Bread and Circuses on Nostr: PART 3 — Excerpts from an article titled “A (Friendly) Critique of the Degrowth ...
PART 3 —
Excerpts from an article titled “A (Friendly) Critique of the Degrowth Movement”…
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The basic element of the required sustainable social form will be most people living in small, highly self-sufficient, self-governing cooperative local communities, willingly embracing far simpler lifestyles and systems. Features would include:
🟢 Extensive development of commons providing many free goods, especially “edible landscapes”
🟢 Building using earth, enabling all people to have very low-cost modest housing
🟢 Many committees, e.g., for agriculture, care of aged, youth affairs, entertainment, leisure and cultural activities
🟢 Production of most basic goods by many small local firms and farms (some cooperatives, some privately owned) within and close to settlements
🟢 Much use of intermediate and low technologies, especially craft and hand-tool production, mainly for their quality of life benefits
🟢 Few paid officials
🟢 Large cashless free goods and gifting sectors
🟢 Little need for transport, enabling bicycle access to work and conversion of most suburban roads to commons
🟢 The need to work for monetary income only one or two days a week, at a relaxed pace — thus enabling much involvement in arts and crafts and community activities
🟢 Town-owned banks
🟢 Local currencies that do not involve interest
🟢 Relatively little dependence on corporations, professionals, bureaucrats and high-tech ways
🟢 No unemployment because communities organize to use all productive labour and to ensure everyone has a livelihood
Most people must live in settlements of this general kind, but there could still be (small) cities, industrial centres, universities, high-tech hospitals, etc. When unnecessary production is eliminated, there could be more socially useful R&D than there is now.
This simpler way is classical Anarchism. It is about thoroughly participatory democracy, enabling communities of equals to cooperatively take control of their functioning and fate. It cannot involve centralized control or top-down authority; all must be involved citizens who come together to collectively govern themselves.
Sufficient degrowth cannot be achieved without enormous and radical transition to some kind of simpler way.
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Part 4 will follow soon.
Full article is here -- https://medium.com/postgrowth/a-friendly-critique-of-the-degrowth-movement-f0bd2297072d
#Science #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #Degrowth
Excerpts from an article titled “A (Friendly) Critique of the Degrowth Movement”…
_________________________
The basic element of the required sustainable social form will be most people living in small, highly self-sufficient, self-governing cooperative local communities, willingly embracing far simpler lifestyles and systems. Features would include:
🟢 Extensive development of commons providing many free goods, especially “edible landscapes”
🟢 Building using earth, enabling all people to have very low-cost modest housing
🟢 Many committees, e.g., for agriculture, care of aged, youth affairs, entertainment, leisure and cultural activities
🟢 Production of most basic goods by many small local firms and farms (some cooperatives, some privately owned) within and close to settlements
🟢 Much use of intermediate and low technologies, especially craft and hand-tool production, mainly for their quality of life benefits
🟢 Few paid officials
🟢 Large cashless free goods and gifting sectors
🟢 Little need for transport, enabling bicycle access to work and conversion of most suburban roads to commons
🟢 The need to work for monetary income only one or two days a week, at a relaxed pace — thus enabling much involvement in arts and crafts and community activities
🟢 Town-owned banks
🟢 Local currencies that do not involve interest
🟢 Relatively little dependence on corporations, professionals, bureaucrats and high-tech ways
🟢 No unemployment because communities organize to use all productive labour and to ensure everyone has a livelihood
Most people must live in settlements of this general kind, but there could still be (small) cities, industrial centres, universities, high-tech hospitals, etc. When unnecessary production is eliminated, there could be more socially useful R&D than there is now.
This simpler way is classical Anarchism. It is about thoroughly participatory democracy, enabling communities of equals to cooperatively take control of their functioning and fate. It cannot involve centralized control or top-down authority; all must be involved citizens who come together to collectively govern themselves.
Sufficient degrowth cannot be achieved without enormous and radical transition to some kind of simpler way.
_________________________
Part 4 will follow soon.
Full article is here -- https://medium.com/postgrowth/a-friendly-critique-of-the-degrowth-movement-f0bd2297072d
#Science #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #Degrowth