Reviewed by Rama Gaind.
By Scott Ludlam, Black Inc., $34.99.
In what is a promising first book, Full Circle from the former Greens Senator is the fruit of a life of activism, study and travel.
Described as a visionary book for our times, Scott Ludlam draws on his experience as a senator and activist to ‘capture our world on a precipice and explore what comes next’. Ludlam seeks old and new ways to make our systems humane, regenerative and more in tune with nature. It brings together a wealth of new ideas, outlining a new ecological politics.
“One way or another, we are headed for radical change. We are now in the Anthropocene – humans are changing the earth’s climate irreversibly, and political, human and natural systems are on the cusp of collapse.” Ludlam sheds “light on the bankruptcy of the financial and political systems that have led us here: systems based on the exploitation of the earth’s resources, and 99 per cent of the world’s population labouring for the wealth of 1 per cent.”
Having travelled the world, he discovered an emerging post-capitalist economics. He investigates everything from community activism to systems theory. Above all, he looks for what works: the falling grain of sand that sets off the avalanche of environmental and democratic change. The journey through time is to discover the underlying patterns of life.
There’s a wealth of new ideas. It’s a book about hidden connections and fresh possibilities, and what happens when we invite natural systems back into the urban world.
In addition to becoming an author and serving as deputy leader of the Australian Greens, Ludlam has also worked as a filmmaker, artist and graphic designer.
