George Monbiot is wishing hardship upon people. Why? He explains:
If you are of a sensitive disposition, I advise you to turn the page now. I am about to break the last of the universal taboos. I hope that the recession now being forecast by some economists materialises. I recognise that recession causes hardship. Like everyone I am aware that it would cause some people to lose their jobs and homes.And so? Why wish it? Well, because economic growth also causes hardship: there's growing stress from increased noise; climate change 'threatens the lives of hundreds of millions of people'; and the basic needs of people in the rich nations could now be met without further economic growth.
Monbiot, an apparently mature political journalist, hasn't learned yet from anywhere that it's one thing to try to persuade people, by good argument, of ends you think are desirable. It is quite another to hope for hardship and misfortune for them, so that that might shake them out of their putative complacency. He should put himself in the position of someone explaining a party programme: 'Yes, we favour recession, loss of jobs, hardship... for all of you.' A sure winner.
Perhaps Monbiot's wishes are coloured by this belief of his: 'political discourse is controlled by people who put the accumulation of money above all other ends'. Does that apply to his own discourse? No, he somehow escapes the ideological controls by which the rest of us are trapped.