The Precedent

Cli-fi Literature Seminar – Reflection 3
Anthology story The Precedent – Sean McMullen
Course Materials Joanna Macy – Schooling our Intention

Joanna Macy – Three stories of our time
Timothee Parrique - The political economy of degrowth
Learning outcome Critically relate to and value different actors' visions of a sustainable
future and different strategies to attain a sustainable society
How should we judge those who have contributed to climate change? Can one be deemed
innocent if they follow the “right” path? Can even the most optimistic visions of a sustainable
future end up falling into dystopia? These questions, and more are covered in Sean
McMullens excellent short story The Precedent. Set in the year 2035, after global
temperatures have risen by 3 degrees, a future society that has spurned growth and the current
neoliberal system passes judgement on all those born before the year 2000. Referred to as
“Tippers”, this older generation is held responsible for the current state of the planet by those
who have overthrown society, known as “lateralists”. Brutal punishment is meted out by
decentralised courts known as the World Audit. Death is often one of the milder sentences
and everyone born before the new millennium is an “eco-Nazi, guilty of climate crimes”
McMullen, 2015). We follow Jason, born in 1955, a former climate scientist who intends to
beat a system that has a perfect conviction rate.
Joanna Macy (2014) mentions “Three Stories of our Time” as a lens through which we can
understand the world we live in. Within The Precedent, the Business as Usual story is what
the mainstream followed until the late 2010s; an industrialised world continuing as usual with
economic recessions and extreme weather normalised, while the world changed beyond
recognition. The Lateralists subscribe to the second story Macy (2014) presents, seeing the
world as the Great Unravelling, with the sixth great extinction, ecosystem collapse and
climate change ravaging the world around them. The immeasurable toll of human suffering
leads to a dramatic change, the Great Turning as Macy (2014) would put it. A new world
risen from the ashes of the past, where financial tools were useless, and growth was
“considered as about as healthy as cancer”.
Macy (2014) describes the Great Turning as an emergence of new and creative responses,
and the “reawakening of sustainable indigenous traditions”. Auditing and executing the rich,
followed by auditing the “tippers” was the first new response of the Lateralists. Death by
greenhouse, roasted slowly in a glass oven is one of the creative responses, as are the tipping-
point gallows where a piece of coal is removed from the other end of a plank supporting the
victim over the drop. As for reawakening of indigenous traditions, witch trials were a
tradition of the indigenous Europeans, and are still prevalent in many African indigenous
cultures to this day (Fisiy, 1998). The obvious similarity of the World Audit to witch trials is
highlighted by our protagonist, who refutes that witch trials were top down from the church
and were instead secular and at the village level, like the audits (McMullen, 2015).
Many sustainable visions of the future such as degrowth and eco-anarchism prioritise on
reforming global society to decentralise power and promote working at the village level,
similar to the future our story lays out. Another facet of degrowth is voluntary simplicity –
the logic of enough rather than abundance (Parrique, 2019). This is an approach taken by the
Lateralists in our story, with the guards using Chinese made AK-47s to keep control. Despite
the 97-year-old design, and not being as efficient or fast shooting as M16s, they were cheap
to make and relatively reliable – “good enough was perfect” (McMullen, 2015). So, are
future visions such as degrowth bound to the same dark fate as the world of our protagonist?
Perhaps not – our story is of a movement born in the extremes of climate change and societal
collapse, while degrowth aims for a softer transition (Parrique, 2019). Nevertheless, the world
of The Precedent bares striking similarities, in an albeit twisted way, and we should take from
this that despite best intentions a utopian project can easily become a dystopia. Many of the
ideologies of totalitarian states of the 20th century were founded with utopian ideals, and as
we look at visions of a sustainable future, we should be aware of similar pitfalls.
Judgement of those complicit in climate change is the central theme of The Precedent. During
the story, Tippers are executed for crimes such as Squandering (driving an SUV), Greed
(taking mushrooms from nature), using a leaf blower instead of a broom and flying to Europe
for holidays (McMullen, 2015). These are all crimes that most of the global North are guilty
of in this modern age. The pressure to act and to do the right thing is ever increasing, as Macy
(1993) points out. Our protagonist Jason progresses through his audit, one by one beating his
charges and proving himself to have lived as good as life as possible given the circumstances.
A climate scientist who did everything in his power to raise awareness, lower carbon
footprint and live an environmentally correct life ends up being not only pardoned, but
becomes an auditor. Yet this is a poisoned chalice, as auditor he is The Precedent for all
others yet to be audited, and all the borderline cases who have had the sentences commuted.
By being the first to pass the audit, he sets an unattainable model for all other tippers to
follow, sentencing thousands of the commuted to death. Macy (1993) tells us we don’t need
to be extraordinary, but in this dark future it’s the only chance of survival.
References:
Fisiy, C., 1998. Containing Occult Practices: Witchcraft Trials in Cameroon. African Studies
Review, 41(3), p.143.
Macy, J., 1993. Schooling Our Intention. [online] Tricycle: The Buddhist Review. Available
at: <https://tricycle.org/magazine/schooling-our-intention/> [Accessed 18 December 2020].
Macy, J., 2014. Three Stories Of Our Time. [online] Work That Reconnects Network.
Available at: <https://workthatreconnects.org/spiral/the-great-turning/the-global-context/>
[Accessed 17 December 2020].
McMullen, S., 2015. The Precedent. In Adams, J., Bacigalupi, P., McGuire, S., Finley, T.,
Schroeder, K., Trudel, J., Buckell, T., Kress, N., Shepard, J., McMullen, S. and Silverberg,
R., Loosed Upon The World. Gallery / Saga Press.
Parrique, T., 2019 The political economy of degrowth. Economics and Finance. Université
Clermont Auvergne; Stockholms universitet,. English. ffNNT : 2019CLFAD003ff. fftel-
02499463f

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Cli-fi Literature Seminar – Reflection 3

Anthology story The Precedent – Sean McMullen

Course Materials Joanna Macy – Schooling our Intention

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