How Did We Get Into this Mess

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

"A primal account of an unstifled world." --Bill McKibben
"A dazzling command of science and relentless faith . . ." --Naomi Klein

A wide-ranging collection of essays from leading environmental commentator on how politics and big business threaten our daily lives, our society, and the planet

Without countervailing voices, naming and challenging power, political freedom withers and dies. Without countervailing voices, a better world can never materialise. Without countervailing voices, wells will still be dug and bridges will still be built, but only for the few. Food will still be grown, but it will not reach the mouths of the poor. New medicines will be developed, but they will be inaccessible to many of those in need.

George Monbiot is one of the most vocal, and eloquent, critics of the current consensus. How Did We Get into this Mess? , based on his powerful journalism, assesses the state we are now in: the devastation of the natural world, the crisis of inequality, the corporate takeover of nature, our obsessions with growth and profit and the decline of the political debate over what to do.

While his diagnosis of the problems in front of us is clear-sighted and reasonable, he also develops solutions to challenge the politics of fear. How do we stand up to the powerful when they seem to have all the weapons? What can we do to prepare our children for an uncertain future? Controversial, clear but always rigorously argued, How Did We Get into this Mess? makes a persuasive case for change in our everyday lives, our politics and economics, the ways we treat each other and the natural world.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Introduction (p. 1)
• Part 1 There Is Such a Thing as Society
• 1 Falling Apart (p. 9)
• 2 Deviant and Proud (p. 14)
• 3 Work-Force (p. 19)
• 4 Addicted to Comfort (p. 23)
• 5 Dead Zone (p. 27)
• 6 Help Addicts, but Lock Up the Casual Users of Cocaine (p. 32)
• Part 2 Lost Youth
• 7 Rewild the Child (p. 39)
• 8 The Child Inside (p. 43)
• 9 Amputating Life Close to Its Base (p. 48)
• 10 'Bug Splats' (p. 53)
• 11 Kin Hell (p. 58)
• 12 The Sacrificial Caste (p. 62)
• 13 A Modest Proposal for Tackling Youth (p. 67)
• 14 Pro-Death (p. 72)
• Part 3 The Wild Life
• 15 Everything Is Connected (p. 79)
• 16 Civilisation Is Boring (p. 88)
• 17 End of an Era (p. 99)
• 18 The Population Myth (p. 103)
• 19 The Dawning (p. 108)
• Part 4 Feeding Frenzy
• 20 Sheepwrecked (p. 119)
• 21 Ripping Apart the Fabric of the Nation (p. 123)
• 22 Drowning in Money (p. 130)
• 23 Small Is Bountiful (p. 139)
• Part 5 Energy Vampires
• 24 Leave It in the Ground (p. 147)
• 25 Applauding Themselves to Death (p. 152)
• 26 The Grime behind the Crime (p. 160)
• 27 Going Critical (p. 164)
• 28 Power Crazed (p. 169)
• Part 6 Riches and Ruins
• 29 The Impossibility of Growth (p. 175)
• 30 Curb Your Malthusiasm (p. 179)
• 31 Kleptoremuneration (p. 184)
• 32 The Self-Attribution Fallacy (p. 188)
• 33 The Lairds of Learning (p. 193)
• 34 The Man Who Wants to Northern Rock the Planet (p. 198)
• 35 The Gift of Death (p. 203)
• Part 7 Dance with the One Who Brung You
• 36 How the Billionaires Broke the System (p. 209)
• 37 Plutocracy's Boot Boys (p. 213)
• 38 How Did We Get Into This Mess? (p. 217)
• 39 Going Naked (p. 222)
• Part 8 Out of Sight, Out of Mind
• 40 The Holocaust We Will Not See (p. 227)
• 41 The Empire Strikes Back (p. 232)
• 42 Unremitting Pain (p. 236)
• 43 Bomb Everyone (p. 241)
• Part 9 Holding Us Down
• 44 A Global Ban on Leftwing Politics (p. 249)
• 45 Innocent until Proved Dead (p. 254)
• 46 The Paranoia Squad (p. 258)
• 47 Union with the Devil (p. 263)
• Part 10 Finding Our Place
• 48 Someone Else's Story (p. 271)
• 49 Highland Spring (p. 275)
• 50 A Telling Silence (p. 280)
• 51 The Values of Everything (p. 285)
• Acknowledgements (p. 291)
• Notes (p. 293)
• Index (p. 333)