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Division has replaced vision in what passes for mainstream politics – and it’s the planet that’s losing out
Identity politics is a trap organised capital has set for the selfie generation, says ALAN SIMPSON

“WHAT we have on our hands is a species problem. None of us is exempt … People — communities, castes, races and even countries — carry their tragic histories and their misfortunes around like trophies, or like stock, to be bought and sold on the open market.”

(Arundhati Roy, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, Penguin, 2018)

I spend my life trying to fix things. It’s a character defect. But it has struck me that “things” are not the problem. The problem is “us.”
Humanity faces a massive, existential, ecological crisis. If we were serious there are (still) numerous ways in which society can repair its soils, restore its rivers and forests, clean up the air, deliver food security and shift into clean, renewable energy systems. 

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