I am pleased to announce the publication of my new book, Total Liberation: Revolution for the 21st Century. This concise, jargon-free, and highly readable work is soon to be published in three different languages: first, next month, in German, by Echo Verlag publishers; second, by mid-year, in Italian, by Ortica Editrice; and third, in English toward the end of 2014, by the major American academic press, Palgrave-MacMillan.
Below is the Table of Contents and the Introduction to the work. Please look for the book soon in German, Italian, or English versions and I will post additional details regarding these and possibly other translated editions of the book as they become available.
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Total Liberation: Revolution for the 21st Century
By
Steven Best
Table of Contents
Introduction: Crisis and the Crossroads of History
Chapter 1: The Animal Standpoint
Chapter 2: The New Abolitionism: Capitalism, Slavery, and Animal Liberation
Chapter 3: The Paralysis of Pacifism: In Defense of Militant Direct Action
Chapter 4: Rethinking Revolution: Veganism, Animal Liberation, Ecology, and the Left
Chapter 5: Minding the Animals: Cognitive Ethology and the Obsolescence of Left Humanism
Chapter 6: Moral Progress and the Struggle for Human Evolution
Conclusion: Reflections on Activism and Hope in a Dying World and Suicidal Culture
Introduction: Crisis and the Crossroads of History
“If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.” Lao Tzu, sixth century BCE philosopher
In dystopian and apocalyptic times such as ours, one of accelerating global social and ecological crisis, these essays attempt to articulate a revolutionary politics of total liberation for the 21st century.
All political approaches and social movements to date have been fragmentary, weak, and non-inclusive, and regressive in their views toward nonhuman animals. In the last three decades, there have been initial and tentative alliances between social justice and environmental causes, with growing recognition that the assault on people and the environment have common roots in a growth-oriented capitalist system. But, due to neglect on all sides, these alliances did not include vegan and animal rights/liberation movements, which overflow with potential for advancing progressive values (such as peace, justice, rights, equality, and community), creating ecological societies, and overcoming human alienation from other animal species and the earth as a whole.
Alliance politics generally is a challenging issue, as people prefer to focus on their own causes rather than supporting other movements, especially ones they disdain out of ignorance. This has to change and new political ideologies, tactics, and groupings must be formulated, for everything else has failed and the stakes could not be higher. At risk is nothing less than the future of life on a planet that has been pushed beyond all limits to adapt to human existence and is prepared to shake us off entirely and allow the evolutionary process to continue without us. This century, the next decades or even the next years, is decisive, for what we do or fail to do now will determine the fate of species, our own fates, and evolutionary history on this planet for millennia to come. The urgency could not be greater, there is no time to waste, it is now do-or-die.
Although diverse in theme, the essays collected in this book form a coherent whole and address my core concerns as they relate to current crisis conditions. The most promising and relevant politics for this century, I believe, will not focus on class struggle or the fragmented identity politics pursued along single-issue lines concerning race, gender, sexual orientation, and so forth. It will be, rather, a politics of total liberation that grasps commonalities among various forms of oppression, that recognizes the interdependence and common goals of various liberation movements, and that forges appropriate political alliances.
By “total liberation” I do not mean a metaphysical utopia to be realized in perfect form. I refer, rather, to the process of understanding human, animal, and earth liberation movements in relation to one another and forming alliances around interrelated issues such as democracy and ecology, sustainability and veganism, and social justice and animal rights. To be sure, total liberation is an ideal, a vision, and a goal to strive for, invoking visions of freedom and harmony. But the struggle ahead is a continuous one, conducted within the constraints of human nature and the limits imposed by ecology. Human, animal, and earth liberation movements are different components of one inseparable struggle — against hierarchy, domination, and unsustainable social forms — none of which is possible without the others.
Through predatory behaviors, systems of exploitation, and growth-oriented societies, we have lived in contradiction to one another, other species, and the planet for so long, that we have brought about a new geologic epoch – the Anthropocene Era – whose name recognizes our global dominance and severe impact of Homo sapiens on the planet. In this era of runaway climate change, the sixth great extinction crisis in earth’s history, increasing centralization of power, aggressive neoliberalism, global capitalism, rampant militarism, resource scarcity, chronic warfare, economic crashes, and suffering and struggle everywhere, we have come to a historical crossroads where momentous choices have to be made and implemented into action.
The omnicidal regimes of “civilization” and global capitalism have reached their zenith and will end — whether through an ascendant global resistance stronger than this dying world system, or through the cataclysmic adjustments the planet already has initiated, such as ensure its evolution for billions of years to come but create conditions utterly hostile to supporting humans and countless other species.
Anything short of a radical, systemic, and comprehensive change, of a formidable revolutionary movement against global capitalism and hierarchical domination of all kinds will yield useless reforms, pseudo-solutions, false hopes, and protracted suffering. The time for partial visions, separate struggles, and fragmented resistance is over, and the hour of total liberation and revolutionary alliance politics has arrived.
Yet, alarmingly, we have not yet as a species or critical mass awoken to the true gravity of the situation and the magnitude of the challenges we face. The big picture proves elusive, antiquated paradigms prevail, and dogmatism and complacency strangle possibilities from all angles and quarters. Although few realize it, the human, animal, and earth liberation movements desperately need one another, and the weaknesses and limitations of each can only be overcome through the strengths and contributions of the others.
If revolt can mature into revolution, the starting point for social transformation is to join hands across the barricades; to engage in respectful critical dialogue; to communicate, educate, and learn as equals; to overcome partial histories, critiques, and battles for a systemic struggle. A politics of total liberation could forge alliances more powerful than anything yet created. It seeks to emancipate not just one class, interest group, or even the entire human species from the grip of a nihilistic power elite, but also animal communities everywhere, ecosystems worldwide, and the dynamic energies of evolution and speciation currently strangled.
Listening and learning, working united not divided, a unity in difference and a differentiated unity, forging a plurality of critiques and tactics that attack at all points and mobilize resistance from all social quarters – through a politics of total revolution, a politics for the 21st century, a flank of militant groups and positions can drive a battering ram into the structures of domination, unlock every cell and cage, and open the doors to a myriad of possible futures.
But humans will awake, if ever, late in the process of advanced crisis and decay. Nothing guarantees we will succeed rather than fail. But pessimism is suicide, despair is surrender, the stakes are too high, and our responsibilities are too great. Despite our violent history as a predatory and colonizing species, what humanity can and cannot achieve is still unknown. Our capacities and limits are still being worked out in the laboratory of history and political struggle, as this evolutionary experiment nonetheless might soon end in extinction. Let us not only hope, but also struggle, for a different outcome.
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“For at least the last half century, a biocentric revolution has been unfolding against the destructive tyranny of anthropocentrism — a revolution guided by the natural laws of ecology against the unnatural diminishment of nature at the hands of “civilized” man. In this bold, brilliant, and timely book, Steven Best writes from, and has documented, the evolution of this universal revolution, as he gives us a glimpse into the catastrophic consequences should this revolution fail.” — Captain Paul Watson
Congratulations on the book! A lot of us have been (are) eagerly awaiting its release.
Yeah,looking forward to it 🙂
But why end of the year for the original language? Just wondering 😉
Encouraging to see this book which hopefully ties together many ideas you have posted. Could not understand your statement on the ALF website that “we are winning many battles” but agree we are losing the war. Book should clarify?
Order from your local bookstore and not Amazon please although consumer “choice” is hardly the point.
Thanks! have appreciated and enjoyed immensely the videos of past talks where you referred to this book
Its a long time away in english, but can we pre-order? This looks like it might make for a great teaching tool. I might like to build a syllabus around it. Keep it up, your voice continues to break through the din of the entrenched structures of ignorance.
Great News; looking forward to reading and distributing it the struggle continues Paul
Congratulations, Steve! I’ve been waiting impatiently for this news, and I’m very much looking forward to reading Total Liberation. It’s sure to be a most important contribution to the discussion.
Thank you all for the comments. Just to answer a few questions about the forthcoming book: It is first coming out in German, because a German academic/translator initially took a keen interest in my work and offered to translate some core essays and help find a first-rate publishing company, which to my eternal gratitude he did. Simultaneously, there was also much interest in my work by Italian theorists and translators, and a great translator stepped forward to translate the essays and help sign with a publishing company. I myself worked to secure an American translator, Palgrave-Macmillan, who offered me a contract for the book last week. Thus, I suspect the English version of the book will not be out until later this year, while the German translation is due out any day now — a lovely irony and logical inversion of the norm.
The book collects various key ideas I have published or spoken about in the last few years, and unifies them around the theme of total revolution and global social and ecological crisis, on the need for revolutionary change, and, frankly, the vivid possibility humanity as a whole is not up to the challenge and that whatever positive changes are being made are too little and too late. Hence, that is what I mean by saying that while we are winning some battles (some liberations here, some legislative change there), we are certainly losing the larger war to stop the relentless and growing assault on all life and the planet itself.
I have translated these writings into Turkish except the latest one, because it is a video. So it will be an e-book in Turkish, not as a book but as a collection of your essays on http://hayvanozgurlugucevirileri.com . By the way Francione followers in Turkey are accusing you and by translating your writings into Turkish me to cause and support violence, and they say they are cleaning our filth and dirt by translating Francione writings into Turkish….
Certainly looking forward to this important work! We are moving forward with our group Connect the Dots in Florida and within six months in DC
fantastic! CONGRATULATIONS! i’m much looking forward to reading and sharing this book!
Congratulations Steve! I am looking forward to reading it.
Thanks and congratulations Steve! but… is it not possible a translation to spanish too?… spanish and latianamerican communities are great and need this book…
Hi, I certainly agree and would approve, but it would take the initiative of a strong translator, as it did for the German and Italian versions of the book….
that’s great, congrats dr. best.
Hello Steve(n)!
I just read the german version of your new book, when I saw that your comments are already closed. I must say I was really impressed. Your arguments made me think different about the possibilities of animal (and total) liberation. There is (a not justified) difference in the heads of people between animals suffering for animal testings and those who suffer for “food”. As long as the fast majority loves eating animals and their products you will be very very lonely when you try to free those animals they call food. (Its a big problem too to free 2000 pigs or a 100 cows – although i would like to do it.) Nevertheless every day I am realizing that the majority of the people still (!) knows nothing or only very little of the discoveries of the kognitive ethology, the neurological analogies. I am sure first people have to accept that they are animals too – not to mix up with the man-made status of animals as you mentioned in your book, page 50. If we will be aware that the difference between them and us is only small or graduell we will realize that we ourselves are the tyrants we proscibe, that we keep the whole world in our stranglehold.
Keep on fighting, good luck, regards Christiane
Thank you ❤