Rejection of politics is deep and widespread. Even sincere and responsible individuals who practice it hold their nose while doing so. Yet politics must be practiced, and well, if the planet and the people are to survive. A clue for our future success as a species lies in the fact that ecology has never really been tried in politics. Yet ecology holds the secret of success for planet and people precisely in politics. Deep in ecology is the astounding fact, scientifically examined and attested to, that we are already related. Though taught by elite after elite that we are separate from nature and thus from everyone and everything, this can now be seen as the great mistake and a perpetuated lie from generation to generation. A new ontology of being related is the gateway of consciousness to a new and exciting politics for survival and democracy.

Waves of transformation lap at barriers in the political sphere. But they are repulsed by an entrenched politics rooted not only in the greed and power hunger of a dominant few, or in outmoded structures of economic and political power, but in the old millennial ontology of being separate. Our extraordinary times call for a new political party animated by the ecology of being related. It is a party of a different kind, one that frees itself from giant worldwide corporations, is fully and overtly dedicated to non-violence and rooted in the awareness that the people come first. This party knows that elections must be fair and equal and must enable undistorted dialogue, and that people in government must not only proclaim but practice the principle of being of, for, and by the people. This book challenges The Green Party, now on a footing in over 100 countries, to be this party of a different kind.

John Rensenbrinkis professor emeritus of government and legal studies at Bowdoin College and cofounder of the US Green Party and the Maine Green Independent Party.

Introduction: Re-thinking Nature Demands Re-Thinking Politics
Part I: Why Politics Has a Bad Name: The Past Tells a Troubled Story
Chapter 1: The Tragedy of Politics
Chapter 2: From City-State to the Bourgeois Republic
Chapter 3: Shatter the Bourgeois Republic or Improve It? Heroic Dialectics versus Liberal Reform
Chapter 4: Politics and Violence: Why Max Weber Had it Wrong
Part II: We Are Part of Nature: Being Related, Not Being Separate
Chapter 5: The Body and Its Mind
Chapter 6: Relationship Already Is
Chapter 7: Concrete Other: The Core Relationship
Chapter 8: Action
Part III: How Being Related is Transforming Economic, Social, and Cultural Life: Is Politics Next?
Chapter 9: Economy
Chapter 10: Race
Chapter 11: Sexuality
Chapter 12: Religion
Chapter 13: University
Part IV: Ecological Wisdom and the Renewal of Politics
Chapter 14: Politics Gets Interesting: The Return of the Local
Chapter 15: Is World Governance in Our Future?
Chapter 16: Planet Home: Uniting Local and Global
Part V: Getting There From Here, Who Will Do It? How Will It Happen? When?
Chapter 17: We the People
Chapter 18: Past Strategies for Fundamental Change
Chapter 19: Aligning Action Movements
Chapter 20: Green Party
Chapter 21: Fundamental Change: When?