The strange attraction of โ€˜The End of Daysโ€™ mindset

Personally, I am attracted to the idea [yes it may just be a conspiracy theory] that the world is ruled by plutocrats who somehow believe they will โ€“ when the shit hits the fan โ€“ be able to retire to Planet B. Or at least an island they own, or a mountain top somewhere. And there theyโ€™ll retire to a bunker and await the rapture, or some such epiphany that miraculously fixes everything and lets them get back to business as usual.

Thoughts on reading โ€˜Strangers in their own landโ€™ by Arlie Russell Hochschild

Neoliberalism and the self-harm faithful People of the earth [Part III] Louisiana is the major ground for Hochschildโ€™s research. There, most of the people she meets โ€“ and gets to like โ€“are hunters, fishers, cookers of their catch; lovers, ostensibly, of nature. And yet, tales of environmental woe [NATURE DESPOILED] abound in their world: โ€˜But … Continue reading Thoughts on reading โ€˜Strangers in their own landโ€™ by Arlie Russell Hochschild

Planting the Anthropoceneโ€™s golden spike

An extract from an article Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com Although there is a strong agreement among scientists that human activity has pushed the earth out of the stable patterns of the Holocene, debate is far from settled about whether this constitutes a new geological epoch and, if so, where to plant the golden spike … Continue reading Planting the Anthropoceneโ€™s golden spike

Extract from Mythic Dreams – why modern capitalism’s pursuit of growth is a sin

Ch 2:  A Haves and Have Nots World A much greater hunger In 1800, the worldโ€™s population was about 1.36 billion. If we are to believe statistical analysis, most people lived, in income terms, relatively similar lives.ย  According to Gapminder statistical analysis (admittedly conjectural, given that data before 1900 is โ€˜highly uncertainโ€™) the worldโ€™s poorest … Continue reading Extract from Mythic Dreams – why modern capitalism’s pursuit of growth is a sin

An alternative truth

The opening of a novella about this pandemic; just set somewhere else entirely.In a world with alternative truths what we would perhaps prefer is an alternative world on which to trial them. Part 1 - Beginnings December 13 Nahuw, Anihc Moon is about to place an Uggo piece into what he hopes will be a … Continue reading An alternative truth

Are we locked in a dance to the death (economically anyway) with fossil fuels

factors other than the purely economic must be taken into account. The problem with our purely economic thinking is that it is tainted with neoliberalist assumptions about worth. Humans, certainly all the ones in the first world, have been programmed to accept the notion that economic growth, most particularly at the personal level, is essential. To challenge this paradigm is to adopt the denialist annoying Greta Thunberg โ€˜how dare youโ€™ stance. But in fact what we do need to do - if you factor anything other than pure Homo economicus thinking - is to do away with stuff. Perhaps take a significant dip in our GDP rich life. Give up some goods, some cargo, some economic cudos. Will we be poorer for it? Will our health go into decline? Will our world become much smaller? Perhaps weโ€™ll travel less, the carbon load of flying is prohibitive. But will we be poorer? Will our air and waterways be cleaner? Will some of the wilderness be restored? Will we rediscover community? I donโ€™t know, but I donโ€™t think we can continue with business as usual. Because business isnโ€™t (despite what they tell us) everything. We can choose to remain fossil fooled or we can choose not to be.

On the alleged death of homo economicus

If I am to take Nick Hanauerโ€™s[1] advice and kill off homo economicus then what I fear Iโ€™ll be left with is โ€“ all that someone of a liberal-humanist bent can ask, I suppose โ€“ homo impotenticus. A person unpurposed: because I am not alone, because I am not reified individual, because I am part … Continue reading On the alleged death of homo economicus