Tag: economic Growth

The strange attraction of ‘The End of Days’ 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 – when the shit hits the fan – be able to retire to Planet B. Or at least an island they own, or a mountain top somewhere. And there they’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 ‘Strangers in their own land’ by Arlie Russell Hochschild

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

Thoughts on reading ‘Strangers in their own land’ by Arlie Russell Hochschild

Neoliberalism and the self-harm faithful PART II - The Great Paradox What Arlie Russell Hochschild calls the "Great Paradox" might itself spring from our difficulty in determining exactly what POPULISM is [or of what political wing; right or left, it is]. Populism has been both of or at least partially of the ‘left’ – the … Continue reading Thoughts on reading ‘Strangers in their own land’ by Arlie Russell Hochschild →

Commentary on ‘Strangers in Their Own Land’

Neoliberalism and the self-harm faithful An introduction I’ve been exercising what passes for my mind with THE GREAT DIVIDE that currently occupies much of the debate about the state of the [American] nation. Forgive my anything but slick allusion to that address given by the US president, but it’s almost incumbent on anyone with an … Continue reading Commentary on ‘Strangers in Their Own Land’ →

Do I want to save capitalism?

While reading Robert Reich's SAVING CAPITALISM Have discovered over recent months and via The Guardian and other publications, one Robert Reich. Reich is 'an American professor, author, lawyer, and political commentator' who 'worked in the administrations of Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, and served as Secretary of Labor from 1993 to 1997 in the … Continue reading Do I want to save capitalism? →

Another road

He remembered thinking it had all been over so quickly. It had, hadn’t it, come suddenly. A few years of wildly see-sawing weather, of ever rising levees and old people dying from too much heat and water shortages here and floods there, then the mad rush of an island nation for drier land. Then another. And another. The bombing that had to be done. Defences set up on coasts where all the mangroves were dying and the reefs bleached... skeletal. The enclaves where life went on in what passed as the new normal controlled by people with big guns.

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 world’s population was about 1.36 billion. If we are to believe statistical analysis, most people lived, in income terms, relatively similar lives.  According to Gapminder statistical analysis (admittedly conjectural, given that data before 1900 is ‘highly uncertain’) the world’s poorest … Continue reading Extract from Mythic Dreams – why modern capitalism’s pursuit of growth is a sin →