Naomi Klein

In an article co-written for the Guardian the climate activist Naomi Klein warns that ultra-wealthy technophile libertarians are actively considering ‘secession’ from modern law-bound societies, to create separate enclosed ‘fiefdoms’ for the rich that will not be subject to democratic state taxation or climate regulation and will depend heavily upon high technology and artificial intelligence powered by fossil-fuel energy

In ‘The rise of end times fascism‘ Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor name-check multi-billionaires such as Tesla’s Elon Musk and Paypal boss Peter Thiel  – and argue that ‘The governing ideology of the far right has become a monstrous, supremacist survivalism’.  They call for ‘a movement strong enough to stop them‘.

Warning of President Trump’s apparent sympathy for ‘freedom cities’ – seemingly the very opposite of the ‘sanctuary cities’ favoured by those sympathetic to immigrants and refugees – Klein and Taylor quote Elon Musk as stating that empathy is “the fundamental weakness of western civilization” and that “It increasingly appears that humanity is a biological bootloader for digital superintelligence.”

Klein and Taylor call for a movement that tells a different story of the future, ‘a far better story about how to survive the hard times ahead without leaving anyone behind. A story capable of draining end times fascism of its gothic power and galvanizing a movement ready to put it all on the line for our collective survival. A story not of end times, but of better times; not of separation and supremacy, but of interdependence and belonging; not of escaping, but staying put and staying faithful to the troubled earthly reality in which we are enmeshed and bound.’ 

To read the complete article by Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor in the Guardian, click here.