somewhat hamfistedly but still effectively by a big metal cage). And every time, these animals simply scatter, having learned nothing of their brush with death at the hands of industrialism. These animals represent the center, the people most at risk but least conscious of the danger looming over them. These animals are the right-wing poor, the social liberals, the capital apologists.

Sonic (and, to a similar extent, Knuckles and Tails) are the radicals that will save us. They’re on the ground trashing equipment, freeing the oppressed and slowly choking to a rightful death the Mean Bean Machine that is capitalism.