“Revolutions are unbelievably disruptive. They are unbelievably dangerous and disruptive. And if they are to succeed, you really have to have your eye on the day after.”

“The flaws of the Green Deal are the lack of communication and the language. The language is a kind of EU bubble language which I’ve had to deal with. It’s not accessible. It’s a language for the cognigenti, for those involved in green issues. And that’s the very interesting thing about young people. They don’t want this language. They want Greta Thunberg’s direct language on what is at stake. And Von der Leyen’s Green Deal … great, worthy, revolutionary. It will make an impact if they break down the language and give us that the nuts and bolts on how it’s going to affect our living. And we have to change our lifestyle. The kind of furniture I’m sitting on, the lighting, the cars, the bicycles, the food … Don’t forget agriculture. Agriculture is going to go in for a major overhaul. But this lifestyle and this Green Deal will have to be communicated on the most easiest, rational, emotional and emotional level. This is about the future of the planet. But you can’t sell the future of the planet if you don’t actually explain everyday how it’s going to affect you. The Green Deal mustn’t be sold on the element of fear, that it will change our lifestyle. Then people won’t buy into it.”

Boris Marte made The Call to the renowned journalist and author Judy Dempsey, to discuss solidarity, politics of fear, the new technological revolution, the flaws of the Green Deal, and youth as the main driving force in shaping our future.

This text and video is published under the Creative Commons License: CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. The name of the author/rights holder should be mentioned as followed. Author: Jovana Trifunović and Igor Bararon / tippingpoint.net. Filmstill from the video: “The Green Deal mustn’t be sold on the element of fear” – The Call with Judy Dempsey. Illustration: © Renato Foder

The Call

The COVID-19 pandemic shattered lives, put social contracts and international relations to test, disrupted economies. Governance systems, good and bad, are in distress. The better off are confined to home offices uncertain of their livelihoods. The less lucky face new heights of digital authoritarianism or sheer violence. The omnipresent media seem to be failing its watchdog function even in world’s oldest democracies. Already eroded, global democracy standards are yet to receive the full blow of pandemic’s political, social and economic consequences.

The video series The Call is an attempt to try to understand better the political, cultural and social implications of the pandemic by asking thinkers and doers from the ERSTE Foundation Community to weigh in with their thoughts and predictions.