ADAM OLSEN: Just as the Heads of the Houses who have fought alongside House Stark for eternity, are splitting hairs about Jon's decision to give up his Crown, we are also bickering about the sides of our House
This tweet from Torrance
Coste, campaigner for the Wilderness Committee, caught my attention:
Centrism can’t beat the right anymore. We learned
that down south in 2016, and in #Alberta
tonight. Do we have to get this wrong again in the fall? Neoliberalism is done
— we need a bold left alternative, or we’ll get right-wing populism
Jon Snow ~~ Game of Thrones |
It was a response to the Alberta election but it reminded me of another
significant event from just a few days earlier, the first episode of the final
season of Game of Thrones.
How are this tweet, the Alberta election and the hit show connected?
Good question! As I see it, the epic battle that has been brewing in the show
for the past seven seasons is a metaphor of the challenge we face with global
warming.
The show is a rather brutal, gory study in power dynamics. As a massive,
seemingly invincible army of the dead is marching south, the Lords, Ladies,
Queens and Kings of the seven kingdoms are fighting over who owns the Iron
Throne, even if they would own it just for the final minutes before their
inevitable destruction.
Jon Snow has seen what is coming. He realizes that their only hope is to
overcome the bitter battles that have divided the seven kingdoms for a thousand
years. So, he is frantically working to collect a response that is as robust as
the problem they face. His response includes giving up his own Crown, and the
power vested in it by all the Houses in the North, to someone else.
Power struggle
I have a front row seat at the provincial table and I have some insight
into these power dynamics. I cannot help but draw the comparisons to our
current situation. Just as the Heads of the Houses who have fought alongside
House Stark for eternity are splitting hairs about Jon's decision to give up
his Crown, we are also bickering about the sides of our House.
That is what caught my attention in Torrance's tweet. It is not a call
to come together in a collective effort to tackle the defining crisis of our
time.
Instead, it is a hardening of the deep divisions that are nothing more
than absurd human constructs that allow us to take hold of power over each
other, even for the final seconds before our own demise.
Check out the ridiculous battles on twitter each day between the members
of the government and opposition. Apparently, it actually matters little who is
sitting on what side of the debate.
Indeed, the famous motto of House Stark, "winter is coming", is
an ominous prophecy for our time.
We have an opportunity to address collapsing ecosystems and species
extinction, the devastating impact of a changing climate. But, if we insist on
arguing about who wears the crown and who has the right to sit on the throne,
then our House will remain divided, vulnerable and we will fall.
Jon Snow figured it out. Will we? I sure hope so, otherwise this whole
game of thrones we have constructed is utterly meaningless.
Adam Olsen ... is a Green Party Member of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia
for Saanich North and the Islands. Born in Victoria, BC in 1976, Adam has
lived, worked and played his entire life on the Saanich Peninsula. He is a
member of Tsartlip First Nation (W̱JOȽEȽP), where he
and his wife, Emily, are raising their two children, Silas and Ella.
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