Storm of Progress

I woke the other morning from a vague vision/ dreamscape of Paul Klee's Angelus Novus and Walter Benjamin's prophetic take from his Thesis on the Philosophy of History. Weird, right? I hadn't read the thing in years and then barely understood the basic premise. But then I realized I had been reading about the California fires and wondered if my subconscious was trying to work something out. Benjamin writes:

"a storm is blowing in from Paradise, it has caught in his (Klee;s Angel) wings with such a violence that the angel can no longer close them."

This is the storm of progress and now a whole town and dozens, perhaps hundreds of corpses turned to ash, are part of the "wreckage" piling up at the angel's feet. The wind is that generated by a fire storm so fierce everyone remains stunned just trying to imagine it. We are in what the prophetic thinker called "a moment of danger", a place where "the state of emergency is not the exception but the rule." These fires and floods will be a first world problem but it is unlikely to lead to the kind of food riots we will see in poorer parts of the world. I agree with Benjamin's prescription that "it is our task to bring about a real state of emergency", one which threatens the ruling order.

I really have trouble, therefore, with this emphasis climate groups place on the fossil fuel industry. Framing the conflict as one between them and their customers is a way not to have to confront the actual system of production and its perverse logics, logics which go way beyond a particular economic sector. Are we to believe that it was only Exxon scientists who made the connection between emissions and global warming? That's absurd on its face. Do we expect the corporations to do anything but dissemble and lobby and produce slick campaigns and front groups?


Then there are the true believers who still think the system can deliver justice:
"The central demand of Tuesday's "Green New Deal Day of Action" is for Democratic lawmakers to champion Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's (D-N.Y.) proposed Green New Deal select committee and "create a climate plan in line with what science and justice demand."
So far they have nine congresspeople out of how many? 535? How much time will they put into this?